When your visitors come in, just ask them not to acknowledge Bailey at all. If they are trying to speak to him or stroke him, he may feel threatened if he is nervous. Once they have been in the house for a while, they can hold a treat or toy in their hand so that Bailey can see it, but dont give him eye contact - just carry on with the conversation. If he goes up to take it then thats great but again dont fuss him or he may become scared again. If he doesnt take it, dont encourage him - hes obviously not ready to take that step yet. The key is not to hurry things and just go at his pace. After a few sessions of this, the visitor could praise Bailey quietly and then just carry on a s normal so he doesnt feel too overwhelmed. To try and make him more confident in general, you may have to compile a list of all the things he is nervous of such as men, loud noises, buses or whatever. Then work your way slowly through that list and introduce him to all of these situations in the same way you would as a puppy - start from a distance and then gradually work your way towards the object(over the course of a few sessions) and when he doesnt react, praise hima nd play a game or give him a treat. If he does react, dont try and comfort him. Just ignore him and leave it. You just need to go back a stage and take it more slowly. If you have "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey this has good advice on socialistion and could help you. Does Bailey go to training classes? These can sometimes be useful in letting nervous dogs gain confidence but depending on how nervous he is, he may be better suited to one-on-one sessions to begin with and gradually move up. When I first started taking Brook to work, he was very nervous(he's always had that kind of temperament) and for a year he just sat in the office with me and shook like a leaf! If anyone else even came near us, he would get up and try to slink away. But nobody paid him any attention(even though all I wanted to do was cuddle him and go home
) and eventually he started to get better. When people came near us he didnt slink away - he just looked at them with a worried look in his eye
And now two years on, he actually goes up to them(on the mooch no doubt
) and allows them to clap him. I guess he just no longer saw them as a potential threat so it was definitely worth persevering with. Good luck.
