Another Sally question!

[Amber]

For all those who were on Doggie Door, you probably remember me! :D Sally (pictured under my name) is scared of EVERYTHING! I have many questions, but for this thread I have only one. Sally is very attached to her crate. It is her safety zone. In order for her to come out and roam around freely, everyone in the house must be asleep. I want to start building her confidence up, but in order to do that, I have to treat her in some cases.

Sally won't eat her treats unless she is in her crate. No one can be looking at her either. What can I do about this? Do I have to conquer some of her other issues before starting on this one? I'm not sure where to begin with her! Thanks in advance!

[aussiesmum]

I know you were working on some shyness issues, how is that going? Are you able to start working on a bit of training and NILIF with her?

If everyone (except you) is gone, will she come out to greet you? If you leave a tail of treats out of her crate, then leave her, will she come out? what about when you are in the same room, but maybe away form the crate?

Sounds to me like you have to take it all VERY slowly and make baby teenie tiny steps with her.

[Jill Ramsey]

Amber,
Maybe trying the "watch me" command. When she's in her crate, sit down next to it. Don't do anything & see if she becomes curious. Let her see that you have a treat, and put it up to your nose and say watch me. IF she follows it up to your nose, give her the treat. If she doesn't eat it leave it in the crate. Just do that much for awhile. If you are successful, then try it twice. It's a start to trying to build that bond between you. Make the treats really yummy. if she likes chicken, use chicken. A lot of people use liver, just the smell is enough to make some dogs drool. It's a start! Good luck.

[Amber]

I haven't really worked with HER with commands, but she's learned a few by just watching me work with my poodle, Precious. She now knows "Out"(if I need her out of her crate or to go outside to potty) and she also knows the word "Treat." She won't eat the treat while I'm watching her or if I'm sitting right next to the crate, but if I'm a little ways away, then she will. NILIF won't work with her right now b/c she is still too scared when she is out of her crate and will automatically sit or lay on the ground and play statue.

She will come out to greet me when I get home from school in the afternoons. Sometimes she comes all the way out of the crate and sometimes she stands in the doorway of her crate with her tail wagging frantically. She will also do this for my mom...never coming out of the crate for her though. As for the trail of treats, she won't eat the treats unless they are actually INSIDE her crate. She will bring them inside her crate.

That's a good idea, Jill. I'll have to work with her on that. The one thing I'm afraid of with that is that I will have to make eye contact with her and in the article on Building Confidence in Shy Dogs, it says not to make eye contact because it is threatening to them. I'm sure I can get around this though. She really doesn't seem to mind making eye contact with me, even if it's a must.