Better start carrying some pepper spray for Bella's defense. Hope only works for so long.

Omg, that guys is such an asswhole!!! Excuse my french, but he is! I agree with Len, carry pepper spray! I recently purchased Spray Shield from Petsmarts per Sam (Hollywoodhuskies) suggestion. I think it was her..lol. THANK GOD that I haven't had to use it, but I feel a tad bit better having it on me. Don't know how quick i could get it and spray holding a dog in each hand, but it's worth a try.

I'm sorry Bella is so freaked out. Poor baby girl

Thanks guys

She seems better now. It's been about 5 hours give or take since it happened and she's calmed down a lot and is even eating her bones now. I definitely think I'm gonna pick up some pepper spray.

I actually don't understand it. I never once had a problem with my Pyrenees out walking. From dog or person. And Bella isn't the type of dog that wants to run up to every dog she sees and make friends like my Pyr was. She sits and waits and watches. I just don't get it

Sorry to hear about this. I had a huge problem with this with Frankie when I first got him. He wanted to be social but was very anxious and insecure. I found out later that those characteristics made him a target for other dogs. As I worked with him, he became more secure and confident and he is not a target anymore. We still have problems with unleashed dogs. I carry pepper spray that I can hook onto the leash or my beltloop and it has a quick release so I can get it off in a hurry. We almost got mauled by a chi the other day . We walked by the house and the chi was in the yard going nuts. Next thing I know the chi was coming at us from behind like a bat out of hell. Fortunately I was able to call it off before it got to close to frankie.

That's Bella to a tee. Insecure and not confident and very, very shy. Despite all of the socialization she went through she just doesn't like people especially. But everything you said makes perfect sense, Dee! Thank you for that .

I imagine with time she might grow out of it. I'm not going to push the issue. Since after talking with my mentor she said that I could very well be making it worse by forcing her to let people touch her for various reasons; she got scared by something right when someone was petting her so she associated the fear with other people touching her, a health problem caused her some form of pain when someone was petting her so she associated the pain from strangers petting her. Something happened to her before I got her etc etc.

I'm glad you got the crazy chi before it got to him! :o Them Chi's be crazy!

If she is a truly fearful dog, you may want to consider a behaviorist. Don't force her. Having a behaviorist to guide could be helpful. Dogs that are that fearful don't usually just grow out of it without some help and we as humans tend to want to nurture which reinforces the fearfulness. My other dog Bruiser is a VERY fearful dog, he hides under the bed for hours when my mom sneezes (no joke). It makes me sad because I can't take him to all of the places I take Frankie because it's not enjoyable for him, it's too stressful.

I worked very closely with a trainer with frankie. As a matter of fact, we had a little refesher session this weekend when I saw my trainer at an event (I needed the refresher, I've been slacking). A pack leadership type model worked best for Frankie. Seeing me as the leader helped him gain confidence because he had clear guidance and expectations and learned that he could trust me. It was a long process, but he is such a happy guy now.

ETA- My sister works for an emergency vet clinic right outside of philly. If you are interested I could ask her for any referrals that may be in your area.

She's not the traditional fearful like that. She's -only- scared of people. Like today for example. Bella's never been around anything louder than someone yelling. I walked her right passed the chipper outside and she didn't even blink an eye at it. Just kept on her way. It's the same for anything really. Especially inanimate objects. She's absolutely wonderful.

At the handling class I was taking her to - the instructor would put out cones and hula hoops and poles that the dogs would have to walk over or through. She paid no attention to any of them. Didn't care if she had to walk over anything or through anything or if it made noise nothing. She's not scared of running/walking towards walls or anything.

It's simply just people. She's really interested in people. When she sees them she -wants- to go up to them. But when she gets within two feet or so and they try to pet her she'll jump away from them. She's very good with women, but she doesn't like strange men - and that is my brothers fault.

But if you're someone who she's seen more than say five times - you're her best friend. And she doesn't even have to see them consecutively. Like the instructor at the class - she was terrified of at first because she didn't know her. Five weeks later she's trying to jump up and give her kisses and we only saw the instructor once a week for an hour.

Good thing she's not that kind of fearful. When she approaches people, I would ask them not to pet her until she lets them know it's ok.

I know! I'm Thankful everyday she's not that fearful.

I tell them that she's very shy and she'll run if they try to pet her. She's gotten -tons- better about dealing with people. When we first got her she would only respond to me and only let me touch her. It took her a couple weeks to warm up to my father but he spent countless nights laying on the floor with her not touching her but just next to her or around her until she was comfortable with him (he is also her absolute most favorite person ever) and two months to even let my mom touch her.

When she goes up to people she just wants to sniff them but if they move any part of their body - not even necessarily to pet her - she jumps back. That's why I'm thinking that forcing the socialization on her is a bad idea and it could potentially make her worse instead of better.

This reminds me of my moms golden...she's like 7 months now ( I think) and she's so fearful! She crawls down to the floor in a very submissive manner for anything! She's scared of loud noises, cars driving by on walks, other dogs (she's better with that though...she has fun at the doggie park, but if a dog really tries to play hard she just lays down and doesn't move). If you pick her up so grabs to you for dear life. Poor girl. She's a sweetie though...just a scared-y-cat!

My Pyr was a scaredy dog too! Mostly of just loud noises but she absolutely LOVED people. Everyone was her best friend.

Anubis got attacked so many times, about 15 times yet I guess, so I wonder that he still wants to be friends with every dog. Maybe he is just easy going on this or he is naive

Siku has been attacked a few times (nothing serious), but she's such a butt head I think she likes the challenge. I've only seen one dog try to scare Elara and she was totally different. She started crawling with the big dog standing over her growling and she even started to whimper. Poor girl was so afraid. The dog never bit her, but they left right after that happened.

When I use to go to the dog park frequently there was a pack of 3 dogs that were such bully's. The leader dog was a GSD, she had MAJOR guarding issues. I should have realize what a problem this group was going to be upon my first meeting. The first time I met them, The GDS growled and snapped at her owner over a toy, the GSD went after a little dog, and then the owner almost assaulted the little dog's owner who was older and wearing a neck brace.
The GSD typically targeted one dog then the other 2 pack members would jump in and circle them barking.....Frankie was typically her target. The husband always said she's just playing, but 3x Frankie left with puncture wounds. The last time we saw them, the GDS entered the park, Frankie put his nose in the air, got a whiff of her and completely cowarded down into almost a fetal position before she even approached him. I immediately took him out of the park. The GSD owner was informed by some of my friends that I was leaving because of him. When Frankie wasn't in the park, she chose another target so other dog owners weren't happy either. I went back to the park another day and they were there so we didn't enter. The GSD owner approached me and we had a nice conversation about how inappropriate his dogs were for the park. I stopped going to the park after that as he had no intentions on working with his dogs or stopping his park visits and I was not going to subject my dog to that. I believe they still go to the park daily, but I'm sure there has been issues

It's been awhile since I've been back!

Dennis - Anubis sounds a lot like Bella! She loves other dogs - it's like the attacks don't phase her with the dogs - they only affected how she is with people. xD

Sara - Bella's like Elara in that sense. When she saw the German Shepherd coming at her she went right down on her back, tail between her legs and ears back before he even got to her. Oh, screaming up a storm the whole time. I swear people thought she was dying. >.>

It's a shame that had to happen to you and Frankie , I'm sorry that some people are so out there and they ruin things for other people =/.

In other news; It's been three weeks (I think?) roughly since we were last at class. In the time since then - Bella had a nice break of just being a puppy. My family and I attended The National Dog Show in Oak, PA over this weekend. Where I met up with my mentor and met a friend of hers and also met up with a breeder I met at class awhile back. I was offered to handle her friends puppies so I'm trying to get into contact with her!

A couple pictures of two of my mentors dogs:

MBISS GCH CH Snocrest's Leone Di Oro AOM "Vali"


CH North Node's Kotcha Pascal AOM, CD, CGC "Kotchka"

I think Kotch is my favorite dog ever. He's such a ham in the ring!


In other news, I'm gonna go back to class next week with Bella. She had a breakthrough with being examined so I'm gonna see how she does!
And a picture of me trying to stack her tonight I need so much work on it. Yay for not having anyone ever teach me how to properly do it!

Front view:



Side View

looks like "Vali" could be Sierra's twin! glad to hear your getting back into the training, time away can be a good thing for a puppy heading to PA tomorrow!

Be careful! Where abouts in PA?

we talked about this bucks county and warrington we have a packed week ahead of us! just hope the weather clears up

Oh yeah! xD We did! Silly me!

It's raining now until tomorrow. though Turkey day isn't supposed to be bad!