As mentioned many dogs are sensitive to change and to their peoples moods.

And yes she can change, it won't happen overnight, it requires patience, commitment love and understanding and acceptance on your part.

Read the last poem on this page http://www.angelbluemist.com/rescueme.html

There is a lot of truth in those words, the past does not matter, but you do have to earn their love and trust and the love a shy dogs gives in return is more precious than gold.

I learned that when I adopted a senior greyhound who was also a spook, I only had her for 18 months but in that 18 months a deep bond formed and she became my heart dog, and on the day she passed away I made a vow to her that I woud adopt another spook.

My next was Maya even spookier than Callie and very submissive as well, I have had her for almost 2 years, she will still need several years to blossom fully but she has come a long way from the day I got her where it took me 5 hours to catch her in my yard in the middle of winter to get her back inside were she stood hugging the wall ready to run if I so much as looked at her, now she lets me touch her most of the time without trying to bolt, will cuddle with me when I go to sleep, loves to play run with me and will pounce on me and bark at me to wake up and bark to tell me she is hungry, she is slowly accepting that some of the neighbours outside are not scary and it standing to watch them rather than having a panic attack and trying to flee.

In my dogs I know enough about their backgrounds to know the spookiness is genetically based, because of careful recording of pedigrees and records over a couple hundred years inheritable traits can be tracked, lot of the newer theories today regarding dogs in general are starting to believe the shyness is heritable but hard to prove without good recording and tracking of dogs

Callie aka Cbar Gena is related (note top right of page) to Westy Whizzer a hall of fame greyhound who was also well known as a spook, he was eventually retired from stud service because many of the pups were so fearful they were extremely hard to handle and many not able to cope with track life, if you click on his name, on the bottom center is the name Handy Nebo, she has become famous in her own right as many of the spooks born today point back to her http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?z=o1oqbE&d=cbar+gena
I have contacted the adopter of Callie's littermate Cbar Sarah and she was absolutely the opposite of Callie and yet these 2 had been raised together from puppyhood and stay together with the same owners and trainers right up till racing retirement.
If you look at Maya's pedigree she is related to Handy Nebo both on her sires and dams side through Chick's Donna and Way ofthe Dragon

http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?z=YKWMIL&d=leonor+chick

Though this article is written about the care and handling of shy and spooky greyhounds the advise can apply to any breed.
http://www.greyhoundlist.org/spooky_greys.htm

Here is another good article with ideal ways to make your look less dominating

http://web.utk.edu/~jjohns56/shawnapages/shytips.htm

Other things that can hlep
when you need to walk to your dog don't want head on but walk in a curve toward their should, don't put your hand ontop of the dogs head , start around the should scratching gentle up the side of the neck bringing your hand slowly forward till the side of the face and stroke gently, learn to look at your dogs shoulder rather than in their eyes.

Try not to lean over your dog but squat keeping your back straight
If you need to verbally correct no loud harsh voices just a firm gentle voice.


Games are a great way to help build confidence and help forget their fears
Try to coax the dog into playing by running away , turning away as they get near you, if the dog enjoys tug of war, let them win most of the time, but not all(this should only apply to shy submissive dogs that need their confidence built up, for other dogs especially dominant confident dogs you should win all games, so they respect you as leader of the pack) throw a ball and pretend to run and get it and let him of her get to it first.