Scaredy cat (well dog actually) -training advice please!

[claire1976]

Sorry - a bit of a long post, bear with me!
I have a lovely ridgeback x bullmastiff bitch, she is now approx 1 year old. She was properly socialised as a youngster and experienced as much as possible in a positive way. Approx 4/5 months ago she suddenly became very nervous of people she doesn't know. I have been trying to expose her to people as much as possible and allowing her treats when she hasn't over-reacted. However, I'm at a standstill now, if anyone approaches her she goes into meltdown and back away with her tail between her legs

. If she is off the lead she scarpers away from people. With other dogs and children she is fine, just adults and I cannot think of a single situation she has been in where she has had a bad experience which could have triggered it off.

This behaviour is really her only problem, she is loving and gentle round my son, great with other dogs, has excellent recall, doesn't chase cats or small animals, walks beautifully to heel and is a real pleasure to own. But this scaredy behaviour means she is missing out on coming more places with me.
Every day she has been walking down to school with me and see's lots of people at a distance,but this hasn't helped. The bizarre thing is that she really wants to come with me and gets so excited, obviously the scaredy bit doesn't stick in her mind enough to not want to go.
Now I want to make it clear - I am not an inexperienced dog owner, I've had dogs all my life, attended numerous classes and weekend training events, I have 3 other dogs who are all fine. I've even helped people train their unruly dogs! I'm just stuck with this one!
My other dogs are very people friendly and I thought that might rub off on her but no!
A friend of mine is a dog trainer and she has suggested I now try 'flooding' - basically take her to a much busier place, armed with treats and make her face her fear. I have this option this weekend as we're going to a car show. I don't want to make her worse but I'm running out of options.
If anyone has any advice or experiece I'd be grateful, thanks for reading and sorry it's so long!

 

[CAYLA]

Where have u been missus...u been gone about 10 year or summit

We get alot of rescues in like this, the key is not to make a big deal, don't let people approach her, let her approach when she is good and ready even if she chooses to stay at a safe distance it's her becoming calm thats the key, becoming confident enough to stay calm, ignoring them more often than not makes them more inquisitive, if people want to give her treats, allow them to keep to a non threatening distance and simply throw her one on the floor, no eye contact or speaking to her, sometimes it's best to lower yourself to make yourself less threatening, I literally just go on my knees and make a huge fuss of the other dogs and give no eye contact or attention to the semi feral one

I agree with the trainer, take her to the most busy places, in the situation she scarpers, put her on her lead, don't let anyone approach her but still it's facing her to calm down and deal with the situation rather than flee.
Get people to make a huge fuss of your other dogs in her presene.

 

[claire1976]

Thanks Cala - I knew you'd be along 1st with the advice. Yeah I've been off here for ages, it was starting to consume so much time but here I am again - it's such a useful place for advice that I can't keep away forever!
I'll try what you've said then and take her to the show. What should I do if someone approaches her and she melts down? Do I ignore her or try and get the person to offer a biscuit? I'm conscious of not rewarding her for being scared.
She will approach people if they are no looking at her, she'll sniff them from behind but the minute they turn around or try and talk to her she panics and thrashes around on the lead like a fish on a hook trying to get away from them!

 

[CAYLA]

I would tell them she is a little nervy when approached and hand them a treat to gently throw down to her but ask them not to stroke because u don't want her rearing up and bucking around, if someone catches u off guard don't speak or reassure her, but do check her gently, with a quick pull on her lead and tell her sit in a firm voice, then leave it at that, just so she knows when the situation occurs she will get not help from u, and offer them your other dogs to stroke so she can see no harm is intended, sometimes people forcing themselves on dogs lacking in confidence can knock them back ten paces.
The aim is to get her to be calm in the presence of strangers but not neccesarily to be stroked by them unless she chooses to go to them, that bit will take a while.

 

[claire1976]

Thanks Cala, good advice and I will try this out on Sunday. Walking back from school today I was talking to one of the other mums and the path was quite narrow. I got Keela to walk between us on a shortish lead and at first she was quite worried and kept looking up at my friend but we carried on chatting and ignoring her and eventually she settled nicely so I'm sure she'll get used to people eventually.
The show is an ideal place as I think generally people will be too busy to pay any attention to her so hopefully she'll face her fears!
I will let you know next week how we get on.