2 year old rescued shihtzu is afraid of women and loves men of the house. help!?

Question

she was found in a puppie mill and I got her from the lady that rescued her. She wants nothing to do with me and if she has an accident in the house and I pick her up to take her outside the dog yelps and acts like she is going to be whipped and she has not learned in a week any trust at all. She also will pee when picked up. The dog doesn't want to play or be loved on by me and just acts afraid when I try to pet or play with her. I hate to return her but I don't know what else to do.

Answer 1

That's odd - it's usually the other way around. If she was abused by a woman, you're going to have to give her a lot more time to learn to trust you (like four to six MONTHS). Leave a leash on her all the time (inside and outside), so you don't have to pick her up. Don't force your attention on her. Inside the house, tie the leash to your belt, so that she has to follow you around - and she won't be able to run away when you approach her. Sit on the floor while you watch tv and ignore her. Let her come to you when she's ready. Take long walks with her to relax her. Drop your voice into a lower key - deeper, like men have. Shrill voices or too much excitement in your voice may be upsetting her.

Read some great books on training. (Try not to pick books randomly - there are a lot of bad books out there also!) These are some of my favorites and you can get them on Amazon.com
What All Good Dogs Should Know – Volhard http://www.volhard.com/
Good Owners, Great Dogs - Brian Kilcommins
Dog Tricks : Eighty-Eight Challenging Activities for Your Dog from World-Class Trainers by Haggerty and Benjamin
Don't Shoot the Dog - Pryor
Training Your Dog: The Step by Step Method - Volhard
Dog Problems - Benjamin
Cesar's Way - Cesar Millan
Also, watch the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. Cesar Millan is the best trainer I've ever seen on TV.
http://www.dogpsychologycenter.com/

Answer 2

Apparently, this dog has issues with women, for whatever reason.

So, for the women around this dog...Do not make the first move with the dog. Acknowledge the dog verbally (no eye contact), in a low, pleasant voice. Allow the dog space. When the dog approaches you, do not reach out, just verbally acknowledge (no eye contact) with that pleasant voice. Keep doing this until the dog lets you know that it is ready for contact, then allow the dog to take the lead. The dog will approach you and let you know when it is ready. And do not force the dog to do anything. This will take a while to resolve itself, but you must be patient.

With the piddling, do not pick up the dog when it comes to you. Instead, acknowledge the dog with that pleasant voice (no eye contact). After doing this a few times, reach down and pet the dog. If the dog piddles while you are petting it, immediately stop petting and do not acknowledge the dog in any way. Continue to do this until the dog does not piddle when touched. Do this every time! Then you can begin picking up the dog. But always follow the above steps before picking up the dog. If the dog piddles when you pick it up, gently return the dog to the ground, gently saying something like "oops, puppy, down you go" and start all over again. It won't take long for the piddling to stop. It worked on my brother's Chihuahua in ONE DAY!

Answer 3

if its a rescued dog, that means that it was abused at some point by a female owner, or it was harshly disciplined by a woman, so it is now afraid of them all. I had a rescued cat who was that way with men, and that's what the vets & the pet stores all said. it will take a lot of time patience & love to get your dog to change, and it is possible that it may never change. but make sure to love it as much as you can.

Answer 4

Feed her alot, make sure not too many men feed her. Get female friends to come over and feed her also if you can. The easiest way to an animal's heart is through her stomach. Get a few treats as well and don't let men feed it to the dog. The dog may realize that women are the ones who are providing food and yummy treats to her. The dog may think that you can't be all that bad if you're going out of your way to feed it special treats.

Answer 5

It sounds like the dog was abused by a woman- or by women. It'll take a bit more than a week to break her of being afraid. Give her time and lots of love- and get the men of the house to help you show her she doesn't have to be afraid.

Good luck!

Answer 6

It sounds like the pup was badly abused from the WOMAN from the puppy mill. Best thing to do, is to lay down on the floor, try to get your head lower than hers, and whimper. She is threatened by you. and doing this she will start to come out of the shyness nervous wreck that she is in. I had the reverse, we found a dog, that was abused by the man. It took my husband 2 months of constantly working with her, before she actually came to him on her own. That was when he laid down and cried. You are of no threat to the pup, if you can get lower the it is, put a biscuit or peace of food in your lips for an offering. Do not make sudden movements to her.

Answer 7

Hi there.

My dog was the same way. He was abused by a woman and never really trusted women since the. He always would be by my dad's side.

My only advice, is, just to love your dog. You have to gain its trust. Prove to it that you wont hurt it....let a guy do do the discipline and maybe you do the stuff like feeding it (nourishment=good.) and toys and treats etc. So its know your there to be godo to it!!

Like for my dog, it took a year or so, but he did warm up to us and he was one of the best dogs we ever had!!!

Good luck...
-D-

Answer 8

Ignore her and let her come to you on her terms. Abused dogs can't be pushed. Don't look at her, don't talk to her, don't try to touch her. When she does come up to you to smell you, just keep ignoring her like she isn't there. Eventually she will try to get you to pet her, then have at it. Trust me, most animals that I have had in my life were abused, beat half to death, starved, burned, you name it. Also anytime anyone new approaches tell them to ignore her until she makes the first moves. Good luck, once you get her to trust you, you will have a friend for life

Answer 9

A week is nothing in the life of a dog who was obviously abused by a woman , women... try these ideas...

How To "Build The Bond" With Your Dog!

Copyright 1999 By Adam G. Katz
http://www.dogproblems.com

Building the bond with your dog is really quite easy. If you recognize that you have a relationship with your dog, then building the bond comes down to nothing more than increasing the strength of that relationship.

And as with any relationship, building a bond requires:

1.) Spending quality time together.

2.) Getting out in the world and experiencing life together.

3.) Establishing and promoting a level of mutual respect.

4.) Developing a way of communicating so that both individuals understand the other's needs. (Hmmm... maybe I should be writing self-help books for humans???)

Let's take a look at each of these key points to see how they can have a positive affect on your daily dog training:

1.) Spending quality time together.

Spending quality time together does not mean sharing a beer with Fido while the two of you lay in front of the television. Well, okay... maybe it does.

But more importantly, it means committing to a series of rituals and behaviors that you and your dog can look forward to.

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While preventive steps are best, should your puppy or adolescent dog already show signs of timidity, he should be gradually introduced to many new and unfamiliar people, until your puppy develops more confidence and trust. The following tips may be useful as a general guideline:

Visitors and passersby should avoid suddenly reaching out to pet your puppy, as allowing a stranger to approach a timid puppy right away is likely to increase the puppy's fear as well as his inclination to react defensively. In fact, when a timid puppy is first introduced to someone unfamiliar to him, the person should remain relatively still and quiet, avoid eye contact with the puppy, offer non-confrontational body language, and allow the puppy to approach the person and initiate contact. The puppy should never be forced or dragged over to meet someone he is fearful of.

Asking the visitor to crouch down near the floor, with their body facing at an angle AWAY from the puppy, and their hand slightly extended to the side while holding a small puppy treat, may help the puppy to gain enough confidence to approach. The puppy should be allowed to sniff the person, and to take the treat from their hand, without the person talking to or reaching towards the puppy. Even if the puppy continues to show fearfulness, the owner should remain upbeat, and resist the temptation to coddle or "poor baby" the puppy.

Once the puppy appears to feel a bit more secure, the visitor should slowly begin petting the puppy under the chin, and continue offering him small treats. These steps should be repeated with as many new people as possible, in as many new environments as possible, until the puppy develops sufficient confidence around new people.




Timidity Around Other Dogs

Fully immunized puppies who are timid around other dogs, should be socialized with other friendly, easy-going puppies (and dogs), begining with small to medium-sized puppies, then very gradually introduced to larger, more active ones, over a period of a few weeks. Observe both puppies' body language as the meet, interact, and get to know eachother. For especially timid or sensitive puppies, one-on-one puppy play sessions are usually best.

Supervised puppy play groups and puppy kindergarden classes may also be helpful, provided that bigger, more dominant puppies are not allowed to bully or intimidate the more timid ones. Puppies should be properly matched by size, age, dominance, activity level and temperament. Unsupervised group "free-for-alls" can in fact be very counter-productive.

Ideally, an experienced dog trainer or behaviorial consultant should supervise all play activity and be present to prevent any overly aggressive interactions between puppies.


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Answer 10

A bit, but then look at Hef. The Love Shack is just a scaled down version of the Playboy mansion. Uncle Marvin is a stud muffin. Let him have his fun. :)