My name is Mel! I have an almost 2 year old WGSL GSD male (Enzo) and just recently got our new baby Senna, a 5 month old female Dutchie. I've had Senna for about 2 months now, it's been a nightmare getting the 2 dogs to situate, but I think we're finally making some progress.
Senna is very afraid of people, and I can't understand why. As far as she's been with me there haven't been any bad experiences, for the most part people will leave her alone, won't even look at her. She'll still bark and then eventually goes hides under a table. I've tried to put her in a crate while people are over, but she won't have it. She is crate trained, it's only an issue when people are over. This happens outside of the house to, she completely avoids people if we happen to cross paths while walking. Enzo on the other hand is the most social dog I've ever seen. I would think seeing how much he trusts people and their encounters with him it would help her see there is no threat, but nope. I will be sending her over to training after the holidays, but any help in the meantime would be great.
Tell us about yourself: Grew up with dogs, but none as a particular as the dutch shepherds. We decided to get a Dutch shepherd pup, but before we commit more feedback would be appreciated.
Funny enough I proposed name Senna for our girl who is the same age. (Although if it was a boy you'd have to name him Verstappen) nice to see another F1 fan.
Beautiful dogs you got there, and who knows if you are close to LA maybe down the line Moxie will have new play buddy.
Moxie is the opposite with people, she loves attention so much she pees from excitement especially when its a familiar face. I'm sure you'd get better advice from someone with longer experiences than me, plus a few session with a dedicated trainer might go a long way.
My 2 cents, based on our training, is that the solution to too much attention and fear could be the same, training the dog to ignore everything and everyone but you. We started by focus excersises at home building a habit of going into work mode which is her safe and happy place. And when I see people from a far (and especially other dogs, she goes nuts for other dogs) we go into focus training, and when those people (or dogs get closer, I make sure to increase the reward for focus and just feed feed feed until a person or person with dogs is out of our range). The key, is making sure reward comes for focusing and not for any attention to outside stimulus.
It's been almost a month of dedicated work towards that goal, we see improvement, but we have ways to go, we are slowly expanding the environment where we train, and just started on prong collar games. Obviously prong collar isn't a solid in your case, so approaches might need to be different.
I would avoid crowded places for now, and make sure the exposure to other people is controlled. You do not want create more fear. As that fear can turn into aggression at an older age if left unchecked.
You got the puppy at a young age you have time to take it slower and diligently work on the issue. Having an experienced trainer who actually interacts with the dog would help a lot. In our case for example Moxie would try to nip at hands and we wrote it of on the breeds mouthiness, based on reading. After the evaluation lesson the trainer was quick to point out that she's showing attitude and is aiming to bite hands not even aiming for the toy. Sometimes that would be very hard to diagnose on the internet. Now I can play tug with her with a tennis ball and not worry about losing a finger.
We are actually in Los Angeles, in the Valley! It would be awesome to have a play date. I'm sure Senna would love to play with someone more her size LOL.
You are actually the first person to understand the reasoning for Senna's name, the name Enzo might have gave it away too. We were actually in search of another male but stumbled upon her. If it was a male I had the name Jesko already picked out.
I most definitely will start training with a trainer soon, I sort of wish I started sooner to maybe avoid this. She was fairly easy to train and got through a lot with her already. This whole fearfulness is our biggest obstacle and because Enzo was so sociable I have zero experience with it.
I'll work on more focus work outside of the house.. maybe even in the front yard is a good start!
Tell us about yourself: Grew up with dogs, but none as a particular as the dutch shepherds. We decided to get a Dutch shepherd pup, but before we commit more feedback would be appreciated.
I can give you contact for our training school, we drive to Westlake village every Saturday.
But its worth it, their obedience is geared towards sport, they also specialize in behavior modification. They don't have set programs and lessons are catered to your dog.
So if you decide to let Senna compete they will lay proper foundation as well.
(Took me a lot of research to find them, not much north of long Beach that can be geared towards sport)
As far as F1... here is our Dutchie and Senna (Mox is in time out for making a big puddle inside)
A trainer is definitely the right path. My Mustang (a rescue) is fearful of everything outside our house but very calm and confident inside the house and 8n our backyard.
My trainer has us taking him on walks to new places, and even though it's a long road, he is improving around people, noises, and other animals.
In the last month, he has really improved. We can stand in line at a busy ventanita (a Cuban restaurant with an external window) to get coffee or pastries then hang out at a nearby picnic table. In the beginning he was all over the place and trying to hide under my legs. I wait until he shows relaxation by laying down and his reward is to leave. Now, he sits still next to me in line, and is laying down in only a few minutes.
There won't be a quick fix to the fearfulness, but consistent controlled exposure will payoff.
Michael
Location - Cutler Bay, FL USA
RIP: Leela, Radar, Tequila, and Snickers If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers
TheVII wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:38 am
I can give you contact for our training school, we drive to Westlake village every Saturday.
Oh yes, I would love to get more details on that! It's about 40 miles from me, but once a week it's not too bad. I have a trainer I've worked with in the past that I will be reaching out to as well, he's in Glendale so it's pretty local to me. Adding another reference is a good idea. I would love to get Senna into sports.
Moxie sounds like a cutie.. a little trouble maker, but that's the best part!
centrop67 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 12:32 pm
Welcome to the forum.
A trainer is definitely the right path. My Mustang (a rescue) is fearful of everything outside our house but very calm and confident inside the house and 8n our backyard.
My trainer has us taking him on walks to new places, and even though it's a long road, he is improving around people, noises, and other animals.
In the last month, he has really improved. We can stand in line at a busy ventanita (a Cuban restaurant with an external window) to get coffee or pastries then hang out at a nearby picnic table. In the beginning he was all over the place and trying to hide under my legs. I wait until he shows relaxation by laying down and his reward is to leave. Now, he sits still next to me in line, and is laying down in only a few minutes.
There won't be a quick fix to the fearfulness, but consistent controlled exposure will payoff.
Thank you for the welcome!
I'm glad to hear Mustang is improving, I figured it would be a long road, maybe longer than I might have thought. I think I might need to take things a little slower. I have 1 overly confident dog and 1 skittish puppy so my expectations were maybe a little too high in the beginning. It's reassuring to hear others overcome the fearfulness, gives me hope LOL.
Tell us about yourself: Grew up with dogs, but none as a particular as the dutch shepherds. We decided to get a Dutch shepherd pup, but before we commit more feedback would be appreciated.
TheVII wrote: ↑Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:38 am
I can give you contact for our training school, we drive to Westlake village every Saturday.
Oh yes, I would love to get more details on that! It's about 40 miles from me, but once a week it's not too bad. I have a trainer I've worked with in the past that I will be reaching out to as well, he's in Glendale so it's pretty local to me. Adding another reference is a good idea. I would love to get Senna into sports.
Moxie sounds like a cutie.. a little trouble maker, but that's the best part!
It's a bit of a drive for us too. They also have a camp where you leave the dog with them for few weeks, but we prefer to learn how to train the dog ourselves. Plus, no matter how angry she gets us we miss her too much. So, you are right.
I've heard of them actually! Definitely worth the drive if it's benefiting the dog.
We just dropped Senna off at training, she'll be gone for a month. Her fearfulness started to get more aggressive so some time away with proper training will be good for her. Afterwords I'd like to do private trainings where I'm there interacting with her cause I agree I'd like to be apart of the process.
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