# Nervous Vizsla



## frankie2010 (Jan 8, 2012)

My Vizsla Frankie is wonderful, loving and loyal....But she has problems welcoming new people into the home, especially men! She has never been abused by a man as I have had her from being 8 weeks old...I don't think that she is aggressive, she just doesnt trust them, she barks, growls and on rare occasions has shown her teeth....Has anyone any tips?? I just want her to be happy and realise that no one is going to hurt her... If anyone replies thank you for your time...


----------



## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

Strangers have to equal positive. What is more positive to a dog than GREAT treats.

Have treats at the ready. Put Frankie in a sit. Have the person come in with treats in the hand and stand there with treat in hand. Make sure Frankie can smell and see it. Ask the "stranger" to stand still and not move. Frankie should move forward and take GREAT treat.

Then* you * love her up and GREAT treat. Wait until tail is wagging. Then ask stranger to take a few steps.. WATCH tail. If it drops have the "stranger" stop and open hand with another GREAT treat.

We are not talking kibble. We are talking liver, salmon, cooked chicken.

This may take weeks. It may take more time. The effort is worth it.

Good luck would be good but hard work and a plan is better. :

RBD


----------



## threefsh (Apr 25, 2011)

Give all the men coming into your house little bits of hotdogs to toss at her & tell them not to make eye contact. She will quickly learn that strange men = delicious hotdogs!


----------



## jjohnson (Nov 9, 2011)

We have a similar problem with our 10 mo old (you can see my other posts about it). He hates any strangers coming into our house. We have worked with a behaviorist, who basically told us to do what RBD said. Lots of REALLY good treats! Our dog in particular is SO nervous, that he either could care less about a T-Bone steak if a stranger is holding it, or he will get too close and then gets freaked out and is more prone to snapping. 

We kind of invented our own solution: when a strangger comes over (as long as we know ahead of time) we put our puppy in his crate. Then once the stranger has been in the house a few minutes, and the puppy has kind of settled down in his crate, we have the stranger let him out. We have actually had a lot of success with this, as he seems to warm up to people MUCH faster this way since we avoid the "scary" stranger-through-the-front-door scenario! ( He is also very appreciative of ANYBODY who frees him from "jail") We then proceed with the treats! Just an idea that I THINK is starting to work for us!


----------

