This week’s lesson in the Make Dogs Your Life course for dog trainers was a very special one for me; it covered Fearful and Anxious Dogs.
As I’ve written about in the past, our Irie is a fearful dog. Although she came to us with some substantial scarring from what the vet believes was a dog fight, her fear primarily stems from people she doesn’t know. She has come a long, long way in the four years since we adopted her but I know that her anxiety is something that we’ll always manage but never really “cure.” And that’s OK. We work to make her more confident and comfortable every day and to minimize her discomfort when meeting new people. (And, as a shy person myself, I can definitely relate.)
This week’s lesson discussed working not only with fearful dogs but also reactive dogs, even in a group setting. Fernando Camacho’s tips for everything from meeting and interacting with a fearful dog to, in a group setting, getting fearful dogs walking together were excellent. Several were tips we were already using with Irie but others, such as softening your own body posture when meeting a fearful dog, were ones that we’ll be adding to our interactions both with Irie and with other fearful dogs when we meet them.
For more information, visit the Make Dogs Your Life course for dog trainers website and be sure to follow Make Dogs Your Life on Facebook and Twitter.
The FernDog Trainer Academy Review Series:
- Lesson Twelve & Final
- Lesson Eleven
- Lesson Ten
- Lesson Nine
- Lesson Eight
- Lesson Seven
- Lesson Six
- Lesson Five
- Lesson Four
- Lesson Three
- Lesson Two
- Lesson One
- Introduction
Disclosure: We are receiving the Make Dogs Your Life course for review; we are not paid for our review and all statements and opinions are entirely our own.
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