Nervous puppy update

[BleakGarden]

I posted a few weeks ago about our very nervous GSP puppy and got lots of helpful advice. Just thought I'd post a bit of an update, she's 4 months old now and through a bit of trial and error we've found a good behaviourist. I naively assumed they're all of a similar standard... get recommendations!

Our training focus has shifted from commands to careful socialisation and understanding her triggers. The only thing I am religiously working on now is recall, she's too close to threshold to learn out of the house anyway.

She is mostly neutral with people out of the house now, she is still triggered by people who stop or approach us though. She is neutral to dogs at distance, if they look like they are going to approach she will hide and whimper, escalating to barking and growling if they do approach. I hope we can work on this, I'd like her to be more tolerant of strange dogs. At the moment I am managing her environment constantly, picking quiet spots and avoiding any interactions.

I plucked up the courage to speak to the breeder, she felt pup was picking up on my stress, and that I had "over-faced" her by doing too much socialisation. Have to say I don't think I'm stressed in the moment when she's reacting, as a midwife it takes a bit more than that to get my pulse racing.

I am amazed at how many people let their dog approach an on-lead dog! I never let my older dog approach a dog on-lead. People stand there and do nothing even when we back up or turn around. I'm considering getting one of those vibrant "nervous" leads.

I am trying to be upbeat but I am still worried about how this is going to pan out. I'm not working at the moment but when I do my older GSP goes to doggy daycare. This isn't going to be an option for pup... and how will we ever have family holidays?!

Someone mentioned she might gain confidence as she approaches her first season, I'd not heard this with females, I'm wondering if anyone has experienced this?

I've got a nervy dog from the same group of breeds - not as nervous as yours though. She has improved massively as she's matured, and each season has seen an uptick in her confidence, to the extent that I've delayed spaying her (she is now almost 4). You can't undo genetics, but maturity certainly helps.

Very clever side step from the breeder blaming you!

90% of your dogs behaviour will be down to genetics and breeding.

She may get a bit more confident but she will be hard wired to have anxieties. Realistically you do need to look at how you can manage her behaviour if it does not change. I hope it does improve but to have a time scale on it and she has to be able to do this by a set date is unlikely.

Can you find daycare that just have your two dogs for example? They may also be happy to do dog sitting when you go away.

It can be a hard lonely road with a reactive dog

Thanks @EdithStourton that's reassuring, I won't be in a rush to spay her, we'll take any confidence boost we can get.

@IngGenius a small daycare could work! Once she's familiar with a dog she's ok, my other GSP doesn't give many corrections but my mum's pug hands them out left, right and centre and pup still loves her. So it really is just a "strange dog" problem. I'll look into that, the doggy daycare we use is a massive enterprise but there must be smaller options locally.

There are home boarding day care options 🙂 My adolescent pup wouldn’t cope with big day care either. She is sociable and very comfortable in both training classes she attends but can be overwhelmed easily by rough dogs. Being a terrier it’s a fine balance so commercial large scale day care wouldn’t suit her.

Re. Seasons mine got an injection of confidence after her first. It’s the reason we decided to wait to spay until after her second (vet agrees) which we’re still waiting for. I don’t think at 4 months it’s a done deal at all but I think sensible to plan for the worst but hope for the best. Mine was quite a cautious pup. We met mum, and multiple generations. All very well balanced calm and level dogs. Dad I saw extensive show notes for and his good temperament was a reoccurring feature. It is wrong and unfair of the breeder to blame you. Even with the best genetics you get outliers. I know a few!

I hear you on offlead dogs. Mine has gone through several wobbly phases and each time we’ve gone back to basics, and the rudeness and self entitlement of some owners had to be seen to be believed.

Just wanted to offer a bit of a ‘success story’ - we had an extremely nervous puppy (different breed to yours) and he has massively improved over time. When we brought him home, he didn’t even attempt to leave the living room for several weeks, he actually didn’t leave the rug for about a week! He also sleeps with a night light because he’s scared of the dark…

He was terrified of all other dogs, used to tuck his tail in, cower behind us and shake. We had to avoid anywhere with dogs as he was so scared and we were worried that we were repeatedly exposing him to negative situations.

We signed him up for puppy school and the first few sessions he remained terrified but gradually he seemed to start to learn that other dogs could be a good thing. He didn’t really seem to know how to play at first but with time, he just seemed to get it. He now loves other dogs, a bit too much actually - he wants to say hello to every dog he sees on the street now and will pull on his lead a lot to get to them.

He was never keen on strangers (human strangers) and is still pretty cautious tbf. This is probably the thing he remains most nervous about. He doesn’t let people touch him if he doesn’t know them and will often jump out of the way or sometimes barks at them. For this reason when people ask to stroke him, we just say no.

We were worried that his nervousness would have a big impact on his life but he really has grown out of it to a large extent. He’s still a big softy and a bit of a ‘scaredy dog’ but it doesn’t really hold him back. We have been on holidays, he goes to pubs/cafes, goes in shops, goes to the groomers and the vets etc. He lives a pretty normal doggy life.

His extreme nervousness lasted a good few months. We got him in October last year and I’d say it wasn’t until maybe March/April that he started behaving like a proper puppy. It’s like he had a delayed puppyhood and he continues to be very puppy-like now that he’s 16 months old.

Our pup was from a breeder too btw, not a rescue. Good luck and hope this gives you some hope that things can change a lot with time!

Even with the best genetics you get outliers. I know a few!
I 100% agree. Ours is one - I know her dam and a litter sister, and the sire looks like a sensible working dog. Ours was a random throw of the genetic dice.

My boy is a bit nervous in spite of not being a rescue, mum and dad great calm temperament, lots of socialising as a youngster. Out of the 9 pups mine and one of his sisters are a bit "flighty" all the others totally chilled and confident. Also as a pup he didn't stand out as nervous or the shyest pup. But he's getting better but still backs away barking from strangers.. I just adjust his interactions with people and dogs accordingly. It's actually fine if he doesn't want to say hi to everyone..

Thanks @Newpeep that's reassuring! I had planned to spay her as soon as possible after her first season... that's what we did with other GSP. Mainly because they need to get outside and run and the house arrest of being in-season was so tricky... but I will hold off for pup and we'll just have to work around it. I would definitely take more confidence over being stuck in the house for a while.

@gwhizz75 puppy school has been a slow process for us too! That's reassuring that you had success after a bumpy start. We signed up to a class that was indoors and the trainer didn't have much experience with nervous pups, she hated it for the duration and was just hiding or barking while the other pups played together. So we've tried an outdoor one with a different trainer and through his hard work she loves it, she's neutral about the other dogs in that class, she doesn't want to say hello but she's not reacting either. I have just signed up to the next session with the same guy in january, it's a great way to get controlled exposure to other dogs! Fingers crossed we'll keep seeing improvements.

@Sunflowers098 I managed to track down a couple of her litter mates through facebook, it sounds like we've got the most nervous pup, but I'm not hearing that any of them are particularly sociable. Weird because the sire and dam are. I'm with you on managing interactions, I'm getting a good feel now for what will set her off. She's completely fine with strangers coming into the house, they're just not be trusted walking around outside of it!