Need advice on socializing an older puppy

[jinniefromtheblock]

Hi all, first timer here and looking for some advice.

We got a new puppy last week. She’s a 5 month old lurcher (chipped and fully vaxxed) and we adopted her from a loving home who had to give her up due to a sudden family illness. We initially intended to get an older rescue but this opportunity came up and pup seemed to take to us very quickly so we decided to go for it.

So far she’s been so well-behaved, playful and friendly and has adapted well to our home life. She has been very sociable to other visitors and dogs we’ve had over. The only issue is that she’s pretty nervous on walks and in public spaces. She was raised in the countryside but we live on the outskirts of the city so she’s fearful of any passing traffic, bicycles, buses, people jogging etc.

I know she hasn’t been here long and we can’t expect her to be confident right away, but I’ve been reading up on how important socialization is in the first 12-16 weeks and she’s around 22 weeks old now. I’m worried it is now too late to get her used to the city life and she’ll always be fearful of walks.

We often go out to garden centres, to various markets or to the local pub, and hoped we could take her along. We did try her in a quiet pub the other day and she settled down nicely, but then another dog came in and started yapping at her and she got really scared. She also seems scared to go to the toilet outside unless its in our garden.

We are willing to keep trying with her and know it could take a while and a lot of reinforcement and incremental exposure to get her comfortable - I just want to know there’s hope for her to improve? There’s so much online that says that once the 16 week period is up, there’s little hope. Does anyone have experience on this?

It's really early days. Your focus needs to be on building a bond with you and that she can take confidence from that, to conquer unknown situations

For the first month or so, I would be taking it slow. I think taking a new dog out to a pub in the first week is well over the threshold if she's nervous

Have you seen the decompression style guides? It takes dogs a fair while to settle in a new home and rushing it can cause more fear. Give her time to adjust, and realise that she won't be fully trusting you and settled for likely weeks and months yet.

That said I think it's totally fixable re cars etc. Start with treating when cars are in the distance, and get her used to focusing on you and cars being a good thing that lead to treats. It should be really slow and gradual, building up confidence. It might be that she's not ready to work near roads yet and if pushed it can reinforce fearful reactions.

No, it's not too late. When you walk her have some tiny treats in your pocket. Every time she passes something scary praise her and give her a treat. Also make sure you're not tensing up when you see something you think will scare her, otherwise she'll pick up on your fear. You're not scared of bikes, buses or joggers so keep yourself calm.

Having visitors, and dogs visit also sounds over whelming at this stage. This is the photo I'm thinking of. Theres lots of different versions about how to acclimatise a dog to your home

It's never too late to help nervous dogs. Yes there is that little window when they're babies, but that's not the end of it.

Everything is baby steps, it's important not to throw them in the deep end and give them an overwhelmed meltdown. A registered behaviourist with experience of nervous dogs should be able to help you with a plan.

Dogs Trust do 1-2-1 training, they also have a behaviour support phone line that could help:

Thanks for the advice so far all. Perhaps we are rushing things. I've just been worried we missed a window to socialise her so I've been trying to get her to adapt to our life as quickly as possible as I've been getting anxious after reading a bunch of forums about dogs who will always remain nervous after a certain time has passed. This is the first dog me and my partner have owned together since we were kids as well so we're just extra anxious at the moment, wanting to do everything right.

My rescue was nearly 5 months old, came from a Romanian kill shelter, never been anywhere.
I took it extremes slowly, it was several weeks before she’d even walk around the block, three months before she’d cautiously meet other dogs. Now nearly two years later she’s still wary in busy towns (we live in the countryside, rarely does she go into any town), is anxious if anyone runs up behind her, or if there are noisy children. Terrified of gunshots and loud bangs but that’s hardly surprising.
She’s a gorgeous dog, I can take her almost anywhere, she’s been on holiday with us three times and behaved impeccably in strange surroundings.
Your dog needs to get to know you first. Take everything very slowly.
Good luck!

To echo everyone else, slow it down as much as you think you possibly can and then slow it down some more.

Socialisation as I see it is basically an evolutionary thing. If you are a wild animal fear has an evolutionary advantage. It's best to err on the side of caution, if you do, you live to see another day, if you don't, you and your descendants are toast. On the other hand you can't lead a successful life being scared every time the wind makes a noise in the trees. So there's a period when you build your database of what's normal, so that those things don't spook you out in future. When that period ends you can still add to the database but it's not so easy because the protective fear instinct kicks in first. If I remember this it helps me to realise just how slowly I need to go.

But there is definitely still hope. We had a young overseas rescue (about 12-18 months old) who was fearful of strangers. What worked for us was learning to read her body language and giving her choices rather than forcing her to engage before she was ready. I still remember the first time I could see that it was working: we were being approached by a lady with two dogs on lead so I crossed the road and took a side path towards some garages. As they passed she looked at them, looked at me and then sniffed the ground in an 'I'm just here minding my own business' signal. She got lots and lots of treats for that.

We got our pup at 4 months and then had a month waiting for injections to be completed. He was extreamly scared of everything (even us) and refused to walk when taken outside. He is now 11 months and loves his walks. He is very sociable with other dogs and has got to know our extended family well and even has his favourites! He is still weary of strangers but not aggressive with it, I can tell from his body language that he is uncomfortable though. I'm glad we persevered. He is fab and and we're very proud of him.

We just took things slow and kept walks extreamly short. We then gradually increased them. He really started to relax when we took him over the fields on a long line and started practicing recall. He realised that walks are actually fun bless him.

No I think its grand you've got time yet with the right training techniques. I'd bring your dog to adolescent training classes just to build your bond and get them used to 'training with you' and then I'd start off with walks that are in quiet areas and gradually build up to noisier, busier areas a little at a time. I'd bring big value rewards like liver or chicken when you're making a jump to a busier walk and give a command like "watch" where they need to focus on you and make eye contact for a few seconds when you see a large or noisy vehicle approaching then reward as it passes and then walk on immediately. I'd do shorter walks until the dog is used to a particular area then when they have more tolerance you can go for longer until they seem ready for a new challenge. You can also practice with loud places that don't include vehicles, eg building up to sitting outside a supermarket. Or outside a coffee shop. The more you reward the more they'll associate it with something positive.