How to get your dog to be comfortable around strangers

How to get your dog to be comfortable around strangers

Some dogs are afraid of strangers. They may react by barking, growling, showing teeth or running away. In this post I will explain how you can help your dog become comfortable around strangers in the house and outside.

If you have a very young dog you can avoid all this just by exposing him to different places and having him meet people and dogs. As much as you expose your dog at an early age to different people, kids, noises and environments, it is less likely that he will be fearful. With that said, there is a genetic component to shyness and aggression. If you are getting a dog from a breeder, try to get as much information as you can about his parents and the dog’s siblings. Any indication of shyness or aggression in the parents or siblings is a bad sign for your dog’s ability to become comfortable around strangers.

For older dogs, the first thing you want to know is that correcting your dog for growling or barking at people will only make things worse. Your dog is worried or afraid and getting a correction will not make him more confident next time.

We start the treatment by managing the environment. We will be exposing our dogs to stimuli that they can cope with.  Do not take your dog to crowded places, and if you have people over, place him in a different room or preferably in his kennel.

Our next step will be counter-conditioning the dog’s reaction to people. Every time your dog meets a person and before he reacts, give him a treat. You will need to ask people to ignore your dog and not to try to pet him or call him. These actions put pressure on the dog and he may start reacting to it.  In time, every occasion your dog meets a person he will be thinking about a reward instead of barking.

You will find that your dog maintains a certain distance from people, even those that he feels safe with. If a person approaches too close to him, he will start barking. Our goal in training is to minimize this distance until it finally disappears.

Once your dog is confident and stops barking at people approaching him, we would like to increase his ease with contact with strangers. At this stage you will hand the person working with you and your dog a few treats and they will pet your dog with one hand while feeding him with the other. The first few times they will need to avoid looking or speaking to the dog. Gradually your dog will start associating strangers petting him with treats and he will become calmer around people.

If you have a small dog and he barks at people when he is sitting on your lap you will need to put him on the floor as soon as he starts barking. Do not let him sit on your lap unless he is calm.

A few points that to remember:

1. The older the dog, the slower the process is going to be.
2. As always, timing is crucial in dog training. If your dog is already barking just ignore him or put him inside the house or in his kennel. Don’t reward him now but don’t correct him either.
3. If you are worried that your dog may bite someone – put a muzzle on him. There are muzzles that you can feed treats through.
4. If you are dealing with severe case of aggression your better option is to contact a local trainer that knows how to deal with aggression.

For more information about training and training options please go to our website at

www.ramreizel.com