I think most people agree that there are many dogs with different mentalities. My personal experience is mostly with dogs that have very good self-confidence, high thoughts about themselves, who love life and take it seriously without thinking about possible consequences.
During those years I had my own dog, and spent time with other people's dogs, I have only met one really careful dog. One of my former day dogs was extremely cautious at first due to his background. But despite her caution, I still thought it was quite clear that she was capable of more than expected – and she did, with the right support.
Now I have contact with a completely different dog, which in many ways reminds me of my former day dog. They are two completely different dogs, are/were cautious and shy for completely different reasons, but still have a lot in common.
Such a thing is what at least I personally think they can handle. My personal opinion is that they can handle much more than their people think, if you only support with security and stability. What matters, however, is a solid fingertip feel and the ability to read how much you can push, when you need to back off and let the dog take its time, and when you can start pushing again.
The dog I have contact with right now coming not to become a day dog, but he will stay with us for a few days at the end of August when his human is going away. We have met several times already and will meet several more times before the time is right, to let the dog get used to me above all. It is a very young dog – he will be about eight months old when he will be with us.
It feels a little a bit shy to write about a breed I have very little experience with (although one of my day dogs is actually from the same breeder), but I take the liberty of doing it anyway.
The dog in question is a mix between Shiloh German Shepherd and Wolfdog. Don't know what the percentage of wolf in him looks like, but considering how shy he is and how much flight behavior he has, so I guess that it is a relatively large percentage of wolves. More in him than in my day dog, is my suspicion.
I have no any personal experience with Wolfdogs. I have never met a pure Wolfdog, nor is it a race I would choose to have. Now I am in and of itself extremely fond of the day dog with the same breeds in it, but I don't know how big a part Wolfdog is in her either.
However, I have spent a lot of time mainly watching Youtube channels dealing with Wolfdogs – particularly Animal Watch, where the woman who runs the channel (whose name, by the way, is Anneka Svenska) I have several myself, and also spends a lot of time on wolf rescue (how the hell do you translate that in a way that makes sense?). The little me “able to” I learned about Wolfdogs there, and that is partly what I will use when this dog is with us.
Very briefly it is about; I will not engage in forcing myself on this dog to say hi, pat or something else, on the other hand, I will sprinkle dog treats around me and thus attract contact (we have already done that, and it works), and I will offer him a safe and stable framework in which we work together, and a safe and stable support in new, unknown and scary situations (which seems to be all he hasn't experienced yet).
I have a huge advantage in all this.
I have Boyo.
Boyo is one absolutely fantastic dog to have as a support and guide for dogs of the more insecure and cautious kind. You can say a lot about my dog, but he is very open and forward, he loves everything and everyone, he is curious and happy, he goes about it without particularly thinking about possible consequences, he kind of just assumes that everything is in his favor. And he really is absolutely amazing at showing other dogs how life works for him. He is soooo good in that way, my dog.
But I thought that I would take and gossip (and brag a little) about what we have managed to achieve in the few times we have met so far. This young dog and Boyo got along right from the start. I think Boyo sees the little guy as a little brother, and little brother definitely sees Boyo as a super cool big brother.
I have lost the count of how many times we have seen each other so far, but three key events have occurred, two of which are gigantic in my eyes.
We have gone a couple of short walks together. It may sound a bit ridiculous, but in the same way that Boyo is super mommy, so is this dog. Add the timidity towards people other than his own, then it will be quite large. Then he is above going my way – he will learn that.
His mother uses a car, so he has never climbed stairs. A week or so ago we tested a super short small staircase outdoors – and it was super scary, he thought. But with support (and very few requirements) from both me and Boyo, he made his way down and up maybe three steps, many times over. No matter how good.
Yesterday they were here again, and we borrowed this dog with us to train stairs in the stairwell. It was the first time he was in our stairwell, and just walking in through the gate was a bit scary. Men come in, and after some general begging, he made his way up to the third floor where I live – and down again. So damn super talented.
But the coolest thing of everything happened after yesterday's stair training. When we went out again and waited for his mother to come back, then he came and pressed himself against my leg and I had to hug him properly. He who has sort of run away as far as the leash goes if I got too close before. Then of course it must be admitted that as soon as his mother reappeared, I didn't last anymore. 😀 But just the fact that he sought support and security made my heart melt.
It will be incredibly interesting to see how this goes. I hope that the days he will be with us will be enough for Boyo to exert enough influence on this dog, to bring some kind of lasting change. Hopefully we can support him enough to overcome a little of his insecurity, but that remains to be seen.
.. and it should also be excited to see just how tired Boyo will be after that week. The week before, one of our day dogs comes back after his long holiday, and she is here every two weeks. He gets super tired just from that, so it will be a long three weeks before he gets a proper rest, the poor thing. 😀