Helping a Pair of Fearful Dachshunds: Free Training Tips

In this Omaha dog training session, we worked with a pair of fearful Dachshunds, Wally and Tasha. We taught them how to sit and come on cue to build their confidence with a super easy dog behavior trick.

We were called in to help the dogs stop being afraid of the family’s grandchildren. However once the session started, it was clear that their fears went much deeper.

Wally and Tasha barked then moved away when my colleague, Taylor and I were at the door. Once we came inside the dogs displayed a number of classic fearful behaviors; barking and hiding, tense body language, stiff or jittery movement and cowering any time they came out from behind the couch. These are all classic signs of cortisol, the stress hormone.

How to Help Fearful Dachshunds

When Taylor asked the guardians about the dogs and their day to day life, we learned that they didn’t know many commands. Just like humans, dogs develop self esteem and confidence when they learn new skills. This is one of the easiest fearful dog tips out there.  If a pair of fearful dogs ever needed to develop some confidence, it is this pair of scared Dachshunds.

Since Wally and Tasha were so scared of strangers, we used a delicate approach to training them. I went over how to use marker words then ran through  a clicker priming exercise while sitting on the floor.  I started this process by tossing treats to encourage the anxious pups to come out from behind the couch. It took a lot of treats, but eventually these scared Dachshunds were taking treats out of my hand. Success.

Amy time you are working with an anxious dog, you need to recognize and appreicate the small victories. Rehabilitating fearful dachshunds is no different. Dog behavior modification of any anxioud dog can be taxing on the humans due to the sometimes slow pace. So stopping and appreciating your work and progress is an important part of the process.

Tasha was the more confident of the two fearful Dachshunds in this session which puzzled the guardians, as she is usually the more fearful dog. Regardless, the treat tossing worked. I asked Taylor to repeat this approach when she returns for a follow up session the follwiong week.

Easy Way to Train Any Dog

The dogs were extremely anxious, and our session had already lasted a few hours. So, I want to share an easy dog training tip. In fact, I have found this is an easy way to train any dog, perhaps the eaiest dog training exercise out there. Its something I call Celebrating.

The great thing about this trick is it work for all dogs; fearful Dachsunds, in fact, anxious dog of any breed will benefit from this trick. Its one of my favorite fearful dog tips to share.

If you have an anxious dog, struggle to train your dog to do what you want or just want to teach your dog to be polite, you should check out this easy dog training tip by watching the free dog training video below.

When training an anxious dog, it’s important to be mindful of what behaviors you’re reinforcing. For example, if you pet your dog when they jump up, you’re encouraging that behavior.

Instead, stop petting when the dog jumps and once they calm down, ask them to do another cue one time. If they follow your prompt, mark and reward them. If they dont, go back to what you were doing before. This teaches your dog that calm behavior and listening to you gets attention. Consistency and timing are key—reward or correct your dog within a few seconds to strengthen the connection.

Over time, your dog will learn to offer good behaviors to get attention. However, do not reinforce bad behaviors, like chasing your dog when it steals something.

Giving them attention by correcting or disagreeing teaches them that stealing gets your attention. Celebrating is a much better approach, especially if you have an anxious dog like these fearful Dachshunds.

Another easy trick to help an anxious dog is to start naming their toys. This can help your dog learn to retrieve specific items on command, further reinforcing positive behavior while simultaniously building up their confidence.

The best part of Celebrating is that anyone can do it. It just takes observation and rewarding with good timing. This is a type of Operant Conditioning if you want to get fancy, but you don’t need to be a professional dog trainer to do it.

I wanted to share some other dog psychology tips that can help these fearful Dachshunds learn to stop being scared of people.

To help the guardians remember everything we covered in this in home Omaha dog training session, we filmed a roadmap to success video.