Don't Be Scared! Guide them through fear

Puppies go through so many stages of growth and development and along the way they can become worried about new objects, people, other dogs, etc. This is why it’s so important to expose our young dogs to as many different situations and environments as possible BUT by doing it in a handler guided and confidence building way.
When out for a walk one morning, Willow became nervous when she saw garbage cans along the side of the road for the first time. So I used this opportunity to build her confidence by have her work around the cans until she no longer cared about them!
In this video, I’m using food engagement while also leveraging Willow’s puppy obedience skills to have her work in the presence of the garbage can while also correcting any naughty behaviour like barking and growling directed at the cans. You’ll also notice that I never have her touch the cans or impose them upon her in any way because that would only intensify her worries. But rather we are doing what is called ‘coexistence’. Handler guided coexistence is the best way to build confidence and to help puppies and dogs overcome their fears. This is also the proper way to ‘socialize’ puppies and dogs with anything and everything. No interaction or touching is needed!
When a puppy or dog is worried about objects like the garbage cans, we handlers want to make sure that we always keep those things out of the puppy’s personal space (this is called advocating for your puppy) while also reinforcing calm and polite choices and building their confidence around the object and correcting any naughty choices like growling, barking, reactivity, etc. toward the object. Not only does this teach the puppy polite manners and handler focus, but it also teaches her to trust her handler’s leadership to keep her safe while giving her help and guidance in those worrisome situations (telling her what to do).

When it comes to puppies who are worried about people or dogs, it’s the handlers job to not allow people and dogs to impose unwanted attention upon the puppy... this often happens at dog parks, in public, or when strangers want to touch your pup out in public, etc. The nervous puppy won’t ‘get over it’ by having this type of unwanted attention forced upon them but rather it will intensify the puppy’s fears, make them feel like they have to bark and growl to protect themselves and also teach the puppy or dog that she can’t trust her handler to keep her safe when she’s worried. A better approach is to advocate for the puppy/dog while having her coexist with people and dogs while reinforcing the puppy’s good choices and also correcting her naughty choices (giving complete guidance). And never be shy about speaking up on puppy’s behalf and telling people and dogs to back off when they make her uncomfortable! The puppy’s training and well being is vastly more important than potentially offending a total stranger.

Exposing puppies to as many different environments and situations as possible UNDER HANDLE GUIDANCE, in a structured way AND when the puppy has learned the skills to deal with the new scenarios is one of the best ways to cultivate confidence in our young dogs. I use leash and prong collar to give\ guidance when she needs it and mark their choices that I like with the word ‘good’ and also marking her choices that I don’t like with ‘no’. Puppies need feedback to know both what they did correctly and also what they did incorrectly so that they can learn how to be successful the next time in what we ask. When a puppymakes an incorrect choice, after to mark it with ‘no’, I then give her guidance (show, teach, help her) about how to make to the correct choice. Simple exercises like getting puppies comfortable with the tub and running water touching them makes life a whole lot easier for us humans and a whole lot less stressful for our dogs later in in life!