Dog terrified of wife!

arctictree

I wonder if anyone has any tips for me. Got a new bitch recently (10 months old) and she's absolutely terrified of my wife for some reason! She was not like this when we first got her but it came on all of a sudden. Anyone any ideas on how to fix this as its not ideal, especially with young children? Also, she is a working dog (border collie) and spends a lot of time with me.

Get a new one (wife) ?

xabi

You should really have thought a bit and asked others what its like to own one, not everyone is suited to wives.

fits

Ha so helpful !

I don’t know what to say to you OP. Lots of gentle time together with no pressure. And treats.

Scoundrel

Have you tried tying the bitch up out in the garden should appease the dog.

Quandary

Get your wife to do the following:

- be the one to feed the dog each day(this is an important one.)

- walk the dog for at least a short walk each day

- try simple training like sit and stay using plenty of treats, praise and positive reinforcement

If your wife takes the little time needed to do these each day for a few weeks the dog will start to trust and bind with her. It will take a bit of work but it will pay off big time in the end.

If your wife is not making much effort the dog will definitely feel this and it will take the dog a hell of a lot longer to be comfortable around your wife. Eventually start getting your kids involved in the walk too. Even very young and in a buggy.

beertons

I think most of us are afraid of the wife.

jimf

sounds like you are going to have to consider rehoming

are you good at cooking

Scoundrel

The correct anwer of course is get rid of the dog can't get a new wife down the pound i'm afraid.

arctictree

Love the answers! Looks like she just needs a little time and patience.

HerrKapitan

How is your wife around the dog? Is there a chance she could have lashed out or caused the dog to be fearful when you were not around?

Lashed out is one possibility - but also something accidental can have the same effect. It is possible the wife did something sufficiently painful - or even just sufficiently startling and scary - that the puppy has built a negative association.

We had a dog who as a pup very very suddenly developed a life long fear of stairs. Literally over night - and we had absolutely no idea why.

Late in it's life however we were getting it an XRay for other reasons and the vet noticed a mild spinal injury that from the XRay they were able to identify as having happened a long long time ago. Likely at a very young age.

It healed weirdly enough that it lasted as identifiable on an XRay.

Our best guess now is the puppy had an accident on the stairs which must have been quite painful to have left such a life long tell tale sign on an XRay. Clearly it happened when no one was around to see it or know about it. Maybe it was rushing down the stairs to meet one of us as we arrived home from a shop or something and just fell.

But it must have been sufficiently painful or scary or both - that the puppy ended up with a life long stairs phobia. From that moment on we had to carry the dog up and down stairs in any house. Weirdly stairs in the outdoors - like steps in a park - did not have the same effect or association. Dog would happily bound up or down those with nary a concern.

seamus

As said above, it's probably something that happened which you didn't even notice at the time it happened. If your wife is a very loud and excitable person I've seen that freak the crap out of dogs too in the past to the extent that they cower under tables.

Time and patience is what's needed. Aside from regular short walks and feeding, your wife randomly treating and petting the dog while in her company should overcome any fear.

mary 2021

Borders are very one man dog types and highly intelligent & sensitive. She senses that your wife does not like her an odd kick and / or shout may have happened unknown to you. Women are like that and can be down right evil to creatures especially if they were not brought up with dogs /pets. Dog bonds with you every day and will look to you as alpha dog, wife irrelevent to dog really but her cowering is letting you know that the other female in the family is not all she seems. I never trust anyone who doesnt like dogs or get on with mine. Dogs know rotten people and they avoid them. Your wife may be nice to you and the kids but there is a quirk in her and the collie has spotted it. Tread carefully. Dogs judgement is rarely wrong.

Dogs judgement is rarely wrong.

Ah, here. Have you ever met a chihuahua?

mary 2021

No i tend to avoid toy dogs and made up dogs. i go for regular dogs not GMO dogs & man made doginsteins with made up names that we commonly called mongrels when we were kids !!

That sounded a lot like a string of unsubstantiated armchair psychology tripe. Doubt there is much out there to back up such opinions - especially the one liner brushing all women with the same brush nonsense in the third sentence.

OP - your wife is not likely to be some kind of closet anti animal psychopath because of a puppy's unexpected behaviour :-) Maybe keep that explanation somewhere way down the bottom of the list for now :)

Cherry Blossom

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117729891#Comment_117729891

Chihuahuas are not ‘made up’ dogs or genetically modified. They are one of the oldest breeds in the world. They have evolved from wild dogs that were domesticated in the ninth century.

super_furry

Is your wife haunted?

Dogs are good very sensitive to ghosts.

DBB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117727556#Comment_117727556

Mod warning ⚠️

Mary2021,

I would suggest you tread VERY carefully with your posting style from now on. Lines like "Women are like that and can be down right (sic) evil to creatures..." is pretty damn offensive to 50% of the population.

You have already been warned about how you refer to people ("knackers", I believe, was the word you used) in another thread on this forum in the past couple of days.

Take this as a warning: any more need for mods to warn you about your delivery or your posting style will escalate the warnings process.

Do not reply to this post on thread.

Thanks,

DBB

Bluefoam

I had a friend who the dog reacted badly to. Every time he was in the house, the dog would bark, cry, howl at him. He was really good and caring with the dog...

Until one day I left the room, but forgot something and returned to find this 'friend punching the dog in the face'....

Needles to say, he's no longer a friend.

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117705124#Comment_117705124

Be aware that collies will try to herd small children.

Carpentry

I would keep the dog, forgiving animals

deadlybuzzman

My parents rescued a neglected collie from a woman years back. The dog did not like my mother, growled, pulled back etc. Thing was my mother was the only person that was around to feed and care for the dog. After a while the dog figured she had nothing to fear from this woman, chilled out and the problem fixed itself