Sarge is 3 years old and very smart. The only problem I have with him is he is scared of other dogs. What can I do to make him more confident?

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are there any friendly social adult dogs that you can have around him?

I suspect most of this attitude is genetic, unless maybe your guy might have had some bad experience when he was a puppy.

how about trying to teach him to just ignore all other dogs and concentrate on just you? Might also help with his confidence maybe.

forgot - VERY cute fella!

Pretty Boy!

Well, with my dear Wolf who was afraid of people, mainly, but not dogs-we did desensitization with treats. You might try the Yahoo group shyK9s, or maybe it's on Facebook.

Other people can explain it better, but you don't want to force Sarge to confront what he fears. The idea is to change his mind from dog is scary to dog=something good. When he can see a distant dog but is still calm, you reward him like mad(treats, tug, toy-whatever he likes) for being calm and paying attention to you. Slowly over a period of days or weeks, you get closer to the fearful thing, while Sarge is still calm. If he gets too close, you back off for the next exposure. (now all this supposes that the frightening dog is not reacting-so Codmaster's advice about friendly adult dogs is great).

I hope you get other advice from more experienced people.

Mary Jane

In response to OP:
My dog is 5 and still dog-shy. She will play with friendly dogs but usually shies away on first encounter.
As a pup she was shy of dogs and people. We improved her gradually over the years by a LOT of
socialization. It really helped. I hope you can get plenty of opportunities to socialize your dog
with other dogs. I think that is the only thing that works: gradually adding to their confidence.
Personally, I don't think it necessary for dogs to be dog friendly. But it can be more fun if they are.
Dogs that are dog shy kind of get walked all over by other dogs. In a dog's world, body language is
everything.

I got him when he was 7 weeks old. He had a little friend in the neighborhood, but he is now gone. I think my daughters Pitt Bulls scared him at a very young age and he hasn't forgotten it. When she brings them over to play, Sarge will play a little bit, but then comes in the house and want go back out. It might be our fault because we have treated him like a child. He is loved to death. I just wish we had a dog park where I could take him to be around other friendly dogs.

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Here he is now. If he only knew how mean he could be.

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You guys can see all his pictures here. Just click on him.

http://ambrola.smugmug.com/

I am awfully risk averse, but I would be very cautious about a dog park. You just can't control what kinds of dogs are there and another bad experience for Sarge would be a shame.

A scared dog will probably give off signals that some other dogs might interpret as an invitation to act aggressively toward them; so I would be real cautious about bring my dog into a DP if he were the least bit afraid of other dogs.

maybe try him walking along the outside of the park until you see how all of the dogs relate to each other.

probably good for him if the other dogs are all friendly and social; but who can say about the dogs you might meet.

I agree, I wouldn't take him to a dog park,and would be more inclined to teach him to ignore other dog. Your job will be to protect him and make ure he feel safe, not by smothering him, but by controlling his exposures while you work on him. There are also ome resources at this link: http://fearfuldogs.com/ I also really like most everything Suzanne Clothier has to say on fear and anxiety.

IMO, I don't worry about doggy 'friends.' If he's a good fellow, let him be.

That is what we are doing. He is our Baby, and stays in the house most of the time. We have to run him everyday, he loves to run.

I would find a positive training class (no equipment that inflicts pain), and take him through that, where he will have to learn to work with other dogs around.

What are you aiming for with your dog?

So he can learn to "play" with other dogs?

OR just to learn to be around other dogs and not be afraid? (I.E. just learn to ignore other dogs? (probably a LOT easier and very doable in my opinion).

I would suggest that you make a decision about what your goal is (maybe you already have of course) and then you can better figure out how to go about it.

Fear (or lack of confidence) in the majority of cases is genetic and "built in" and will continue to be an issue but you certainly can learn to deal with it as can your dog (manage it!).

One thing that will help is for you to train/teach your dog to focus on you! Strongly! then he will have a lot less time to look at (and worry about) other things (dogs) around him. he will also learn to have more confidence in you as well which will also help considerably in his behavior!.

Good luck!

My recommendation for training was really just for a pet obedience class. Going through training isn't just for your dog to learn some more confidence, but it gives the owner all sorts of tools, in how to better work with their dog, how to best read their signals, etc.

I see that you refer to your dog as your baby, and a lot of us do that, but sometimes it signals that learning more about "the ways of the dog" may help both owner and dog. There are lots of ways that we inflict stress on our dogs, and working closer with them helps the relationship and understanding, going both ways.

What are the "symptoms" of his fear? Does he bark at other dogs, or is he skittish around them? How does he play with the pits? Rough? Gentle? Does he seem overwhelmed? Does he "listen" if they tell him off?

My girl was skittish of big dogs (and anyone that barked at her) when I brought her home at 8 weeks, and socialization in controlled settings is what seemed her to help the most. We would take her walking downtown, cross the street when she saw another dog, and then praise/treat for quiet watching. At seven months she is quite interested in the goings-on of her canine acquaintances, but is confident and relaxed when she interacts with them on- or off-leash