My mum recently adopted a 3 year old male chihuahua. She doesn't know much about his history, whether he was abused etc. He was in good health when she adopted him and he's recently been neutered.
He lives with my mum and gran and he is very close to them. Whenever me, my husband, family or friends (he's comfortable with only a select few) visit, he runs away upstairs and hides the entire time we are visiting, even if we are there for hours. He won't eat either. She adopted him about six months ago and we thought he would come out his shell more as he got to know us but nothing has changed in those 6 months and he still hides as much as he did at the start.
I'm due to be staying overnight with my mum and gran tomorrow for the first time since they adopted him. I'm worried about how he will cope. Breaks my heart to think of him being scared all day and night and not feeling comfortable in his own home while myself or others are there.
Is there anything we can do to help him tomorrow but also in the future to feel more comfortable around strangers? I don't know much about dogs. I'm a cat person myself so any tips or advice would be great.
Do we go over more often to try and settle him around us? Or do we just avoid going over? I've tried talking to him gently and also ignoring him and letting him just observe me. It is worrying me for times like Christmas coming up as we always stay for days with mum especially now that my dad died last year.