If your dog is shy when around other people or dogs as if he is always being very shy during social interactions, your puppy may be showing signs of anxiety. Your beloved puppy needs to gain more confidence; you can do this by letting him undergo some confidence training and playing some games specifically made to increase their confidence.
With playing confidence games, you train your dog to act accordingly during social interactions. These can assist your pooch by letting them be focused on the current task at hand and avoid getting anxious about the things in their vicinity. When you make these games fun enough for your beloved dog, it is going to be a lot easier for your pup to become confident in themselves.
Here are a few games you can play to greatly increase your pup’s confidence.
1. Free shaping games
This may be the most effective ways to teach your mutt to be confident. With playing free shaping games, you can have your puppy learn a particularly new skill slowly but more effectively without making fear the mistakes along the way. Free shaping can be done by letting your dog undergo small advances towards a new skill or behavior, and not punishing them for doing the wrong thing.
By following this form of training, you can slowly eliminate your puppy’s fear of social situations because you take away that punishment they’re afraid of getting because of particular mistakes. Be sure to be very supportive of your dog and reward them, however, small their steps for improvement are. This will encourage them to be a little more confident each time.
2. Let them look for snacks
A very nice way of letting your dog be more confident is by making them learn a brand new skill by themselves. And making them learn a skill involving their nose, which their ancestors greatly rely on for survival, will surely give some much-needed confidence.
You can do this by simply showing your dog different snacks and treats and letting them sniff it, after that you can go ahead and hide the snacks throughout the house and make them find the snacks. If your dog finds the snacks, they will automatically have the reward of eating something delicious.
This game also greatly improves your pup’s focus for a given task, this lets them ignore their environment which is one of the main cause of their anxiety. Just make sure you praise them when they find a snack to further increase their confidence.
3. Playing interactive games
Letting your dog play interactive games isn’t just good for their confidence, but more importantly, this lets you strengthen that bond between you and your puppy as a pet and an owner. Games like fetch and tug of war will more likely improve their boredom, thus reducing the risks of them developing unwanted behavior like chewing and biting.
With games like this, your dog’s attention will be more focused on you and the current game being played. Making it more fun and enjoyable, at the same time increasing your dog’s overall confidence.
