Dakota's fears

We have a little girl. She is 1yr old. We think she was abused by the breeder we got her from. She is scared of a lot of things. She really scared of men. She won't do anything for my husband. I have to do everything with her. She gets terrified whenever we touch her collar. If we take her collar off, and we try to put it back on she freaks out. So we think the breeder used shock collars on the puppies. Then one day I had an empty paper towel tube in my hands and just hit it against my hand. Dakota became terrified and run to hide in the bedroom. if I pick up a flyswatter she runs and hides. Dakota was 12 wks old when we got her. She is scared of remotes or cell phones or other small phones. we are having a very difficult time with her. If we hold her muzzle to clean her face or eyes she gets so scared of us. I think they held her muzzle to put the shock collar on. We think she was beaten with plastic pipes, because of the fear of the paper towel tube. If I hold the tube like I might hit her, she starts shaking and pees. i love her so much. I am so upset to think that she was abused so bad as a young puppy. W have never had this kind of a problem with any dog or puppy that we have had before We love her and will keep working with her, but it is very difficult. If anything would happen to me, I don't think my husband would be able to get her to do anything for him. I'm thinking of trying a homeopathic remedy for fear for her. I don't know what else to do. Dee

That sounds like what Cookie used to be like as a puppy. My dad says that she used to be afraid of men and whenever she'd see him, she'd pee and run.
It must be hard. I've never had to work with that kind of fearful dog myself, but I do know that you have to gradually build up her trust.
Gradually expose her to her fears, and show her that there is nothing to fear. When you do this, remain calm and relaxed. Act reassuring.
At first, just get her used to you holding a paper towel tube. Get her used to the other things like that as well.
Good luck.

It is a very hard thing for such a young pup to be so fearful but with behavior training you can over come a lot of it as she grows. She is also in her "fearful" stage, and that is when you have to socialize her as much as possible. Is she food oriented? Treat all normal behavior.
My boy Rex was afraid of the vacuum. He would pee and shake if I just lugged it out. So, I just left it out and he got used to that part. I had my daughter do the vacuuming when I was outside with him, and he could still hear it. We played fetch and did basic obedience and he started associating playtime with the noise. Now, he is 3 years and will calmly leave the room when I vacuum.
The next time you have a paper towel roll, calmly place it on the floor and leave it there until she has had a chance to examine it, then happily praise her and treat.

We have done everything that has been said here. She was starting to overcome her fears until about a month ago. We left to go out to dinner. We were only gone for at the most was 3 hours. We had gone out in the evening other times before. But something happened that night a month ago. We don't know what happened while we were gone, but when we got home she was terrified. We couldn't get her to go outside and she went back to being afraid of my husband and wouldn't let him touch her. She regressed after that night. We don't know if somebody tried to break in or what. The night before this happened we had a strange incident happen. A woman came up in our yard and was fighting with a man. she asked to use our phone. We let her use a cell phone. She supposedly told someone on the phone that she needed a ride because the man was beating her. We never saw the man he had run before she knocked on our door. I asked her if she wanted us to call the police. She said no and left. We checked our cell phone to check the number that she called. there was no number. So we think maybe somebody was setting us up for a home invasion. But they seen we had 2 big dogs. The next night we went to dinner. We think somebody, a man might have scared Dakota in the window. And that brought her fears for men come back. We live in an area where a lot of Spanish people live. Her breeder was a Spanish man. And he has 2 grown sons that live with him. The woman that came to our door the night before was Spanish. And the man that she was said to be fighting with was also Spanish. We don't know, we think somebody tried to break in, while we were gone. But we have to start all over trying to calm Dakota's fears. That is why I'm thinking of trying something Homeopathic. She was doing real good until that night.