Hi

Getting Staffy puppy Oct @ 8 weeks, thanks for great ideas here, already have a queue of people ready to meet her @ home and puppy classes booked. watched some vids from Ian Dunbar & Sirius berkley puppy training any thoughts on these yourself ? Thanks Joanne

hey, joanne! :--)

*dunbar + Sirius are both excellent resources - so are the TWO FREE BOOKS
on Dog Star Daily website -
Before U get Ur puppy and After U get Ur puppy

congrats on the new-addition,
- terry

Hi, I just adopted my 3 months old lab around 2 weeks ago. Now I realised that she has a big problem in socialization. She is very afraid of strangers. As in the moment she saw a new people in house, she will hide in her own den, shaking and whining, if the person come closer, she will even pee in fear. How can I help her overcome this? Does this behaviour means that she was being mistreated by the first owner before? Unfortunately, we don't have any dogs social class here, so I have to help her myself. She is my first pet, I have no experience in dog training before. Please Help me!

hey, *minMin! don't panic, hun - we can help this puppy, U and i and anybody else who decides
to chime in - she can get much better; she may never be a social butterfly, but she can relax and become
less distressed; for now, don't let anyone walk toward her, instead let ==> her go to ==> them.

tell visitors to pretend she's a cat - IGNORE her; don't look at her, talk to her, or try to touch her at all;
let her sniff their feet and walk away, while they pretend there is no puppy - YOU interact with her + monitor.
no - she may have met very few people, she may have had a shy mother who ran from strangers and taught
her pups that strangers are scary, she may have inherited a globally fearful [scared of everything] temperament;
she may have been punished for peeing in the house or chewing or some other puppy-mistakes,
but it is also perfectly possible that she was never even scolded; we cannot be sure.

the previous owner may have been nice to the puppy, but not have known to have her meet others -
all puppies need to meet many people, tall, short, men + women, children of all ages, fat + skinny, all colors,
all ethnics, all languages, loud and quiet, jerky active kids + quiet gentle kids, Every Possible Person -
with and without disabilities, smokers, singers, dancers, with a cane, a walker, a cast, a limp... all sorts.
OK, these are the 3 bad things - U are an inexperienced owner, and fear is a very difficult issue -
even for highly-experienced owners who are very savvy about reading dogs.
3rd, she is 3-MO - she has left her primary socialization-period. making changes now takes more work -
it is not impossible, but it takes more work for less result, if U see what i mean?

the good things are Two: she is very young; and she has you.
if U really love her and are willing to try, miracles are possible; don't be discouraged, but do be realistic:
this will be a lot of work, but the potential rewards are huge.

what country are U in, *minMin? there are things that can help, but getting them can be more or less awkward,
depending upon where U are in the world.

DAP pump-spray and DAP diffuser would be my 1st suggestions. [/b]
DAP diffuser gets plugged into the wall receptacle, and the warmth sends it into the air; the dog inhales it.
DAP is a pheromone which imitates the pheromone that a nursing-dam produces; all her pups are exposed
to this, and it has a relaxing effect; blood-pressure drops, pulse slows, stress hormones fall, breathing slows.
this is an involuntary reaction, but it works best if it is already in use before the stress begins -
if U wait till after the stress starts to apply DAP, it is less effective.
if money is an issue, i would get the pump-spray as it can go anywhere U or the puppy go - and be re-applied.
here are instructions for that and other calmatives -
Pet Forums Community - View Single Post - dog body-language - and why it matters so much...
use as many as U can afford, and i mean that literally - they make it so much easier!

2nd thing after calmatives - read this page very carefully:
Working with a fearful dog
this is the FearfulDogs.com website - all of it is helpful, but this page is crucial; why?
because U need to keep her under her threshold - meaning she can see the scary stranger,
but they're far-enuf away that she feels safe; she's alert, not alarmed. once she's past her threshold,
and reacting, she is too overwhelmed to learn new things - her brain drowns in stress reactions.

3rd thing - please don't let anyone insist they can "make her relax", or allow them to invade her space -
"all dogs love me" is a nice story, but she needs an advocate; be prepared to pick her up, walk away,
PUT HER IN A LOCKED ROOM inside her crate, with a safe chew-toy - whatever it takes.
one person who insists upon touching or cornering her can set her back for months, or longer. be strong!

4th thing: learn to read dogs - just like so many books.
reading dogs means to look carefully at their behavior + body language to see how they feel, + their intentions:
are they frightened? curious? excited? hesitant but curious? angry? do they want to bolt in panic? investigate?
meet the other dog, or fight the other dog? what's going on?
here are 2 wonderful websites to get U started - Turid Rugaas - Calming Signals Community
for the next step -
The Canine Behavior Blog » Welcome to The Canine Behavior Blog
look at photos that *barbara marked and captioned - then look at plain photos, and see if Ur gut-hunch
agrees with her description.

there are entire books of dog body-language, just like pictorial dictionaries, to help us understand dog emotions;
here are 3 that are very good -
*Amazon.com: On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals (9781929242368): Turid Rugaas: Books
*Amazon.com: Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog (9781929242351): Brenda Aloff: Books
*Woof and Word Press - the 2nd-edition of Handelman

if any of them is in the local library, read it carefully - the second edition of Handelman is magnificent,
if U are going to buy one book, get that one; if U get it direct from *barbara, ask her to autograph it.
Dogwise also carries the book, but there's no autographing there.
Welcome to Dogwise.com - Dog Books

5th thing: get a copy of this short paperback -
Amazon.com: Help for Your Shy Dog: Turning Your Terrified Dog into a Terrific Pet (0021898050366): Deborah Wood: Books
it's inexpensive, but if money is an issue borrow it from the library - Interlibrary loan brings it from another
library to Ur local one, for the co$t of postage [which should be no more than $1 to $2 - it's a small book].
read it from cover to cover; it's well-written and intended for novice owners.

5th thing: join this Yahoo-group, it's free -
shy-k9s : shy-k9s
the other members also own fearful dogs, and if U join on that page [the JOIN button is at the bottom right]
U can read all the archives on the MESSAGES pages - see the left side-bar?
once U join, click on MESSAGES under 'Home' and U can read years of posts, with problems, suggestions,
updates, crises and more; plus there are links to helpful websites, files of articles, etc.

if U have questions, feel free - and please do let us know how she is doing.
we all love to hear happy updates!
cheers,
- terry

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

In the past I have taken the vet advice too literally and got away with it because I've had laid back easy dogs. Now that I am older and wiser, I would always socialise a puppy as early as possible with carefully selected vaccinated dogs.

Totally agree re early socialisation. There is a small risk but how many of us let our puppies out in the garden, or take them for a little walk even on pavements....or have other dogs.

Your dogs are at more risk of problem behaviour the longer you keep them indoors. Get them out as soon as you can, carry them everywhere if you want to, but get them into the world

From the many other articles I have read I completely agree with the 8 week to 16 week period being critical in getting a dog socialized.

The trick I have always found is getting the pup young enough and having it mostly vaccinated and then finding play companions that we know are safe.

I have heard that the parv virus can stay in soil for up to two years, so the safest thing we did was take our puppy after its first injections to a place where we knew the dog was vaccinated, was social and didn't have any un-vaccinated dogs in its yard for the last few years.

Yes its all a gamble, but not socializing a pup is usually far worse.

Having spoken to a couple of vets they have advised that he should be fine outside after the first vaccination, just to avoid contact with unvaccinated dogs.

Since I bought him 9 days ago Rufus has:
-Met horses
-Met children
-Been to a shop (Pets at home!)
-Been on a car journey of up to half an hour
-Met lots of different adults, long hair, short hair, old, young, in cycle helmets
-Been to watch a hunt meet
-Met a cat
-Seen some chickens
-Spent a day at a different house (my in-laws, we had to go to a funeral)
-Seen cylclists
-Seen pushchairs
-We've met a labrador, a GSD, a westie and a lurcher

We are enrolled on puppy training classes due to start the 1st week in April but they are happy for us to watch the current batch of classes until then so he can start to meet new dogs, as although he is fab with humans he's weary of other dogs.

We've got to the point now that when I'm carrying him and people come to say hello he will climb into thier arms, he also wants to stop and say hello to EVERYONE as he is now under the impression all people congregate to fuss over him!

Now he has had his first jab I'm not too worried about infection, his 2nd is next Monday and then he'll have a week before he is 100% covered.

__________________
Henry- 16hh ex-racehorse
Rufus- Tiny Border Terrier puppy

U've done great getting him out & about!

just one little quibble...
that's not an accurate statement - it takes approx a month for full response from the individual's
immune-system, so it wouldn't be a week later, but at least 21-days later that U might see a strong
immune-response in a drawn titer [testing a blood-sample to rate the activity of their antigens].

a woman whose puppy was bitten by a bat who had been vaxed for rabies just 2-weeks earlier,
was furious & shocked when her pup died of rabies.
her vet had to explain that it's not a majik-bullet: get the shot = U're protected immediately.
the immune-system has to learn to recognize the alien, & manufacture very-specific antigens to kill
each particular virus / microbe, in quantities sufficient to wipe-out the invaders. That takes time.

__________________
terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

Even then, resistance can be less than 100%. Vaccinated dogs (and people) can still get the disease they were vaccinated against sometimes. Usually when this happens, the disease is less severe, and the immune system fights it off better.

Sensible precautions.