Gai

I stand corrected. I fell victim to chiding corn unfairly, at least as a source of carbohydrates.

Well, as far as corn goes, dogs don't digest corn very well. It practically passes right through a dog, thus it is of little nutritional value. So, if you feed dog food with a lot of corn in it to your dog, you'll get a lot of poop in return.

Thanks for responding. I'll be sure to check out "Cautious Canine". It looks like it would be a big help. I now realize just how naive it was to allow a stranger to initiate contact on his terms. I never even gave her a chance to approach him and feel him out. I've never owed a dog who wasn't well socialized around people, so this is rather a learning experience for me. When there is a situation in which I know that she will likely become scared, I do make sure that I put myself in a calm state of mind. She seems most relaxed around strangers after she has had good amount of exercise in the vicinity of them. This is usually done at a certain park I like to go to where I feel she has become more and more comfortable at. I appreciate all the advice given. I definitely want to move things along at her pace. I'm not expecting her to ever really become a social butterfly.

Hello, I'll start with a little background info first. Close to a month ago I decided to adopt a BC. She was a stray before I took her in. I had no idea where she came from and neither did any of my neighbors. She just suddenly showed up one day, always wandering around my neighborhood with no collar or ID to speak of. I guess she was abandoned or perhaps escaped somewhere. Odds are she would have probably ended up being put down if she ever wound up in a local shelter. My vet said she was just around a year old when I went to get checked up and spayed last week. Anyway, about the issue at hand: it is noticeable that her socialization with people is lacking. She is somewhat timid when walking by strangers (not quite as bad as she used to be, though.). Of course, she will not allow strangers to pet her. She ended trying to nip the first stranger I ever allowed to pet her. She never bared her teeth when this happened or showed any other signs of aggression. For now, I've gotten into the habit of telling people not to pet her when they ask if they can. I've thought about going up to strangers and asking them to try to to feed her a highly valued treat, thinking that this might help ease her apprehension with strangers. Would this be a good start? Any other suggestions to help improve this behavior would be greatly appreciated. She is such a sweet and fun loving dog, always ready and willing to learn new things. I fell in love with her right from the start, but I just wish I knew her background. She is quite a handful, but she's worth it. Ultimately , I would like her to feel comfortable enough around strangers to the point where she is at ease with anyone petting her. I know this will probably take a fair amount of time and patience. She has no problem completely ignoring any strangers around her, but only when she is really into a game of fetch/frisbee/tug.