Our dog is skittish & is scared of literally anything and everything, especially my fiance's dad. She wants nothing to do with him, if he comes up to her & tries petting her, she kind of freaks out, & her ears go back & eyes get really big & sometimes she will even squat & pee. His mom & dad are her main caregivers when we are at work or not home. She won't eat until we are around (this has become problematic since we try to keep her on a certain eating schedule), if his parent's try giving her treats like chicken or something, she will snub them & ignore their gestures. She acts so depressed when we are gone, & when we come home she is a completely different dog, so energetic & lovable towards us, constantly wanting to play, her tail is always perked up, etc. We have owned her for well over a year now & she is now a year & 3 months old. When we first got her she was scared of us, but we figured she was still adapting to her new family & now she loves us, i don't understand, she is around his family just as much as she is around Joe & i, why is she still acting like it's her first day around them? She also shys away from strangers when they try to pet her. I've noticed that she is more lenient towards women than men. She was the runt of her litter, so I was wondering if that had anything to do with her behavior? She acts like an abused dog, when she is the most spoiled dog on the planet. lol. Can anyone shed any light on this dilemma? What kind of negative behaviors can arise out of being the runt? I'm just coming up with anything & everything to make sense of our dog... Her behavior is justified some way or another? ..Is there anything we can do? Can a professional trainer fix this issue? Anyone know anything?

Some dogs just have neurosis and are fearful like that. There isn't anything wrong with it as they just take more time to progress. It is that initial aspect of trust that tends to be the problem. Over time you can build it up, which you have, but for others who aren't around 24/7 and especially feeding it doesn't come as freely. It is just something you need to be patient with.

Finding your pups motivation ca go a long way to over come this. If Shelby is food motivated find the highest value treat you can and use that. If it is excitement bring her favorite toy. Find anything you can to make it a positive experience.

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She wants nothing to do with him, if he comes up to her & tries petting her, she kind of freaks out, & her ears go back & eyes get really big & sometimes she will even squat & pee.

I wouldn't approach a dog who make that reaction to me. I would use the pups motivations to get her to come to me. Having the owner sit by me and use the treats or toy and when she was relaxed or playing like crazy switch over who was giving the reward.

Maybe even give him a bunch of treats and have him reward her any time she came close at all by simply dropping it on the ground.

Either way it should be extremely high value.

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if his parent's try giving her treats like chicken or something, she will snub them & ignore their gestures.

Just having the parents close to you while doing this could go a long way. You already say how excited she is to see you... So be there to show getting treats from this person is Ok and should be done. Or have them stand close and then beside you while you do it.


That is how I would go about addressing it. As to what caused her to be this way, I've never noticed a runt being scared simply because they were a runt. My last 2 puppies were the runts and were / are confident strong willed dogs. If the breeder mistreated the dogs you would have also noticed it I would think in the way he interacted with them or conditions of the kennel. Some things are hard to hide and that tends to be one of them.

Just be patient and try and show her as many positive human role models as you can. Take it slow and let her build her confidence up.

Best of luck and I hope Shelby comes out of her shell
~Chris~

Thank you for your advice. It's just difficult to accomplish because if he is really close by & we try to give her a command or a treat, she is so distracted by her fear of him, that she doesn't even respond to our gestures. Maybe she was just pushed around a lot by her litter mates? lol I know that might sound silly, but it's a thought. I'll try what you recommended. Thanks!

Try and have him start farther away. and slowly work his way towards you while you give the reward.

everytime he gets closer should be a big deal and expressed. Slowly work your way up to him beside you. Small baby steps.

It will take some time but it could help.

~Chris~

It's always hard to evaluate things based on a paragraph or two, or even in a single visit to someones house.

What Chris told you to do is likely where I would start. Just lots of high value rewarding, and love while you slowly integrate the scary people into the room, then next to you, and then into engaging the dog. It doesn't happen over night, and you should only spend a few minutes per session doing it, especially if she is feeling scared of him.

Thanks for your help We'll try! It's challenging because she's been scared of him as long as she has known him. It's hard to get her to not run away. I think it hurts his feelings a lot with her behavior towards him.. :/ I feel so bad..because he tries SO hard to get her to trust him & has literally done everything in his power. She is kind of a strange dog when it comes down to socialization with people (Joe's dad in particular).