abe1224

Hello I'm new and I'm hoping to get some advice. I have a 3 1/2 old basset names Abe. He is the most complex basset in the world. We love him dearly and would never dream of giving him up but he is very high-strung and has lots of anxiety. We give him proper exercise, attention, grooming and all that; we take care of our boy. He is afraid of everything, trucks, airplanes, vacuuming, storms, anything that we move around the house (dog gate, dropping something, sweeping). It may be noise sensitivity but even things that don't make any noise scare him. He hides under the bed or in our shower and shaking/panting uncontrollably. We got him at 9 weeks from a very caring breeder and nothing that I know of could have caused him to be like this. We have a daughter and he is very good with her, but before her and now he is extremely clingy. Everywhere I go I can literally feel his breath on my ankles! We have tried training (puppy classes and bark busters). I did not agree with bark busters methods as they treated him as being an aggressive dog rather than a passive/afraid dog. We have tried herbal collars for relaxing, amitriptylline for anxiety, velcro coat for applying pressure to his torso...I guess it helps to calm dogs...and nothing works. I guess my question is-what more can we do to help calm him down? Would it help if we got him another dog or would he bring the anxiety issues to the new dog? He LOVES other dogs, and is desperate for a friend. We let him play with other dogs as much as possible but it's still not very often. He likes to wrestle pretty hard and is relentless so owners/certain dogs don't like him. He doesn't hurt them; he just likes to play...like a dog is supposed to. Any suggestions? Thanks!-Katie

Mikey T

Shyness is the one trait that is proven to survive form puppihood to adulthood because it is a self rewarding behavior. everytime the dog survise an encounter by being fearful it reinforces the behavior. So Whit I trying to say is there is no total cure. What there is a life long process than can enable him to cope better.

see as your best resource
HELP FOR YOUR SHY DOG

and a fair review of the book


Depending on how trong his anxieties are he may also benifit from antianxiety medication see Seperation Anxiety for a post I wrote on a different board with links to various antianxiety medication. All require a perscription and a decision to use them should not be made lightly. The drugs themselves are not effective without behavior modification as well so I provide the follwing link to behaviorist that can also prescribe because they are vets

Find a Diplomat

One of the biggest mytrh you will hear when working with a shy/fearful dog is don't comfort the dog when it is fearful because you are reinforcing the fear. This is some of the worst advice possible made by those that do not understand the importance of emotional state plays in learning. You can't reinforce fear by conforting the dogs.

Can Fear be Rewarded?
The following web sites can be helpful as well

Fearful Dogs:
Help For You & Your Dog

some other resources that may be helpful
CLICK TO CALM - HEALING THE AGGRESSIVE DOG
The approach hear is more for the "reactive dog" that is a dog that manifest its fear though aggressive acts. Not what you describe abe as being but considering bark buster approach I thought there might be some of that as well.

CONTROL UNLEASHED: CREATING A FOCUSED AND CONFIDENT DOG
More geared to the performance dog and stresses, anxiety and distractions that occur however much can be applied to shy dogs as well even without a performance bent.

CAUTIOUS CANINE - HOW TO HELP DOGS CONQUER THEIR FEARS, 2ND EDITION
A good treates on desentiziation and counter-conditioning just one of many techinques in dealing with why behavior. It is by no means comprehensive in its approach other than laying the basic groundwork on how to use desenitization and countercondition in a step by step approach.


It depend entirely on the "other dog" IMHO a puppy or younger dog would be more impressionable and more likely to adopt the behaviors of an adult dog than a stable adult dog. Young dogs learn behaviors from observing other dogs. But, I also had an adult dog only show signs of thunderstorm phobia late in life after the dog he was living with stress became more acute. Were the two related is anyones guess but it is a valid concern.


Sorry I don't have some mavalious cure but all there is involves a lot a work and at best the make the situation better not perfect and require a life time of practicing because you stop the behavior will once again become worse overtime. Shyness is the one temperment in a puppy I would cation all potential owners to avoid.

abe1224

Thanks Mikey for taking all that time in finding out this research for me to look into. I'll check out all the links and will hopefully find some useful info.. When we went to go pick up our puppy, all the pups came down with kennel cough and were all being treated for it at the time. So they were all very tired and lazy. We drove 3 hrs. to get our puppy so we had to choose one when they were sick. When he got better, he still seemed pretty normal and not scared. We started noticed him being fearful when he was about 5 months old. He can be a very happy dog with his tail held high, then he will purposefully listen to whats going on outside and then his tail will go under his legs and under the bed he goes. It's like he wants to be fearful. Anyway, I will look through all the info. you gave me and will keep this thread going. Thanks again for all your help, we are desperate to make him happy and relaxed.-Katie

Mikey T

Unfortunately I have done the research much earlier having to deal with two reactive dogs, dog that act out of fear but rather than run and hide the fight part of the flight or fight response took presidence. One I eventual had to put down as it became increasingly clear that there was a nuerological cause for the behavior as it became more erratic and unmanageble.