My dog was also afraid of everyone and everything. I had him since eight weeks and so I didn’t know why he was behaving this way, but now I can see it’s genetic. I also blame my initial attempts to train using Cesar Millan’s “methods”. At eight weeks he was pretty accepting of most people, but not all. Then he started getting more fearful and he was always afraid of other dogs. When I first learned about clicker training he quickly (over a few months) learned to be okay with walking by people, stollers, bikes, and even his most hated: rollerbladers.

Now he happily greet some people who work at my apartment and sometimes doesn’t even put his tail down when they pet him. He’s weird in that he really wants to be social but he’s scared. So he’ll jump up to give kisses but his tail tells me he’s still a bit worried. But it gets better every time and there’s always food reinforcemen added in.

I also learned (over time) that we couldn’t even go potty without hot dogs. Any opportunity missed could make things worse. Now I watch him very closely and know when he gets that look that it’s time for a treat. He rarely barks now, except when he first sees other dogs which is definitely a challenge still. Like you said it’s a life long challenge but it does get a lot better.

Recently the mailman actually commented on how good and calm my dog was compared to other dachshunds. If he only new how hard I’ve worked. To have someone say that to me was a really big deal. It’s like the academy award of dog training. “You like my dog, you really like my dog!”