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The 5 Minute Dog by Personable Pets Dog Training
Quick, practical dog training tips in under 5 minutes—because training your dog shouldn’t take all day.
New episodes drop every Monday.
With over 20 years of family dog training experience, this podcast delivers real-life advice you can actually use. From simple tips and clear explanations to common behavior scenarios, we’ll help you understand why your dog does what he does—and what to do about it.
Training really can be easy. Let us show you how.
The 5 Minute Dog by Personable Pets Dog Training
#140 Fear in Rescue Dogs: The Underexposure Reality
Ever looked at your cowering rescue dog and assumed they must have suffered terrible abuse? Think again. This eye-opening episode of the 5-Minute Dog podcast challenges the common misconception that most fearful rescue dogs are victims of mistreatment.
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Welcome to the 5-Minute Dog, the mini-podcast that delivers practical training advice in less than 5 minutes. You know a lot of people assume that when they adopt a rescue dog who's anxious or extremely shy it must be because the dog was abused. And while that's possible, in most cases it's actually not true. More often than not these dogs weren't mistreated. They were just underexposed during key stages of their development, meaning when they were young, especially during that critical socialization window around 3 to 20 weeks of age, they didn't get much experience with new people, different environments, sounds, smells or even basic things like walking on different surfaces. They've probably never seen a balloon or a robotic vacuum. So now they're older and they're overwhelmed by everything because it's all new and they're not sure if it's safe.
Speaker 1:Imagine if you grew up in one small room and then suddenly someone took you to Times Square. You wouldn't feel confident or relaxed. You would be overstimulated, unsure, maybe even scared. And that's what's going on with a lot of these shy and fearful rescue dogs. It's not about trauma, it's about lack of experience, and that's actually good news because we can work with that.
Speaker 1:We can help them build confidence step by step through gentle exposure and positive associations. That's way more productive than assuming they're damaged or broken because of some unknown past and have limited potential. So if your rescue dog ducks away from strangers or freezes in new places, try not to feel sorry for them. Instead, get busy. What new experience can I introduce my dog to today? What small win can we create? How can I help increase his confidence? His confidence Because the more they see, the more they explore and the more they're allowed to go at their own pace, the more they'll start to realize that the world isn't so scary after all. So an anxious dog doesn't need our pity. They need our patience, our guidance, our confidence, our nudge to overcome just one more fear, giving them a chance to build trust and confidence, one small experience at a time.