Nervous/agitated doggie

Me and my girlfriend have a black labrador named beauty and she is 3 years old.

We brought her off my girlfriends uncle at the age 18 months and have always found her to be a nervous dog.

We have had a long struggle to get her to settle with us and accept us as her new owners,but it has been a pleasure and a wonder to have her and look after her.She is now part of our family.

But we cannot seem to get her to relax completely with us and she is quite a nervous dog.

She licks her lips a lot,lowers her head and rolls on her back to be dominated.She flinches sometimes and it seems to be escalating not getting better.

To add more info we have moved 3 times with her,she was taken from her family and given to us as family problems with girlfriends uncle.We have never disciplined her with any thing more than stern words and i admit sometimes i have raised my voice,but she will shy away from us and if you move quickly will flinch.

I believe she may have been played roughly with by my girlfriends uncle's kids (3 boys) which may have given her her nervous disposition.

It is getting to the point where i am desperate to have her relax and feel secure with us which is probs not helping,she will not even go out in our garden to toilet almost like she is afraid to.When she does she sometimes climbs through our hedge into our neighbours garden and i have to climb in to get her out!!

Please can someone give us some idea's on how to help heal this nervous,agitation in her as al we want to do is have her happy and whole.

Chris:smt001

Sounds like she has been through alot especially as she has moved around so much, as for advice, can't help much there except to say alot of patience on your part.

Good luck

Jules
xxx

Hi \Hope you enjoy the forums. Sorry to her you are having problems withyour lab but like VV says I too can only say be very patient with her and wish you the best of luck. I am sure someone come along soon with some answers for you meantime a big..........

Hi Lug first welcome to Dogsey. You have had Beauty for 18 months then ?

The things you describe '' licks her lips a lot ,lowers her head rolls on her back'' are I think submissive behaviour and an indication that she is unsure. The flinching does rather sound as if at some time she has been scared or roughly treated. I wonder if she has also been punished for relieving herself in the wrong place

I can think of a couple of things that might help,what are her favourite treats meat, cheese?
First the relieving herself, can you take her out on a lead so that she does not go off into the neighbours garden and treat her as you would a puppy,when she has relieved herself give her a treat and lots of praise.

Try to increase her confidence, praise her whenever you can in a bright voice for each small thing she does.

Does she have favourite toys, sit on the floor with a toy ignoring her but let her see the toy and come to you in her own time, then give her lots of praise. You can do the same thing with a favourite tip bit ...

It will take a lot of time and patience to help Beauty to become more at ease but hopefully you should be able to improve things a little . Here is an article by Shadowboxer about shy dogs ,it may help you

...http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8050


Added what do you feed her on? A food with the least additives would be best,if it is a complete food something like Burns/Arden Grange.

Like most have already said... I think a lot of patience needed. Treat her like a new pup for a while.

Good luck.........

i haven`t had any experience with this kind of problem.. so i`ll leave the advice to the experts..

Thanks for advice we do feed her on arden grange minihaha and keep treats to a minimum.

We are trying to go outside with her and every time she comes out with us we give her a treat.

We have put up a fence out back to stop her going into next door and are just trying to take steps after reading up last nite on helping nervous doggies.

Lots of love AT the right times and trying to stop giving her mixed messages which i think me and my girlfriend have both been at fault for.

Thanks everyone for your help if any of you could let me know of a book on helping treat nevous dogs that would be great.

My poor dog has a virus that is going around the area we live in and she is really poorly so i took a day off and my work will not pay me as she is not a spouce?!!!!!!!

How wrong is that i could not leave her on her own and had to get her to the vets,employers suck!!!!