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| Elsa waits politely before going to "Say Hi" |
I use this at the front door, out in public, anywhere except with members of the family who live in the home.
When dogs have no rules for greeting people they are...
a.) Excited, Rude and overly exuberant in the greeting
b.) fearful / anxious / not sure what to do
c.) Reactive / Aggressive
d.) Aloof and just don't care about people
What are these Rules?
- When someone approaches and wants to pet or see your dog. Stop the person 1st and tell them your working on training or manners and to wait just 1 sec. Tell them you will have the dog come to them. You are having the dog go to them so that your dog has a choice if they don't want to, much more comfortable than having this person come at them tower o
ver them and corner them. Even if you have the friendliest dog in the world there will be 1 person your dog may be unsure of and its not fair to force your dog in a position where they cant get away or back away if they feel the need to. - Get your dog to settle. Ideally you have the dog in a calm sit next to or even behind you. Your dog is holding their sit here on a loose leash you do not need a death grip on the leash, you are not just restraining the dog the dog is required to practice impulse control and hold the sit on their own.
- IF and ONLY when your dog is settled down and in a calmer state do you make the decision to allow them to greet a person. If your dog is still overly excited and not able to sit on their own, do not allow your dog to go greet the person. *Straining at the leash... you give in.... dog gets what they wanted... dog is learning tight leash gets me what i want you are reinforcing your dog pulling on their leash and now they are more likely to pull next time*
- Tell your dog to go "Say Hi" / "Make friends" / "Visit" allow your dog to go forward and greet. Correct for any jumping on people. If your dog is meeting children I HIGHLY recommend getting down with your dog and holding on to your dogs collar so that you have extra control.
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| Io is shy so her owner hands the stranger a treat. |
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| Io greets and allows petting. Although this person is petting on the head when at all possible try to encourage people to pet from under the chin and on the chest. Also notice she is bent down next to the dog not hovering over the dog. Io's owner is also engaging and making sure Io knows this is a team effort shes not just out on her own greeting this person. |
By making the dog wait and then putting a command to go say hi helps with general greeting manners as well as showing the dog you are in charge and making it clear that you have already checked it out - now they can go say hi. Almost all dogs start off friendly and happy go lucky and we encourage them to socialize when they are young but the problem we run into is as they get older it turns into a habit of running up to people and as they get old and turn into teenagers and mature... they are running up to a person out of habit but then trying to make their own decision if this person is ok or not. Do not let your dog decide who is and isn't ok. That's up to you.
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| Stewie is very well behaved as the kid pets him but his owner holds his collar. |
For a Shy dog while you get your dog calm beside you, you can hand the stranger a treat and ask them to "Please offer this treat out to my dog, Please DONT pet him, hes shy" This will help to make positive associations with people without anything negative or scary like a hand reaching out too.
