This is going to be a long post, sorry in advance!
TLDR; my 5 year old blue heeler mix is scared of absolutely anything and everything all the time, how can I help her be more confident and happy?
I want to start off by saying that I don’t have the money for a dog trainer, so I’m hoping for helpful tips from anyone!
I have a 5 year old blue heeler mix that I got when she was a puppy at 7 weeks old. Numerous people have asked me if she was abused because of how nervous, anxious, and timid she is (she wasn’t abused). After I got her and she got older and I realized she was mostly blue heeler (because she was sold to me as a mutt for $20 on craigslist) I researched the breed and read that blue heelers are a nervous breed, but I don’t think it’s normal for her to be THIS scared of everything.
She’s scared of children, adults, men, women. When I stranger walks in, she barks and won’t stop or come within 10 feet of them. When we’re on a walk and we pass by someone she keeps a 10 foot radius away from them, and if they try to pet her she tries to run away (but can’t if she’s on a leash). Even at home she’s always nervous. If I’m sitting on the couch and she’s laying by my feet (or even near my feet) and I stand up, she JUMPS up and runs a few feet away as if she’s scared I’m going to step on her. If I’m laying in bed and she’s laying next to me, if I move even and inch she JUMPS off the bed as if I’m about to get out of bed. If I make direct eye contact with her, she cowers with her tail between her legs and her ears pressed against her head while looking at me out of the corner of her eyes. Whenever she walks up to me she’s usually wagging her tail while it’s between her legs and her ears pressed against her head. She only recently stopped submissive peeing all the time (which I never scolded her for). I let her jump up on me in order to pet her, because if you reach down to pet her she cowers and sometimes submissive pees.
I don’t know why she’s like this. She wasn’t abused. I’ve hardly even raised my voice at her. I always pet her and talk to her gently. The only time I see her happy is when I get home from work, when she gets super excited and jumps up on me to say hi, but that only last about 5-10 minutes before she goes back to being nervous and anxious. She’s also very happy when we’re on a walk.
Does anyone know why she might be like this? I just feel like she’s not living a happy life and I want to do whatever I can to make her happy and less anxious!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/d97n2e/how_can_i_help_my_dog_be_more_confident_less/
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