Shy dog

[High hounda]

HELLO ALL
I am working with two female clover breed walker hounds with good pedigrees and ran into a problem. One of the hounds is outgoing easy to train willing to learn and listens very well. But the other Hound is very shy and does not want to listen. Both of the hounds are about four months old and I have had them for about 2 months. I have read Walk with Wick volume 1 and know what John feels about shy hounds. I am new to the sport and this is my first set of hounds I am raising for big game Bobcat and Mountain Lion hunting. So I guess my question is is 4 months too early to give up on a shy Hound or should I give her more time. Any help on this subject would be great. Thank you

[pegleg]

Shyness as John seemed to evaluate it is rare in well raised pups. Its what I term coyote acting.if that's the case it's a choice you have to make whether to accept it as it is or not. Now being new and evaluating the pup from that perspective I would recommend giving her more handling and time all dogs go through a awkward stage. . but if you want sound advice you will have to be more detailed in how you raise and handle the dog and how she's acting and responding in specific instances. Also questioning the breeder or others that own closely related hounds is most likely to be more accurate then we can be on diagnosing the true issue or extent of shyness.

[High hounda]

Thank you for such a quick response. This pup has been inside the house with me and the wife we have been working with both pups to get them used to being tied outside and kennel them inside at night. They get a lot of human contact5 all day and only about ten minutes of obedient training a day. On weekends they walk on and off leash and do it well. I live in the rocky mountains and have plenty of room to exercise the pups. The shy pup seams to want to do things her way and dose not take to obedient commands like sit stay and heel. Her sister will do all three and wants to keep learning more. Thank you again for your help.

[Jeff Eberle]

Give more examples of what makes you label her shy. How do they interact with each other. Do you single them out when working with them, What do you do when she doesn't do what your asking. From what I'm reading in your post all I'm hearing is independent & hard headed

[High hounda]

They play together well and she dose come when called. They are separated when being trained. And when she dose not do as told I try to persuade her with treats with no luck. I think you hit her personality better with hard headed and independent.

[david]

If the dog is shy, check out this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=44944&p=255759&hilit=Shy#p255759

If the dog is hard headed, it is a whole different topic. You will need to decide how long you want to let the puppy be a puppy, and you need to avoid giving it ANY commands during that period. If you want to use a non-commital "come here sweetie, if you feel like it and aren't too busy right now" suggestion, then go ahead with it, but you need to save the hard and fast COMMAND to COME for when we are ready to get serious.

Then when that puppy period is over, you need to NEVER give a command you are not willing and able to enforce. Start out with a check cord, and once the dog fully understands the meaning of the command to come, re-inforce the check cord with electric stimulation. Keep the three feet or so around your body as the safe zone where the dog is never in trouble. When you give the command to come, the dog MUST get to the safe zone NOW. No exceptions.

if you will ABSOLUTELY do that one thing with your hard headed hunting hound, everything else will fall into place.

Don't teach it a bunch of stuff you don't need her to do right now. Don't teach anything you are not willing and able to enforce EVERY TIME you give the command.

[High hounda]

This was all great info and thank all for the help and advice. I will let all know how it goes with the training at the end of a year when pups mature more. Thanks again.

[High hounda]

This is a update on the shy dog. She changed her personality two times during the year she was being trained. We have ran two lion tracks and treeed one on the last hunt. Both my dogs are extremely cat crazy and I look forward to the rest of the season. The dog that I almost gave up on for her shyness is know my best dog with a great nose. She is not shy no more and it just took her some time to come around. Both my hounds are some what man shy but they do warm up to new people after a day or so. The thing that I learned is that a pup will change its personally one two or three times in the first year. You just have to be patient and see what the outcome will be. Thanks again for the great info.

Andrew Garcia.