How to Keep My Sheltie From Being Afraid

Socialization is the key to breaking your Sheltie from his fearful behavior. Everything you do exposes your dog to new noises, smells and experiences. Over time, these experiences lead your dog to accept new circumstances, rather than fearing them. Here are some things you can try to socialize your dog.

Instructions

    • 1

      Walk your dog regularly. Simple things like passing another person, or hearing a dog bark from behind a gate can be startling to an unsocialized dog. Over time, your dog becomes used to these occurrences, and begins to grow confident that hearing a noise isn't going to cause any harm.

    • 2

      Take your dog to the dog park. Often times, other dogs are the key to socialization. When your dog sees what the other dogs do, their natural pack mentality sometimes takes over and leads them to follow their example.

    • 3

      Start slowly. You can't expect an overnight change. It took your dogs weeks, months or years to become this fearful; you aren't going to be able to change it in a day.

      When doing socialization activities, never stay too long. You don't want extended periods of fearful activity to keep your dog in his scared mentality. Five minutes of exposure to new sounds, scents and experiences is enough at first. Once your dog becomes comfortable, move it up to 10 minutes, and then 20, and so on.

    • 4

      Reward your Sheltie regularly. The easiest way to break unwanted behavior is to treat the behavior that you like. When your dog starts to smell the fire hydrant, rather than hiding from it, give him a treat. If he recoils when a dog barks, ignore it. The key is treating the positive behavior, and ignoring the negative.