I rescued/fostered Flint about a month ago. When he came home he would not let us pet him unless we cornered him. He has never shown agression, but is very timid. He was caught in a live trap when he was about six months old along the Flint River. We can now come up to him a pet him with only the occasional flintch. He isn't big on treats, so I haven't been able to entice him that way. He will occasionally sit on the couch and stay there with us near him. Any suggestions on how to move him to the next step? I promised my husband that I would adopt him out when he is ready, but I need to get him to the point where he will seek out humans. Thanks.
p.s. He is an Austrailian Sheperd Mix.
Jack is an Aussie/border collie mix and when we got him he was very skittish around others. Especially men. I've had to work with him a ton (being with him a lot and getting him to play - retrieving and such) just to make him comfortable with me, but there is a stark difference in his behavior when only I'm around compared to when Genie is with him, and that's two years ago. Some say that being with another dog who isn't afraid of humans will make the skittish one get over it quicker, but I have no experience with that.
A second of hurt can take a life time of training to fix, good luck.
Midnight, our lab mix, has been helping. He taught him to walk through doorways, come in from the yard, and once stopped him from walking away from me when outside. I wish there was a good dog park to take him to for socialization. I think it would do him a lot of good. Lately, he wants to stay in an area away from us and sleep all day.
Update: Flint is getting much better. The past two days he has even come to eat dinner without us shooing him towards the bowl. He got a hair but last Friday. I was going to do it myself, but figured it might help if I see how to do it first. Trimmed him down to about 1" length fur. Hopefully that will be better in the heat for him.