What to do about my skiddish dog?

Cuda1447

Lifer
Jul 26, 2002
11,757
0
71
I've got a mini-dachshund puppy. She is about 6 months old, but Ive been having a hell of a hard time training her. She won't pee/poo inside when I'm around with her, but at night sometimes she does in her pen.

More annoying though, is she is scared to go outside. Sometimes she'll cry like she needs to go out, but then I ask her if she wants to go out and she runs and hides. I have to pick up her at random and take her to get her outside. Sometimes she'll do her business right away, sometimes she gets apeshit scared and runs back to the house.

I live in an apartment complex so there are usually other people around. If she hears weird voices, see's another person, see's a golf cart, hears people talking, things like that scare the shit out of her and she runs back to the apartment. Sometimes if I take her 5-6 times in a row back out to the grass she will do her business, but usually she is just scared and keeps going back to the apartment. Any idea what I can do to cure her of this?

 

CKent

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
9,020
0
0
Originally posted by: shinerburke
Is skiddish anything like Yiddish?
Bolster the dog's confidence by making him wear a yarmulke.

I kid :D

Seriously, watch the Dog Whisperer, that guy's a genius with dogs. It's a semi-common problem and I know he's done at least a few episodes on it.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
Did you not socialize her to the outdoors, people, noises, etc when you got her? Where did you get her?

Well, you'll need to work with to associate the outdoors as good and not scary. Lots of praise and positive reinforcement.
 

shiner

Lifer
Jul 18, 2000
17,112
1
0
Short answer is that she lacks socialization skills. Sign her up for puppy kindergarten and I bet after a few weeks of being around other people and dogs she will become less skittish.
 

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,224
37
91
Originally posted by: Cuda1447
Sometimes she'll cry like she needs to go out, but then I ask her if she wants to go out and she runs and hides.


I may have found the problem.
 

ggnl

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2004
5,095
1
0
[cesar]do not give her any positive attention attention if she does not want to go out. it will just reinforce the bad behavior.[/cesar]