Showing Fearful Behavior

[WELOVESPUPPIES]

Chopper is now 16 months old. The only problem with having strangers give him treats is it will probably only work at home, as most times he will not eat a treat in a public place even from me. I guess will need to find something that he absolutely cannot resist and save it as the "special cookie" he receives from strangers only.

So if he backs away from people, with or w/o a treat, do I just walk away? I always felt that might teach him that if he acts scared I will remove him from the situation therefore making him think this behavior is okay. I always ignore his behavior, I never tell him it is okay or anything like that. No offence to any chi owners on here and I definitely hate steriotyping dogs because of their breed but that is how I feel people look at Chopper, like oh....typical chihuahua only likes his owner

Thanks everyone.

[Pam]

AWWW Chopper please don't be afraid of people. There is not a person on the planet that could ever resist your cuteness. We are all drawn to you like big ole magnets. Maybe he has been reading these threads and is fearful that Terry and I are coming to get him.

Seriously, I don't mean to make light of this Traci, because I know you are concerned. I think there is probably lots of truth to what Giselle says. That sounds like good advice to me. Interestingly, my dogs won't take treats from anyone out in public either.

[Cinder & Smoke]

Hopefully Chopper will quickly outgrow his fear of "strangers".

Not everyone knows it, but my Smokey arrived as a throw-away on our front porch
as an Abused Child with an irrational fear of all MEN - myself included.

Within a week, he had a short list of men-friends: Me, Unka Pat, and Doc Mike - end of list!
After a month, Fireman Donny and Pet Talker Mr. Ralph were added ...
and ever other of the male humans was to be feared and avoided.

It took over a year for Smokey to become trusting of "strange" men ...
and by age 3 he rarely showed any fear of strangers.
Let's hope Chopper warms up a little faster.