From Cautious to Confident: Fun and Games for Shy Dogs AND Their People with Christina Young

Playing with our dogs is a great way to bond with and enjoy our pets. Just like people, dogs are individuals and differ in the activities they enjoy. Shy dogs can struggle with the pressure associated with social interactions, toy play, high-energy situations and even any novel items in their environment.
Playing games with your dog is a great way to boost confidence in various situations. When playing games, we can allow our shy dogs to focus on something fun and achievable, taking their minds off the scary or worrisome things in life. We can give them small challenges that they can overcome and feel good about. By building confidence in this way, we can help them get ready to tackle the other scary things in life. It is important to keep your dog’s comfort level and comfortable pace in mind. If your dog is extremely shy, be sure to take it slow, keeping it fun for your dog.
In this presentation, we will discuss games and strategies to build your dog’s confidence and resilience so that the dog feels more comfortable both at home and in the world. A lot of the games use food, and others use personal play or toy play, as well as praise. Some games include the owner, to encourage having fun together and bonding, and some games are designed to build independence. Appropriate games and play will vary from dog to dog, even within the same household or breed. I will introduce various games, and we will watch videos of them in action and discuss how they can help different types of dogs, as well as the benefits, risks and different approaches to each of the games.

Learning Objectives:

● Identify signs of shyness in a dog.
● Learn games to build confidence and resilience.
● Identify when a game is too challenging or not challenging enough.
● Learn how to adapt each game to best suit different types of dogs

Your Presenter – Christina Young

Christina Young creates humane, effective and realistic training plans for clients and their dogs, and is continually improving her skills by learning from the world’s top trainers. She enjoys hiking and biking with her dogs and actively competes in disc, nosework, dock diving, agility and rally obedience. She also participates in the St. John’s Ambulance Therapy Dog program with her blind dog, Maxi.

Christina’s credentials and achievements include:
● Professional Canine Behavior Consultant, level A credential – Pet Professional Guild
● Certified Dog Behavior Consultant – International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants
● Licensed Family Dog Mediator – Working Division (LFDM-W) – L.E.G.S.® Applied Ethology
● Certified Training Partner – Karen Pryor Academy
● Co-host of the podcast, Something to Wag About
● Co-founder of Legion of Dogs, a free resource and podcast for multi-dog living
● Aggression in Dogs Master Course by Michael Shikashio (Christina was also featured on Michael Shikashio’s Bitey End of the Dog podcast)
● Bachelor of Science degree

For most of her life, before pursuing her dream of dog training full time, Christina worked with youth and adults with disabilities, tutoring and later teaching and coordinating educational programs. Her experience teaching people has developed her skills so that she is a flexible and adaptable instructor.

Christina is referred to as a “crossover trainer,” which means that she previously used e-collars, prong collars, choke chains, alpha-rolls, and other punitive techniques. Christina no longer uses any of these tools and methods and hasn’t since 2010, just before Maxi came into her life. She promised Maxi and all her dogs moving forward that she would not use pain or fear to train.

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