Tips to Help a Dog Afraid of Strangers

For this West LA dog training session we worked with a fearful mix breed dog named George; sharing tips to help a dog afraid of strangers.

Knowing that George has what we refer to as stranger danger (a fear of new people), I set him up for a success by leaving a treat trail from his front door to the place I was sitting to meet him, several steps away. I love settingup meetings with fearful dogs outside. The open space makes them feel more comfortable and the elementds of being outside offer a nice distraction.

The outdoor greeting definitely helped, and everything seemed to be going great until we got inside of his apartment. For many fearful dogs, a stranger coming into their home feels like an invasion. George would settle down but sporadically unleash a barrage of barks and a faux charge.

After this happened a 3rd time, I suggested that we head outside as the guardian has a small courtyard. As soon as we headed outside, the additional space and distractions of nature did the trick. I made sure to avoid direct eye contact, moved as little as possible and gave him the space he asked for.

As a guest, sometimes the best way to help a fearful dog is to ignore them. This helps take the pressure off the dog. As human guests we often think we need to make friends with the dog who lives there. While this is nice, if you have a fearful dog, giving them space and NOT tryinhg to pet them is often the best way to go.

With George feeling comfortable, or at least more releaxed, we got started. I covered a number of fundamentals such as introducing and loading a marker word, using a hand targeting lesson to help the guardian practice her timing, the importance of celebrating desired behaviors as well as a few exercises and mental stimulation tips.

While some of these topics were not directly related to George’s Stranger Danger, they can have an inmpact. My goal is to help fearful dogs have a solid foundation to build on while removing any isues that may cause soem stress or anxiety. These fundamentals can help scared dogs as you make a big improvment on their quality of life.

With the fundamentals out of the way, we were ready to address some of them more pressing issues, specifically George’s fear of meeting people he doesn’t know

Ways to Help a Dog Afraid of Strangers

Throughout the session, anytime George appeared to get tense or uncomfortable, I would toss a treat behind him after first getting his attention. Throwing the treat behind an anxious dog can help them feel more comfortable as the activity causes them to move away – increasing space. And by marking every time the dog looks at me in the face, I can help start building a positive positive emotional response to my visual presence.

Although I was able to hang out with George outside, I could tell that he was still not comfortable. He demonstrated a number of characteristics that are indicative of a dog that has cortisol in its blood; sound sensitivity, tense body, twitchy movements and wide unblinking eyes.

Normally I like to work with dogs hands on, but due to George’s fear of strangers, I ascertained early on that it would be more productive to share these tips with the guardian verbally. For each exercise I explained it in detail, then coached the guardian up until she was getting the same level of success.

Many of the tips I use to help dogs afraid of strangers are management but others are designed to help change the dog’s emotional response. I wanted to make it easy for the guardian to remember all of these fearful dog tips, so I set up my camera to record a video sumarizing them.

If you have a dog that is fearful of new people or those it doesn’t know, you should definitely check out the video positive dog training video below.

The most important thing to remember when helping a dog with a fear of strangers to go with the dog’s pace. Earlier in the session, I had gone over dog consent and cut off signals with the guardian. I also gave a quick summary of something called calming signals, this is a way for dogs to communicate to other dogs that they are a little stressed, need space or want the other dog to relax

I recommended the guardian review this wonderful video by Susan Garrett on Dog consent, cut off signals and calming signs. This short video is packed with tips on reading dog body language and calming signals. Knowing and responding to those signals can make a world of difference to dogs who are experiencing stress and anxiety.

Having that knowledge will allow the owner to recognize when George is starting to feel uncomfortable. Then she can then solve his problem by increasing distance or moving him away. This simple tips for fearfuld dogs can do wonders for reducing and eliminating reactivity.

I would love to see the human practicing these fearful dog exposure exercises with strangers once a week until she’s able to see that George is comfortable with the person. Once that’s the case, they should find another person with a dog and repeat the process.

Since we covered so much in this West LA in home dog training session, I pulled up my phone so that we could record a roadmap to success summary video to help the guardian remember everything.