Building confidence

Sometimes my dog responds more enthusiastically to mellow happy energy rather than excited happy energy.

I stay aware of her calming signals, as well as my own. If she's in a shy mood, I don't get face to face with her, or approach her quickly. But, if she's really warmed up, I will hug and kiss her head.

If your pup likes to "come" after a sit stay, maybe work from there to explore more of his interests: hide and seek, "bring", chase, etc ...

Get him into class right away - being around other dogs, and different people, will bolster his confidence.  After that class, take another!  I don't quit until my dogs are a year old, then I still don't quit - they go to agility class.  The obstacles really are a confidence builder.

Thanks for the responses! Rascal is 3 - he went to puppy classes when he was younger, and was socialized quite a lot, but he's just an inherently timid dog. Classes are not a possibility in my immediate future (next 4 months or so) although I would like to do an intro agility class with him and my BF as I think we'd all learn a lot and have fun.

Right now I think being around too many different dogs/people is making him more fearful than usual. I've had to move him around several times in the last few months and he's had to rapidly adjust to a lot more people than he's used to. Poor little guy hasn't had much of a chance to settle down and feel secure in his environment.

I'll try hide and seek, I bet he'd like that. We also play a variation of "red light, green light" that he enjoys. Ixas, for the calming signals, did you pick up a book or just kind of go with your inuition or a trainer? I've been thinking about getting the one by that Ruudgas (or whatever his name is!) fellow - Rascal seems very sensitive to dog language, so maybe that would help.

Yes, I bought the Turid Rugaas book (a woman!). I like to buy books when I can to support the author, and I do like this author quite a bit! (plus, I'm a book nut with a huge library.) But if you're tight on cash, I'd pass this one up until you can afford to expand your library. Someone recently posted this link regarding the book: http://neholistic.com/articles/0099.htm

Stanley Coren's "How to Speak Dog" has more detailed dog language info, and is easy find used.
I also learned a lot when working Ixa's reactivity with a trainer and other dogs.

I've learned that if I'm soft (calming) with Ixa when she's hard, but rough or playful with her when she's loose, she has opportuinites to both feel secure, and enjoy amped up playtime, too. She has become a much more balanced and stable dog in the 3 months I've had her.

Here's the generalized picture of it with my girl:

Hard Ixa:If Ixa's ears are back and mouth is closed, if I can see the whites of her eyes, or she's yawning/lick lipping a bunch.
I'll use calm soft voice and slow movements. I don't pet her on the head or kiss her face. Instead, I turn my face, eyes and body to the side, not directly towards her face, and I pet her chest calmly. Sometimes I'll lay on the floor next to her and pet her belly, but with my head even with her chest, not her face. Sometimes I won't approach her at all, letting her come to me, or I'll approach her at a curve (from the side). I might do sniffing with her, where I sniff her and encourage her to sniff me. I usually do yawning, lick lipping, or blinking. It helps if I keep my face and eyes open in a big happy face. In this mood, I'll only train stuff she knows really well like sit, stay, shake, speak, and I'll treat a lot. When she starts doing downs, I know she's coming out of it.

Medium Ixa:If Ixa's ears are up and mouth is closed, and I see whites of eyes, or stiffness in her body, or she sighs:
I'll be silly, roughing up the fur of her chest or butt, but I'll turn my head away and still not move to fast. I might do some sniffing, yawning or blinking, too. I might sit on the floor with my back to her and hold still to let her investigate me. I might lay on my back and pat my belly for her to climb up and initiate play. In this mood I train to improve stuff we're already working on (longer crawl, longer stay, the reverse of a spin, etc), and I still treat a fair amount. If I push her too hard she'll blow me off.

Loose Ixa:If Ixa's ears are up and her mouth is smiling with tongue hanging out, eyes are soft or crinkled up, and tail is wagging:
I'll gather her face up to mine, I'll roughouse and play with her feet and tail, wrestling, playbiting her, and kneeling over her. We'll play chase and hide and seek, I'll paw her muzzle, and maybe even start a howling session. This is a great time for training new tricks, or capturing behaviors, or doing really active training like spining, jumping, reliable recall, directional running, and treat lots less (except in the recall). If I push the training too hard, she'll go back to medium mood.

Using calming signals, I can bring her up from hard to loose fairly easily if I need her up for a class or whatever. Anyway, she's rarely in that hard state anymore, unless there are specific stresses.

Weren't you writing about your BF and your dog recently? Is that affecting her moods?

Yeah, BF and Rascal and I were having some relationship issues. But Rascal is actually living with BF's family right now (and apparently doing pretty well there) while the BF and I finish our last semester of college, so they're not together often enough to stress each other out! (Just stress me out, haha.) Though no doubt being bounced around between various households/people is taking its toll on the poor little fluffer. I might look in to a trainer in So Cal to do a few one-on-one sessions if he doesn't start getting better. I really think once I build up his sense of doggie self-esteem and security he'll be significantly less inclined to be snappy/growly. It's just really hard right now when he's not even living with me. [&:]

Aloff, Brenda[font=verdana][size=3], Canine Body Language: A Photographic Guide Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog, 11/2005
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You might also try massage. T-Touch is great but not mandatory. Just focus on Rascal to see what he likes. I've found that it increased a fearful dog's trust in me and was terrific for bonding, as well as being pleasant for both of us.

I think self control helps build confidence.  Doing commands helps build self control.  Put him through commands or small training sessions a couple of times a day.

Sit/stay is a good one.  Work on down/stays also. Any time he is excited about something (such as a walk) get a good sit/or down/ stay.  It helps with focus.

The one thing he seems to really love (inexplicably) is when I put him in a sit-stay, walk away, and then release him and let him run to me. He gets really excited and happy about that, so I try to do it with him often.

So, any ideas for exercises I can do at home that can build up his confidence a bit?

 i have a chiwawa

 i want to *REMOVED BY MODERATOR* in him he always get scared of big Dogs

Hi John --

 I wanted to encourage you to begin a thread of your own -- this is a thread from 2007, and if you have a dog "scared of big dogs" then you probably need to do more than just build confidence (I'm not downplaying that -- building confidence is a BIG deal as well). 

There are a lot of really good trainer-type people on here and I'm sure they will help you.

You may want to start another thread and give some background on your chihuahua -- how old the dog is, how long you've had the dog, is it spayed/neutered (yes, that makes a difference) and training efforts you've already made toward trying to desensitize your dog to larger dogs. 

Also -- be aware.  Much of the behavior of a dog -- particularly a tiny dog -- can be in your own body language when you are approached by other dogs and people.  If you pick the dog up immediately because you are afraid your dog "will be afraid" you are reinforcing your own dog's fear -- they sort of think you're saying "let me protect you from that nasty big dog!" -- altho you are simply trying to prevent fear.

Good luck -- I know you will have folks who will help you here. 

To answer your question directly -- I have always found the BEST beginning to building confidence is obedience classes.  You may need to begin with a behaviorist (depending on how fearful your dog is) but a good obedience class where you can have controlled situations where your dog can take time to GET comfortable with some larger dogs can be really helpful.  It's a good first step.

 thanks alliecritturs for this i'm going to start new thread hope that would help

John -- look at the things I told you to tell them in my post above -- you need to give them more information.  Your problem is deeper than JUST building confidence.