So some ideas please, baring in mind I need her to be braver and I would like to teach her to relax and focus on me in stressful scarey situations.
One thing I do with my guys is play that "Look at That" game. It's from the dog trainer who wrote 'Control Unleashed'.
You put something scary looking off at a distance...umbrella, plastic blowy thing, or anything odd that she might look at and worry about.
Then you lead her just close enough so she notices it and as soon as she looks at it you click and say "WHAT'S THAT! You don't ask her to target it or get close because this game is not about that. There are many situations out in the real world where we see something odd and frightening but we either physically can't or we just don't want to get close to it. So we want them just to look, calm down, and move on.
After you've done it a few times you can start saying "What's that" BEFORE she sees it...and then position her so she can see it if she doesn't see it on her own. What we want to teach them is there is something out there that needs to be looked at and if they look at it, good things will happen. They don't need to go up to it...just look at it and they will be given a treat. You want to start with something that is not terrifying..but just interesting enough so she looks at it.
It doesn't matter if they are still scared! Click and treat anyway. You are not clicking for emotion (scared), you are clicking for looking (behaviour). After a while, the 'scared' emotion will change to a positive emotion - 'oooh goodie, this means the chance to earn reinforcement'.
There will always be new things to look at and wonder/worry about but what we can teach them is it's ok to look but after looking you can calm down and have yourself a treat.
So...scary thing = treats! If we can teach them that, then it helps calm them faster and put their focus back on us.
As for other stuff...as well as head down (actually MORE than head down) I like to teach them to bring their head around and touch their bellies. Like a carrot stretch but they do it without the carrot and you just click and then treat them with their head back out the front. You can build duration so they get a nice stretch. Of course build it incrementally...c/t for one inch to the left, two inches to the left etc....you can use the target for this but you don't need to.
Have fun!!
