Shy, nervous and anxious dogs can display a variety of symptoms including reactivity, separation related behaviours, hiding, backing away from new things. They may show a dislike to an ornament on someone's garden, a child coming into the room, a visitor or a dog it's passing in the street. There are many potential causes of a dog lacking confidence, from genetics, through how socialisation happened, to a trauma experienced. Whatever the cause it's not a nice way to live for the dog and it's going to affect you too.

How do you help dogs build their confidence and feel more comfortable in different situations?

Having a firm grounding in applied canine behaviour analysis I am able to observe, listen and ask the right questions to help you see if your dog is struggling through a lack of confidence. By supporting your dog through a choice of interventions confidence can be improved, whether that's through free work and novelty exposure, habituation and generalisation to pleasant things, through easy to grasp exercises where praise can flow or a mix of all of these, it's possible to watch your dog grow and the true personality evolve.