My dog will not get on with other females

[Dorasky]

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Can someone help me!

My dog (3 year old bitxh) gets along with males just not btches.. Not even puppies like this one I am dog sitting for my sister (4 month old female beagle). She had a bad experience with 2 labs that were female when she was a pup and ever since has been cautious and aggressive to them, I've helped her not to be aggressive or go for them anymore but she is still s..t scared of them.

I've socialised her with more and more dogs and she has lived with a male for a few months before and they did everything together. She's happy being out on a field or park with them as long as they don't get too close to her..

She's usually very hyper being a staff but had been very timid as a puppy.. She will avoid eye contact, face the other way to the pup with her tail between her legs.. Lowered body and lowered head, pants/regularly licks and stays as still as she can unless she finds shelter from the pup like the sofa then she will flee. I have never seen her so scared! I just want her to get on with females. Obviously it will take a lot of time, love and patience and I don't want to force her to do something that will stress her out and make her anxious. Does anyone have any tips please???? I would very much appreciate it thanks!

 

[goldenbear2013]

All the signs your dog is showing is anxiety and fear. This is very sad when they get like this.

Rehabilitating your dog may be a very slow process, but as I cannot see what she is like then trying to give you advice is somewhat tricky I'm afraid.

The best advice I could give you is get her into training classes. If you pick the right trainer, they will have all the time in the world for you and your dog and will teach both you and your dog how to manage her anxiety and fear and over come it at some point. Plus it will be baby steps. One class a week and then they will give you homework, so you can work with her in the week until your next class.

I prefer training classes as she will be around other dogs, if you hire a behaviorist its more one on one training but you need something where she will be surrounded by other dogs.

Sorry I couldn't be more help and I hope your girl gets sorted soon.

Sophie x

 

[eingana]

I'd also recommend classes, but another thing would be to find a way to show her lots of other dogs without the need to interact. One way that we found to do this with Molly was to go to 'doggy days out' which are set up all over the country during the summer months.

The advantage of the doggy day out, or fun dog show, or whatever similar, is that there are sufficient dogs in a large field that the timid/fear aggressive/reactive dog just cannot possibly react to them all, and as a consequence most are good for however long you are there and the lessons from having been around that many dogs and nothing bad happening do affect their behaviour longer term.

We took Molly on a short lead so we could keep her close and on a head collar so that we could control which direction she was looking during the day, and we had lots of her favourite treats on hand for all of her good behaviour. We made sure that she had a loo break and a good run around so she wasn't really hyper before arriving, and she was walked around between the two of us so she felt super-protected. She started off barking and reacting to the first dog, but then that dog went past without hurting her and she changed her focus to the next dog, who also didn't hurt her. By the time we were on dog 50 she'd run out of bark and was getting used to the idea that the other dogs were just doing their own thing with their owners and weren't really bothered about her.

We repeated this at least once a month over the first couple of years we had her, and although the first few times was a total chore, she soon relaxed and the number of dogs that were really good for her (although they didn't know they were doing it) ran into the thousands.

We want our dogs' behaviour to improve, but we can't get there without exposing them to the 'problem' and showing them that this is commonplace and won't hurt them. We have to get through the bad behaviour and reactions if we want them to react any differently, so I hope that your actions help our dog be less terrified