Reddit mentions of Scaredy Dog! Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog

This is not the sort of situation where getting help from the internet is likely to be useful.

You need to find a certified veterinary behaviorist and have a consultation. If your intent is to work with this dog and keep it then this is your only option.

However, there are a number of things you absolutely should not do until you can speak to such a professional:

• Remove the shock collar. It's clearly not helping. A tool which helps is one which improves the behavior and ensures it occurs measurably less often on an ongoing basis so you can wean off of the tool eventually - this is not the case as the dog bites as soon as the collar isn't fully operational. Therefore the tool is not improving the situation but rather masking the problem. Since it's not helping (and is likely making things worse) remove the collar and use management instead.
  
  
• Keep this dog away from children entirely. Period. I'd personally only use a solid barrier which locks with a key to prevent accidents and mistakes. Children, even very well behaved ones, aren't known for always following directions and a single mistake could lead to a very serious ending to your story. No room for error, IMO.
  
  
• Keep this dog muzzled when it's out of the kennel. If the dog is safe around any one person then the dog should be desensitized to the muzzle. if that's not the case then desensitize while the dog is confined by a gate or in the kennel until an adult can safely muzzle the dog.
  
  
• Keep this dog leashed unless in a very securely fenced area. If it is out of the kennel or confinement room then the muzzle needs to be on.
  
  
• Minimize the number of people working with the dog. This reduces the triggers for the dog to bite. This is not a dog to introduce to your friends and family, obviously. If you have guests the dog should be kenneled in a room with a locked door, or loose in a room with a key-locked door.
  
  
• If you intend to keep this dog and work with her then the adults in your household need to take a major crash course in dog body language and current behavioral science. Unfortunately, the tools and methods you have used up until this point have directly contributed to your situation - so if there's any hope of rehabilitating this dog you'll need to use very different methods and a vet behaviorist who is well versed in force free training and working with aggressive dogs.
  
  
• You need to be aware that, because of the young age of the dog and the severity of the bites you're describing, there is a pretty low chance this dog will ever be safe unmuzzled around anyone outside your family. I would personally be very unlikely to suggest having this dog around children at all in the future, at the very least. If you're dedicated to rehabilitating the dog then you need to have a rock solid management plan (think crate and rotate, but with your children and any guests to your home), and be willing to basically give up vacations and this dog will not be safe to leave with anyone for at least a year in the best possible scenario - maybe not ever.
  
  The 'trainer' you used who just jacked up her shock collar and zapped away should have any licensing revoked and be charged with animal cruelty, IMO. They have not helped your situation one single tiny bit, and they likely cause irreversible psychological damage to your dog.
  
  If you do want to consider your options I'd start by reading up on current methods. Here's some recommended reading to get you started:
  
  Understanding Aggression by Barbara Sykes
  
  Scaredy Dog by Ali Brown
  
  On Talking Terms with Dogs : Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas
  
  Aggressive Behavior in Dogs: A Comprehensive Technical Manual for Professionals by James O'Heare
  
  Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor
  
  The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia McConnell
  
  Anyone who recommends any sort of correction collar, 'being dominant' or any sort of pain or intimidation based training will not help your dog. Pain and fear is what caused the situation you're dealing with.
  
  We all make mistakes, but you can't fix this issue using the same tools that created it.

Ok, I had some things to do, I wanted to reply to this earlier...I love this stuff :D

I dunno if you're looking for a specific training (general obedience, agility, protection, etc.), so I'll include a bit of everything that's helped me or that is well-regarded.

For general understanding of dog behavior, I really, really intensely love Jean Donaldson's "Culture Clash." It's not a workbook for obedience, it's more of a compilation of different techniques and why the author chose to move toward the training style she did. It's a little scathing at times. It's also relatively short (I think I finished it in a day or two), so as a general introduction, it works great.

If you have a puppy and are looking for puppy-specific knowledge, Ian Dunbar is the go-to name. There's lots and lots of Dunbar stuff out there, just plug his name in and go to town! Paul Owens' "The Puppy Whisperer" is also pretty good.

For general/pet obedience work, you really can't beat Pat Miller's "The Power of Positive Dog Training". Karen Pryor, a pioneer in clicker training (bridging the gap between marine/whale operant conditioning and dogs), also put out a great one, "Don't Shoot the Dog! The New Art of Teaching and Training". Really, anything by Karen Pryor is worth picking up if you're interested in the subject.

There are certain facets of dog body language and behavior that are pretty essential to know, and which are often neglected or incorrectly labelled in dominance-heavy learning (for instance, appeasement behaviors and fear aggression). A great start here is "On Talking Terms with Dogs" by Turid Rugaas, a Norwegian dog trainer and behaviorist.

Let's say you have a specific problem. Here are some good starts to overcoming common doggie fear issues: Patricia McConnell's "Cautious Canine and Ali Brown's "Scaredy Dog! Understanding and Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog.. Patricia McConnell's "I'll be Home Soon" is great for separation anxiety, Terry Ryan's "The Bark Stops Here" for barking. One of my faves is Emma Parsons' "Healing the Aggressive Dog".

Finally, a book that I cannot stress enough in its awesomeness is Jane Killion's "When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs". If you're stuck with a breed that was bred to work independently or you often feel that your dog is just plain ignoring you, this is a great thing to pull out.

If you're not so big on books and want videos, hop on youtube and look up kikopup! She's utterly brilliant and has a ton of videos to choose from. If you want to get more into that angle, look up the terms "shaping," "capturing," and "luring" - three different but related methods for encouraging dogs to do specific behaviors.

Finally, if you want to get down to the science of it and think more about wolves, L. David Mech is the name you want to watch for. And I have more sources on specific dogsports (gundog work, agility, etc.), but this post is already hideously long, so I'll leave it as is.

Hope that helps!

This sounds like a reactive dog, you can search 'reactive dog' and get a lot of advice. My dog used to be the same way. What will help you most is:

a) read about reactive dog training- I like Patricia McConnell and have seen this book recommended countless times. These should help you understand what is going on in your dog's head and your training strategy. The main strategy is:

i. Counter-condition- Give your dog only positive experiences when he sees dogs/people and NO NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES. I mostly used really amazing treats like chicken, but also used play/toys.

ii. De-sensitize. Slowly build your dog up to seeing other dogs and people. Practice every day. Start with what your dog can tolerate (even if that is only seeing another dog at the other side of a football field while staying calm) and only make it harder when your dog improves.

b) Find a good place to take some dog training classes. I did not use punishment when working on my dog's reactivity. Both training places I went to told me to use punishment. I ignored that, used training strategies that actual dog behaviorists endorsed (there were no certified dog behaviorists available in my town) and used the classes as a safe, controlled place to work with my dog.

c) Don't give up. It took soooooo long for my dog to make progress, it was really hard, it took a lot of my free time. Today, my dog is completely different, instead of barking and lunging at any dog that he sees he sometimes doesn't even LOOK at a dog that we pass on the trail. At the very least you'll learn better strategies for avoiding situations that set your dog off.

As far as the weird noises go, some dogs just grumble or make a lot of noise. My dog is super vocal, he always has some kind of noise to make.