We have a golden retriever with all kinds of anxiety problems, and although he is the world’s most adorable and goofy and lovable dog, he is also manipulative and passive aggressive like I have NEVER seen. If there’s no storms in the area, he’s pretty well-behaved, but when he gets frightened, there is literally no way to get him to do ANYTHING except physically hold onto him and keep him quiet until it blows over. He just goes into a blind panic. We’ve at least learned things we can do to keep him from being destructive when he panics (medication and an Anxiety Wrap[sup]TM[/sup]). but I doubt we’ll ever get him to the point where he can learn to deal with his fear himself.
Our lab, OTOH, will do ANYTHING to please us. He’s had a bad habit of jumping on people in his excitement at seeing them when they come to our house, but the other day he finally made the connection we’ve been trying to get him to make – had a plumbing emergency, and Isaac went racing at the plumber’s assistant full speed, growling in his excitement while nearly wagging his tail off – but instead of jumping at the guy, skidded in to a nice seated landing and sat there smiling at him, saying, “Pet me! Pet me!” Once we get him to make the connection – “Oh, THIS is what they want me to do in this situation” – then we really never have a problem with him and that behavior again.