Hiding under the bed in fear.

[erinmichelle]

Hello,
I am new to this site and training and had just one question about a fearful dog. I have a 3 year old female Airedale Terrier/Irish Wolfhound mix Dolly. After reading some of these threads, and your site, I realize that a lot of her fear is because she isn't sure who is calling the shots. My boyfriend also has a large mixed breed dog & the two dogs are the best of friends. It seems that Dolly is way more fearful when the other dog is not with her. When we first adopted Dolly a year ago, she showed signs of fear. She backed away from men, small dogs and was afraid of all loud noises. I tried my best to socialize her, and help her build her confidence. She now comes to work with me, and has a massive following in the neighborhood, people really love her! (except the mailman - she is a door guarder) The sound of a delivery truck, or a honking horn don't seem to frighten her anymore. She's a great dog, & has come around to really love people. While bringing her to work has helped her trust people, when she does get fearful, its at a much higher level than when we first adopted her. My question is: (sorry about the long intro) when she is afraid of something, should I allow her to run away in fear? Example: Last night, she got her collar stuck on the handle of a drawer (I have no idea how that happened) and freaked out, in the end ripping the drawer out & breaking it because she was stuck. All the commotion was really loud and I could tell right away that she wanted to run upstairs and hide, (she always hides under the bed) but I could not for the life of me think of what a pack leader would do in this situation. I didn't want to baby her, because I know from experience that just makes her want to run away more and is definitely not what a leader would do, but I also didn't want to hold her or force her to stay downstairs. What should I be doing in situations when Dolly wants to run away and hide? Instead I tried to distract her with obedience commands but she wasn't responsive at all.
and on a totally unrelated note, & this might sound really strange, but I was told yesterday by a total stranger, that spitting in your dogs water dish will help them know you are the leader? I have never heard of such a thing, and wasnt surprised to find it on some dog training websites after I googled it, none that seemed to be what I was looking for so I was curious about your thoughts. I certainly haven't spit in anyone's water! (don't worry!) Just curious to hear what other people say about it.

[Teresa]

Hi and Welcome!

It sounds like Dolly has been making good progress in your home. To answer your question about what you should do when Dolly wants to run away and hide the answer is this:
right now the best choice may be to let her hide.

Attempting to keep her from hiding depends on your relationship with her and her ability to be distracted in the situation. You definitely do NOT want to force her to stay in a room, if she would be panicked or coddle her (as you mentioned this makes things worse by sending the message that you worried too , since they are focused on tone of voice not words) . If you would be able to distract her with high value treats to do some obedience (not sure if you were using treats when you tried distracting her with obedience), a high value chew (like a bully stick, stuffed kong) or her favorite toy, or keep her on a leash with you without her panicking, these might be options to work with now.
If not allow her to hide for now, and as you progress working on the layers of the pyramid and the phases of training you should eventually be able to do one of the above mentioned options. And eventually send her to a "Place" command in this type of situation. Don't rush things if she is not comfortable enough/ far along enough in her obedience to accomplish this.

As for spitting in a dog's water bowl or food- I'm not sure it would help you accomplish much in the leadership department. We have always had great success here at K9-1 without the need to spit into a dog's dish. Follow the steps outlined in layer 5 of the Triangle and your dog will have a clear picture of where leadership lies, ( no loogies necessary )

[erinmichelle]

haha! Ok, no spitting! got it! (I promise I didn't!)
Thanks so much for your reply. I will continue to let her hide when she is panicked until we are higher in the pyramid and our relationship is stronger. It makes a lot of sense that she certainly isn't going to trust me when she is panicked, if she cannot trust me on a regular basis. I am so determined to do this with Dolly!!