HOW TO SOCIALIZE AN ANXIOUS DOG

Often times people adopt rescues who were abused as puppies and/or weren’t exposed exposed to the outside world.

When a dog is sheltered from the outside world like this for their most important developmental stages, it’s a HUGE issue because they don’t develop the skills required to know how to properly socialize with other dogs/people & tend to have issues with anxiety and behavioral issues such as reactivity + aggression.

As a dog trainer, whenever I work with a dog like this, I’m always extra cautious with introductions and socialization to ensure that there aren’t any further setbacks with the dog’s anxiety or fear-based behaviors.

The exercise described in the video above is a classic counter conditioning exercise that I use to desensitize reactive, aggressive & anxious dogs.

When working with an anxious dog, start off conservative when socializing him with other dogs by making introductions short in the beginning. Once your dog has proven that he can work up to another dog without any serious stress signals (lunging/ears pinned back/whining/barking), then you can begin to allow him to have more mental freedom to play!

But PLEASE don’t make the mistake of throwing an unsocialized/anxious dog immediately into play without testing his body language & stress signals! Not only is it likely that your dog may react or bite, but your dog can exert just as much energy by working on the exercise shown above!

As a recap of the exercise:

1️⃣ When you your dog sees another dog, get your dog’s full focus (facing you and looking at you). This is half self-control. To move forward, your pup must have full self-control to look at the other dog and then look back on his own.

2️⃣ Tell your dog to “go say hi” for 2 seconds then call him back. The reason we want this to be short is because the longer your anxious dog interacts with another unfamiliar dog, the more likely it can turn negative without your positive direction.

3️⃣ The more you practice this, the more you can increase the time. Work to double the time your dog greets other dogs from 2 to 4 seconds, 8, etc. while maintaining calm & positive body language.

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Kaelin Munkelwitz is the dog trainer of the new age.

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