the position of your hands might affect her. if she has been hit. the sound of your voice might affect her, if she has been yelled at. you could approach with palms up. and sing to her, sing her name.

we had a dog that had been abused before.what we did was always approach with our hands in front so the dog can see them.talk quietly in a soothing voice.don't force the dog into anything.don't go near when its eating.when you can get close don't go mad stroking it,be gentle and slow.patience is the most important thing and please don't give up on it.abused dog can be some of the most loving dogs once they begin to trust you.good luck.

Learn how to be a leader to your dog, go to puppieclass. Ignore her when she cowers and pees. Learn your girls to turn away when she jumpes on them. What do you do when she cowers?

Positive reinforcement and a TON of praise every time she does something right. If you play tug of war, let her win and then shower her with positive attention. That type of cause-effect pattern really works. Granted, this question is older, but it takes years for a pup to recover emotionally from past abuse.

Old post, but this is a challenge that more than one person has faced, so I'll address it. A great game to play with a dog that has these challenges is Tug-a-war. The key, is that you LET THE DOG WIN! A dog that is overflowing with confidence, you don't need or even really want to play this game, but the exceptionally shy dog...wining this game makes a world of difference to them. Also training with Positive Reinforcement will not only help ALL DOGS to learn how to learn, but also builds self esteem and confidence because there too, the dog learned a correct and desired behavior, and then is REWARDED for doing it. You have given your dog a way to earn success, and provided an acceptable, good behavior that you can CHEERFULLY redirect your dog to do, if your dog is about to make a less desired decision on doing something you prefer the dog not do. The more successful moments a shy dog has, the better they feel about themselves. And, the more trustworthy WE become to them, as they become more trustworthy to us as well! Win/Win! Any one who is experiencing some challenges with House Training, you really don't have to "get after" your dog or puppy. You especially want to avoid negative actions on your part if the dog or puppy is already having problems with SUBMISSIVE URINATION. Because showing the dog anger will only add to the existing problem. What you want to do, is to kick up your support in not allowing the dog or puppy ANY freedom in your house that is not being monitored by an adult. Use baby gates, use a crate, use an X-pen or use a Tether and attach the dog or puppy to you during those times you want to allow the pup to be "loose" and still need to take your eyes off of them for a few moments at a time. On the computer, balancing your check book, preparing a meal, watching some TV, reading a book...long enough to let them move around some, but not so long as to allow them to move out of your RANGE OF SIGHT! This lets you feel the tug of the tether, and LOOK AT THEM, to see what they are up to. It gives you a chance to CHEERFULLY interrupt an accident about to happen and quickly TAKE THEM WITH YOU OUTSIDE to do what they need to do! Then, the dog has earned a PARTY! Immediately after successfully going potty outside! Accidents are accidents and you want to get them cleaned up but not make a big deal out of them with the dog. You want to keep the dog or puppy focused on the JOYS of correctly going potty outside...Inside accidents are BORING....outside successes are PARTY CENTRAL...the most excellent TREATS and TONS OF PRAISE! Your dog will never, ever do anything with the intent to piss you off! They do not seek revenge for things WE might think they are "punishing us" for doing...they lack the mental agility to think in human terms. Our anger, yelling is FRIGHTENING to a dog or puppy, they do not want to encourage us to be upset at all, but especially not at them! Anyone reading this is welcome to shoot me an email and I'll send you an attachment of Potty 101, the simple and fun way to House train any dog or puppy, just put AB Potty 101 in the subject line.