This is one of those questions. I recently saw a comment in our stock dog training group claiming that confidence is not born; it is taught. Which is, unequivocally false. So first off, confidence is born in dogs. If you ever hear someone ask about confidence in dogs it is a red flag that their dog lacks confidence.
So first off. There are two types of confidence in dogs. Masking and true confidence. A dog that is masking confidence - meaning they don't have any at all; tends to be pack bully's. They are overtly dominant; and in large part it is due to fear not confidence. They will mask their fear and nervousness with what appears to be confident behaviour but is far from it.
Confident dogs are born. You can build on a confident dog but you cannot build on a dog that has no confidence; you cannot build on something which is not there to begin with.
You could take any dog, and work on their confidence little by little; but unfortunately a lot of the dogs which we see have had their confidence destroyed by handlers.
Handlers that do not understand how to instruct their dogs; but primarily it comes down to a lack of trust. Overcorrecting, giving wrong commands, asking your dog to do one thing but meaning something different entirely.
While it may seem harsh the truth is two fold; if you have weak dogs (insecure or masking ones) you need to look at two things. Yourself and your dogs. Get better dogs or just plain get better.
We have worked with a few dogs with sensitivities. Bringing them back in their confidence. Some dogs have nervous or sensitive traits which are genetically passed down. Where a lot of people make mistakes, is they confuse a dog with a genetic trait for being weak; when these dogs could not be the furthest possible from a weak dog.
The same thing is at play. Confidence is born. It can be developed, nurtured, and grown - but weak dogs are just weak dogs. LR Alexander is famously quoted as saying no one has time for weak dogs - the truth is, no one does.
I do not have weak dogs in my kennel. We have a fundamental approach developed by ourselves through many conversations with top handlers, breeders, and experts.
Randal Walker famously said, when asked, 'How do you build a dog's confidence.' And his reply was, 'You don't.' Plain and simple.
I will tell you where a dog's confidence is built though. When you are raising that puppy. In every encounter, every experience that puppy has from the ground up - is building on the confidence they were born with. When that puppy gets to 8-12 months they are ready to go because they have a solid foundation of positive experiences.
