Originally posted by Twisterdog
Well, personally, I think dogs should be forced to do only the tramatic things that they absolutely have to do.

All my dogs have to go to the vet, so I force them all to get aclimated to that. I take the scared ones with me whenever I have to take another one to the vet, just to make them go. I have some dogs, though, that would prefer never to leave the house. They are very timid, and just want to stay home in their same old routine. Ok, fine with me. As long as they can handle going to the vet, I'm not going to force them to go the the store or the park or to my friend's house. Why do it? It's not worth it if it's not crucial.

You could spend a lot of time and effort acclimating your dog to be ok with going to Petsmart, if that's what you want to do. If it's important to you that she go there well, then, by all means, work with her. But, if it really doesn't matter that much to you, I'd say let her be.

Same with big dogs. You could spend a lot of time, effort and frustration getting her to get along with a particular big dog. It might work fine. But she might not get along with the next big dog she meets, or the one after that. If it is important to you that she get along with one particular large dog, then, by all mean, work with her. But, she's probably never going to completely overcome it.

I think, having rescued and fostered umpteen dozens of dogs over the years, that I have learned a little about quirky dog behavior. We will never know everything our rescued dogs went through. We will never "fix" them completely. It is our responsilbity to discover their fears, phobias and quirk, and work through the ones we can easily help them overcome. The very complex, deeply rooted ones that just 'stick' ... well, I think our responsibility there lies in creating a safe environment for our dog, given those fears. If a dog is afraid of and bites children, it is our responsibility to keep children away from the dog, and the dog away from children. We can't expect to 'fix' the problem, we can only control the environment.
She’s actually ok once we’re in Petsmart. It’s mostly the ride to Petsmart, or the ride to the vet or where ever. It’s the riding mainly that’s traumatic. She can become acclimated to large dogs, of that I’m sure. She has overcome SO many fears since she came to us nearly a year ago. She’s an amazing little trooper.

Francisco’s going to work with us and help get her comfortable in the car and around large dogs. We’ll be “in training” for several weekends with him and his dogs and a few others from the training center of varying sizes. He fully believes that she will overcome this quickly. The only thing we haven’t been able to stop is her jumping when we come home. We’ve all three given up on that one. She ain’t budging on it a bit and we’ve tried everything known to man.