My 13 week old doberman pinscher puppy is very afraid of people and dogs. Whenever he sees a person within a 2 metre radius of him, he starts barking and growling. He is not aggressive at all, he is just scared, but I don't want him to resort to aggression due to fear. Due to COVID, we can't take him out to meet several people. We have been trying to curb our puppy's fear by getting people to give him treats, and so far he has responded well to that. I just don't know if I am doing enough. I have also spent time with him on our driveway (he isn't fully vaccinated yet) so he can see people walking by and just feeding him treats and praising him like crazy every time he sees a human and doesn't bark/growl. So far I think it has been working, but I'm not entirely sure. He still tenses up every time he sees someone, but he doesn't bark as often. People are already scared of him because of his breed, which is crazy since he is still a baby and his ears are natural. I don't want to add to the stereotype of dobermans being mean and aggressive. He is very sweet with me and my family, but he is very scared of strangers. Am I doing the right thing? Should we be doing more to get him used to people?
The other issue is his fear of dogs. We took him to doggy daycare to do a temperament assessment, and while he eventually warmed up to the humans at the centre, he was INCREDIBLY submissive and fearful of the other dogs. The woman who handled him while he was assessed said that each time a dog came up to him, he "crumpled" on the ground and didn't move. No growling or barking, but intense submission and fear. He whined a bit as well. The dogs that she introduced to him were very non-reactive and didn't really care much for him, and he still reacted in this way. They were also of all different sizes, so he wasn't intimidated by that. I am worried, because he is in the "fear period" stage of puppyhood and I don't want to scar him mentally in any way by him being too scared. I am continuing the daycare sessions, but he only stays for about 30 min and he is introduced to each dog one at a time. So far, he has reacted in the exact same way each time. I wanted to get him associated with dogs a lot earlier, but unfortunately we don't know many people with dogs that are unreactive, friendly, vaccinated, or well-behaved. I hope the lack of socialization won't harm him long-term. Do any of you have ideas for how I can get my puppy to like dogs, and to get him socialized? And does he still have a chance of becoming a dog that likes other dogs and humans even though he acts in this way now?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/hzsy9o/doberman_pinscher_socialization_help/
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