# Skittish



## cwalsh72 (May 26, 2010)

My year and a half old havanese has started to act skittish at timesbwhen we go near him. Has this happened with anyone else? What causes it?


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

cwalsh72 said:


> My year and a half old havanese has started to act skittish at timesbwhen we go near him. Has this happened with anyone else? What causes it?


need much more info.


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Sometimes Rosie acts afraid of me and will try to sneak off. I always can say stop in a stern voice and then pick her up--then she is fine. I don't know what gets into her. I know she doesn't like to ride in the car, but this morning it was because I was going to dry off her feet from the morning dew. Go figure.


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## cwalsh72 (May 26, 2010)

It's so strange because derby is afraid of nothing, and is actually very spoiled. He won't cuddle but wants to lie right at your feet or next to you.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

I wouldn't even hazard a guess, without knowing more.


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## cwalsh72 (May 26, 2010)

Thanks so much, I don't know what more information people need to know.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Where does this happen. Are you approaching directly in a straight line. Is he with food ,bone toy. Is he resting .What time of day. Are you looking directly at him. Has anything scared him lately. Is it with everyone or just certain members of the family. If you don't look at him or walk directly towards him ,does he react. What is his exact reaction. These sort of things might help.


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## JMGracie (Mar 30, 2011)

Gracie gets like this a lot, it actually bugs me and I want to train her out of it.

I think it's a combination of two things: (a) she'd rather have control over where she goes and therefore doesn't always want to be picked up, and (b) her favorite game in the world is "chase".

I don't keep a harness on her all the time because of matting and other things, so I have to put it on her before we can go on a walk. She loves walks, she loves going out and tracking, and running, and meeting other dogs. In the past she's even gone over to where the harness is and whined at it when she wants to go out. But as soon as I pick up the harness, she won't let me get near her. She knows exactly where to run so that I can't get her. Eventually I finally corral her up on the couch or something, and then she just stands there perfectly still as I put the harness on. And once it's on she immediately runs to the door and stands perfectly still as I hook the lead to the harness. It's so bizarre.

And there's other times where I'll just want to reach down and pet her or something, and she backs away and won't let me get close. It isn't all the time, but sometimes she just gets like this and I'm very confused.

The "chase" game is probably a lot of what's to blame. From an early age, I've tried to wear her out by chasing her around the house, back and forth. And she loves it. I just wonder if sometimes she doesn't know when we're playing and when we aren't.

I think I'm going to try and teach her some sort of command, I'm not sure what, that means "no, really, daddy needs to pick you up right now".


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

ummmm, ya playing chase probably isn't the best idea... you want them to WANT to come to you, not to RUN from you!!! Play fetch or 'hide and go seek' or something else!!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

I agree with Tammy about the chase... bad idea. she may KIND OF think it's fun, but I bet she's a LITTLE afraid too, so it's causing her to feel conflicted about coming toward you. As far as the harness is concerned, what kind of harness is it? When Kodi was a little puppy, he started to get really resistant to his over-the-head harness. I replaced it with a step-in type, and he was fine.

I wouldn't chase her for anything, period. If you want to take her for a walk, go get her first, (giving her lots of tiny treats and tons of praise for letting you pick her up. THEN (while holding her) go get the harness and put it on. Again, give her treats and praise. 

Make coming to you (or at least not running away!) the MOST fun thing in her life, and don't encourage the chase game by just refusing to go after her.


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## JMGracie (Mar 30, 2011)

Yeah, those are both good suggestions. And I'm not sure it's completely related to the original post.

As far as chase... I guess it's hard to explain, but I know she enjoys it. And it's not one-sided. Like I will chase after her one way across a room and then turn around and run the other way and she'll come running after me. And when I'm chasing her, I never grab her or anything. I actually started this after I saw her doing it with other dogs. She would go up to other dogs and bait them into chasing her, and then she would run away until they stopped and she would immediately turn around and come back for more, tongue hanging out and tail wagging.

But I suppose it is pretty bad conditioning to ever have her want to run away from me, even if it's a game.

Her harness is a step in. I tried the over the head ones, and yeah she definitely didn't like that. And I pretty much do what you say, give treats to pick her up and then put it on. Really, I don't think she has any aversion to the harness itself. She doesn't care once it's on her, or even as I'm putting it on her. It's just the process of getting to her to put it on her that's the hard part.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

JMGracie said:


> Yeah, those are both good suggestions. And I'm not sure it's completely related to the original post.
> 
> As far as chase... I guess it's hard to explain, but I know she enjoys it. And it's not one-sided. Like I will chase after her one way across a room and then turn around and run the other way and she'll come running after me. And when I'm chasing her, I never grab her or anything. I actually started this after I saw her doing it with other dogs. She would go up to other dogs and bait them into chasing her, and then she would run away until they stopped and she would immediately turn around and come back for more, tongue hanging out and tail wagging.
> 
> ...


I'm sure you're right that she's having fun in your chase game, but you are setting yourself up for an epic fail when it comes to recalls. You are teaching her that it's more fun to run from you than to COME to you.

Have you done any clicker training with her? If not, you might want to take a few lessons to learn how. Then use clicker training to teach her to do hand targeting. Basically, wherever you put your hand, she is supposed to come and touch your hand with her nose, at which point you click and then give her a reward (treat). Eventually, the hand targeting itself becomes rewarding enough to the dog in and of itself that IT can be used as a reward for other training. It's GREAT for if you need to get your dog's attention in a crowded area or a busy situation where you think they might NOT respond to a recall. With a dog that has been trained to hand target, when you put your hand out and say "Touch!" they typically make a bee-line for you, happy as a clam.

Another thing that's important to work on is "collar grabs". Some dogs get skittish of getting near enough for someone to grab their collar and "catch" them. So instead, you grab their collar, give them a treat and release them over and over again. In the beginning you have to do it dozens of times with the release for every time that you catch them and hold them. If you have a long haired dog who doesn't regularly wear a collar (Kodi doesn't) you can do the same thing by grabbing a chunk of hair on the back of their neck... not hard enough to hurt or startle them, but just enough that you lightly restrain them while you feed them the treat.


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## JMGracie (Mar 30, 2011)

No, I haven't done clicker training. I've done a puppy kindergarten where we learned "touch", but not with a clicker. We're going back to a basic obedience class really soon, and probably a basic 2 right after. I'll have to work on her recalls.

Thanks for the suggestions. It's definitely got me thinking a lot more.


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