New rescue dog fearful, especially wary of my adult son

[BARBARA WINFREY]

Just purchased the course, looking forward to it.  My initial question, though, is that my new 2-year-old mini poodle mix (got her 2 weeks ago as a puppy mill mom) sometimes stays just out of reach of me, but particularly won't voluntarily go to my adult son (we live together) even when he has treats.  I can usually quietly approach and pick her up so she can be harnessed for him to walk her or pet her on the sofa. She is fearful of a variety of noises, but is getting much better.  Since she sometimes just wants her own space, how can we proceed with training, particularly to involve my son?  Or maybe I'm just jumping ahead here since I've haven't started the course yet. 🙂   

 Thanks so much. 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there, welcome to the forums!

As a former puppy mill mom, she likely has missed out on the socialization period and is wary of people which is putting a dent in the habituation process in her new home. It takes a good amount of work often to get these dogs to come out of their shells and establish trust. Many unsocialized dogs in particular may struggle with men for a variety of reasons (their deeper voices, the way they move, possible facial hair etc.). 

While it's important to create positive associations with your son, since she is showing signs of being afraid of him, the use of treats to lure her closer to him may evoke what I call the "approach-avoidance" dance. What this means is that the dog may be tempted by the treats, but then as they come closer, once they realize it, they go from approach to avoidance, and that avoidance, can impact how they feel about the person emotionally, raising further suspicion.  Here is a read about this phenomenon: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/approach-avoidance/

For this reason, rather than using treats to lure a dog closer to a person, I prefer that the person toss the treat *behind* the dog in a treat-retreat fashion as explained here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/how-to-play-the-treat-and-retreat-game/

Another option is for you to do the treat feeding to create positive associations using desensitization and counterconditioning. Here is a case study about the process: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/

Once your dog appears more comfortable around your son, you can start training, but you may find capturing a better method than using treats in a luring fashion. 

In capturing, we can reward spontaneous behaviors without being too close to the dog.  For example, we can capture a sit by waiting for the dog to sit on his own, praising and tossing a treat the dog's way. Here is more info about this method:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/what-is-capturing-in-dog-training/

And here's an example of capturing a down (in this case, I am not using a leash as this dog had issues with closeness to her face):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwfz5BAbs54

You may also find this helpful for her fear of noises:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/

I hope this helps!

Let me know how things work out for you. With some dogs, we need to think outside of the box, which is what makes training dogs never boring! Happy training!

Best,

Adrienne