Crates

Grace spends a lot of time in her crate. She doesn't need to, since the door is usually open when I am at home. But, she feels safe there, so I am not going to force her to be anywhere else right now. In the future, we will work on getting her used to being in the rest of the house. For right now, I am happy that she peers out at me looking for a treat.

If she is peering out at me, then she is starting to overcome some of her fear!

One thing to remember with a shy dog is that they are going to need a lot of time and patience to become part of the family. Grace has spent the majority of her life in a kennel. She probably never saw stairs or children or cats or toys or cars or strangers or any of the things that our normal dogs saw, heard and experienced growing up. We actually take this for granted and don't realize how well adjusted our normal dogs are until we get a shy dog.

We have to introduce these new things to our shy dogs - slowly and methodically. And, we have to accept the dog we have adopted, not the perfect dog in our imaginations. Once we realize both of these things, we can begin helping our shy dog. So, if you have a shy dog and it spends a lot of time in its crate, that's OK. Grace does too, right now. But she won't forever because I will help her get over her fears.