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We got a 3 year old border collie from a rescue charity. Her name is Sweet Pea..
She has a lovely temperament, but she must have been very badly beaten in the past, and becomes terrified at nothing at all.
She seems particularly afaid of men, and therefore of me.
At the start, if I caught doing something wrong I might say a stern, "NO", but then she'd cower, and yelp. When I went to pet her, she'd yelp even more, seeming terrified.
Another time I was taking off my wellies, and it tipped her very slightly- same panic reaction.
Things were going okay for a while. She was behaving very well, and had stopped running off, and was coming back when called. I introduced her to the clicker a few days ago, as I thought more formal trainning might help. She hadn't had a freakout in a long while.
Today, however, she got caught in a poultry fence. She didn't seem to worried about that, at first. When I went to release her, talking gently, and taking her paw to guide it through the fence, she completely freaked out. Worse than ever. Luckily my wife was there to free her, because Sweet Pea wouldn't let me do it at all, and became more tangled.
Now Sweet Pea won't let me touch her. Even when I call her, or say "good girl", she starts yelping. I find it upsetting as I've only ever been nice to her. I hope she'll come around, because otherwise I don't think we'll be able to keep her.
Any tips or advice would be welcome.
She has a lovely temperament, but she must have been very badly beaten in the past, and becomes terrified at nothing at all.
She seems particularly afaid of men, and therefore of me.
At the start, if I caught doing something wrong I might say a stern, "NO", but then she'd cower, and yelp. When I went to pet her, she'd yelp even more, seeming terrified.
Another time I was taking off my wellies, and it tipped her very slightly- same panic reaction.
Things were going okay for a while. She was behaving very well, and had stopped running off, and was coming back when called. I introduced her to the clicker a few days ago, as I thought more formal trainning might help. She hadn't had a freakout in a long while.
Today, however, she got caught in a poultry fence. She didn't seem to worried about that, at first. When I went to release her, talking gently, and taking her paw to guide it through the fence, she completely freaked out. Worse than ever. Luckily my wife was there to free her, because Sweet Pea wouldn't let me do it at all, and became more tangled.
Now Sweet Pea won't let me touch her. Even when I call her, or say "good girl", she starts yelping. I find it upsetting as I've only ever been nice to her. I hope she'll come around, because otherwise I don't think we'll be able to keep her.
Any tips or advice would be welcome.