Extremely shy dog.. what can I do?

36Degrees

Well as the title suggests, my dog is extremely shy.. she is a Border Collie, about 6 years old.. she has been like this all her life. She is fine around me, my parents and regular visitors to our house, but when someone unknown calls she will not go anywhere near them.. she will usually go into one of our flowerbeds, lie half under a bush and observe the visitor from afar... Also when we take her out on walks and we walk past a stranger, she will walk at the furthest edge of the path away from them, sometimes even going into the undergrowth (we walk her in a local forst park). She has become slightly better at this over time and will now only go into the undergrowth if we are passing a large group of people/ people with noisy kids :rolleyes:.

She really is a lovely dog, I think its a pity she is so shy,, also I should probably note she's not shy around ohter dogs/animals, just people.. she is not vicious in any way but in general doesnt seem to like kids much so we keep her away from them. Is there anything I can do to help her overcome this shyness? I have heard that this breed can be shy but I have never seen a dog this shy before.. We got her from my cousins so she wasnt mistreated/ abused as a puppy or anything..

Is this just her personality and normal or is there something wrong here? Thanks in advance for the replies!

Shazanne

I think you are confusing shy with nervous. For some reason she is afraid of strange people and noisy kids (so am I for that matter!!) and I would suggest you bring her to a canine behaviour therapist. It is probably just as simple thing if, as you say, you can account for her life since she was a puppy. Could anything have happened that you are not aware of that possible gave her a fright? She sounds like a dote of a dog and as long as she is happy with you and is happy at home I wouldn't worry too much about her:)