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heads that when an owner leaves to go to work, he or she may never come back. This is pretty logical, so to avoid further traumatizing your dog, try to spend as much time as possible with it. You should allow your dog to sit in your lap if he or she is small enough so that he or she can feel closer to you and get the idea that you're the most important person in its life. Building a good bond of trust with your timid pet is crucial to giving it the best life possible.

Yet, steps will still need to be taken to ensure that your dog's shyness doesn't get in the way of its everyday life. For example, lets say your dog flinches every time you try to attach its leash to its collar. This could be for a number of reasons; your dog may in fact have been hit by a human hand, could have almost gotten strangled on a leash, or had another horrible experience involving either a hand or a leash. To accommodate this, don't make any sudden movements around your dog, but move slowly and make your intentions as clear as possible. Even if you're afraid that you'll look like an idiot, slowly explain that you are taking your dog for a walk to "go potty." Move slowly and with clear intentions in order to rewrite your dog's reactions to certain situations.

Gradually, you want to allow your dog to have contact with other dogs and humans. If you have small children, try to get them to play with the rescued dog, but tell them to be calm and gentile with it. Your dog needs to understand that playing with other dogs and children is a fun experience, not a serious competition for survival. Dogs need to have trust in their peers as well, and yes, I just referred to human children as being the peers of dogs, which is frankly a compliment seeing as dogs mature much faster and don't cry nearly as often as humans, not to mention their other skills. As far as getting your dog to know other dogs goes, use the one at a time method: have your dog play with another dog in the neighborhood for a few weeks before including another friend in the play dates. This way, your dog gets accustomed to having company around without becoming overwhelmed and scared.

That being said, do not constantly try to pick up your dog or chase it around the house in order to do so. Granted that this mostly applies to little children, you don't want to scare your dog into thinking that you want to catch it and hold it against its will, not to mention associating human contact with being "captured" or interrupted during the

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