[quote=Platz]Short answer: This dog has been beaten and abused. He's going to be a lot of work to be trustworthy but, it can be done. The Malamute I found was hand shy & spooky about men yelling. Expect several mons to a year to START to rehab his trust in people. I'll continue this latter today. For now, NO CORRECTION COLLARS, NO YELLING..........Keep it very happy & friendly......LOTS OF LOVE. Find something other than food he likes ball, tug ETc. use that with food asa a motivatior. Do little bits of happy obedience make everything fun games. Sit toy, Sit Cookie. While your doing this change his name.......NEVER call him George again. Basically we want to wipe the mental slate clean. From this point on New name & new Happy life. I would not let the his 1st owner evewr see him again.[/quote] this is a slap on assumption made by people who do not know any better. many things can be the cause of a puppy being shy around strangers. it sounds more like a case of the dog resisting his new environment probably simply because he was indeed a loved dog and is not over his last owner and it is just a shy dog. believe or not dogs that are truly "beaten" as so many like to cry turn aggressive.