How to build confidence in a rescue dog?

One way to help a dog feel more confident is to use repeated exposure to the scary thing so that it becomes less novel and more routine, this is called desensitization. You must be careful, though, not to overwhelm the dog because this can create insecurity or fear of a person, place, or thing. If you want to get your dog comfortable with, say, going to a popular park, first bring them to a quiet corner of the park and allow them to see and hear other people and dogs from a safe distance. Observe their body language closely to get clues about how they're feeling. Over many short sessions, you can move incrementally closer to the busy walkways and more crowded areas, always watching the dog for signs of discomfort. If your dog seems overwhelmed, you’ll need to figure out a way to decrease the stimulus to the point where it’s not scary to your dog, and then move on from there. Proceed at whatever pace your dog appears to feel safe. You can enhance the desensitization sessions by adding really yummy treats, called counter-conditioning, this technique involves the animal experiencing a very tolerable exposure to a stimulus, followed by a delicious treat. To build your dog’s confidence in a more general way, provide them with enrichment activities and relationship-based training, simply feeding your dog via food puzzles and getting them involved in nose work can make them more confident. Training your dog using positive reinforcement teaches them that making decisions and engaging with you and the environment earns them good things like treats and praise.

Recognising your own dog’s temperament and how they approach new situations, can help you understand how they are likely to respond - and how best to manage those situations and work to build your dog’s confidence. Introverts will be quite content, but they are happy to hold back and work out what a situation might be about first. Create a secure attachment From the very first moment you bring your puppy or dog home, you need to work on the relationship between you so that you are the person your dog knows they can trust and rely on. They need to be so secure in their attachment to you that they look at you to see how to behave so you will give them confidence in any given situation. Never put them in situations that are scary or that make them worried or anxious. Reward based training One of the best ways to build confidence is to succeed. By teaching your puppy (or dog) life skills and training exercises, using rewards when they get it right, not only are you teaching them how to behave but you are building confidence. Lack of early socialisation – It’s important that dogs be positively exposed to a variety of people and experiences between 3 to 14 weeks of age. This enables them to build a ‘database’ of what their new life holds and what is ‘normal’. This will help build their confidence gradually and put them on the path to becoming well-adjusted adults. Socialisation

You can learn how to use this positive dog training method to build up a scared dogs confidence. Helping a anxious dog is best accomplished in small incremental steps. Too big of a step can cause the dog to regress when helping a dog who came from an abusive background. Just like humans, dogs get a boost of self esteem when they master new skills. By giving attention within 3 seconds any time Stella does a desired action while marking it with the command word, the guardian can help her increase her confidence and start offering desired behaviors. Id love for the guardian to teach Stella a new trick or command a week until she knows 10 or more. Bringing in new people who join or take the dog for walks will be a powerful part of her transition from fearful dog to a confident one. If these people give her space, don’t try to engage and stick to walking at first, the variety and practice can help this fearful rescue dog gain confidence in herself and humans.