My husband and I recently adopted a 3 year old Maltese from the local shelter. Annie is so adorable, but she is so timid she will not let us get close to her. When it's time to go out to potty, we have to catch her and that causes her to dribble. Anyone have any ideas on how to go about getting her to trust us? She acts as though she has been abused, but maybe this is just my imagination. Once you can get her picked up she will let you hold her and pet her for an hour or more.

Abuse is always a possibility and may be contributing to the timidness as well as her getting used to the new environment.
Timidity in dogs is hard to deal with because it breaks your heart seeing them so anxious. We have a fairly timid labrador Molly, we got her at 8 weeks from a really good breeder and we have had her since then and she is now about 18 months. We have loved her all along and she has never had anything but love and affection from us, yet she is still a very timid dog. She jumps at the slightest sound, and even if her food bowl moves whilst she is eating she jumps from that!
She is still a great dog and we love her but it is painful to see her so anxious a lot of the time and would love to see her with more confidence.
I have concluded from our experience with Molly that some dogs just have a very timid nature and you can support them as best you can, but their underlying personality trait of timidness may not be able to be changed significantly whatever you do.

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John
AnimalLoversWeb.com

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