Rescue Dog Socialisation Training Vic

[thebear]

Hello

We have adopted a 7 month old Blue Heeler x female who has has a shaky start to life. She has a sweet nature, but is extremely shy around people. She is very good with other dogs, our 2 dogs are her life support that give her confidence. She needs to have a lot of socialisation in a controlled environment to help her overcome her fears. We took her to a local dog training on Saturday but I don't feel it's the type of training she needs.

Can anybody recommend a good dog training school preferably in the Belgrave area or surrounding suburbs that we can take her to?

She has a very sweet nature but no confidence.

Regards

Kerry

[Pretty Miss Emma]

I would probably start by looking at her confidence with you and in the home environment and working on that (especially when the other dogs are not around). Get her confident with you before battling the scary outside world! I can't recommend trainers in your area as I don't know any particularly off the top of my head. But I would say it is probably worth having some 1 on 1 sessions with somebody to get some strategies you can work with to help your dog before putting her in to a group class situation.

[thebear]

Thanks for the advice. I have arranged for a trainer who has alot of experience with working dogs to come out for a 1 on 1 with her on Saturday.

Here's hoping

[BC Crazy]

Good luck on Saturday thebear. Keep us posted on how you go :)

Confidence takes time. I have a girl that lacks confidence & have found over time, building a extra strong bond with her she is starting to gain confidence. It has taken me almost 4 years & she wasn't a rescue.

Edited July 21, 2014 by BC Crazy

[Leah82]

A few months after I got my scaredy cat rescue dog I joined Knox Obedience Dog Club. She wasn't too keen on it at first but gradually she became more confident around other dogs and a bit more boisterous in class. She also became more confident at the dog park.

She was learning everything from scratch at the age of 7 though so it was helpful in other areas as well. Interestingly in the beginner class her sit stays and drop stays were perfect because she would shut down a bit and didn't want to engage, once we got to level 2 she would get a bit cheeky and break the stay early to jump up on me. I couldn't have been prouder that she was confident enough to break the stay :p

I think its good to have exposure to other dogs in a controlled environment like a dog club as they are all on leads so you're less likely to have a negative experience. And you can use a yellow bandanna to let other people know that your dog isn't keen on saying hi to everyone that walks past.

She is still a scaredy cat when it comes to new things but she is heaps better than when we got her over a year ago and continuing to improve. I'm doing Susan Garrett's Recallers online course at the moment and am finding choice based learning is really good for her as well

[thebear]

Thanks everyone. We have Sit, Drop Stay coming on Saturday and they reckon that they should be able to help us overcome her problems.

Leah, once we get over this first hurdle will definetly be coming to Knox Obedience, it's nice and close for us as we are in Belgrave and will be the extra socialisation she needs.

Will let you know how she goes and if the trainer is any good.

Regards

K