Kira's Shyness

Since the day we brought her home at 4.5 months, Kira has been one incredibly shy sheltie. Shelties naturally have a tendency to be more reserved, but she takes it to a bit of an extreme. She will not let anyone she doesn't know come within 10 feet of her if possible, she barks like crazy at strangers, and shys violently away from anyone petting her. While it doesn't take her super long to start to get to know someone and allow them near her (especially if they are sitting on her couch looking quite non-threatening), it's really been holding us back when it comes to showing. This is a dog that will not stay for even a sit for exam (where the judge comes up and pats her on the head, then walks away). In every other way, she's a delight to work with in obedience. She's attentive for the most part, has a beautiful heel, and does her long sits and downs.

To get a qualifying score in obedience, dogs must receive at least 170 out of 200 possible points, and at least half of the points in each exercise. During her first two shows, Kira got a 191, but was disqualified because she got up and ran in terror before the judge came within even 8 feet of her. But we never gave up! I cannot even begin to tell you how many visits we've made to pet stores and farmer's markets, and any other place I can think of to expose her to more people.

After the second show, however, I decided to change my approach. Previously, we spent a lot of time asking strangers to hold a treat in their open hand, not make eye contact with her, and let her come to them. While we had limited success with this, I've been doing it at least a few times a week for the past 6 months, and I really wanted to get into showing more with her. My new tactic was to reinforce her stays. Now every time I tell her to sit and stay before the stranger approaches, and put her right back where she was if she tries to get up. This has had some great results, despite the fact that I'm not letting her make her own choices as much. I like it though, because I'm reinforcing my stays, plus I'm finding that she's starting to realize more quickly that people aren't bad. It used to be that no matter how many times she met a Petsmart employee, she still acted terrified of them, like she'd never seen them before. Now, I can see a difference between her first meeting with an employee and her second. By the second time, she's a lot less shy.

The best part of all, though, is that we finally got a qualifying score in Pre-Novice Obedience! Now just two more legs until she earns her title!