Tips to Help a Dog Scared of Meeting Strangers

For this in home Omaha dog training session we worked with 10 month-old Chihuahua mix Shadow, sharing tips to help a dog scared of meeting strangers.

Unfortunately Shadow had a bit of a rocky start. His mom was surrendered to a shelter while she was pregnant. If a dog mom is stressed while pregnant, it can change the DNA of her pups and make them more prone to stress and anxiety.

Compounding matters, Shadow was born in a shelter which is another stressful environment that can also have an impact on a dog’s confidence.

These negative early experiences can be very profound on a dog’s life and when they happen it’s not at all uncommon to result in a dog scared of meeting strangers or unknown dogs.

Fortunately for Shadow, she took our puppy classes and learned that puppies are her friends. She also had the core fundamentals we cover like marker words, and her mom had learned about the importance of celebrating desirable behaviors and her guardian learned hwo to read dog consent and cut off signals.

When I first met Shadow, I used another puppy who lives in her building to help facilitate a positive first meeting. I kneeled down, called the other puppy over and gave it a few treats and some pets.

After observing me interacting with the puppy, Shadow came over, gave me a couple sniffs and even took a treat or two for my hand.

Shortly after I sat down on a ledge and practiced a little engagement game with Shadow. I find this is a really helpful trick if you have a dog scared of meeting strangers like Ms Shadow.

It worked quite well. After tossing some treats behind Shadow, she started to approach me and I was eventually able to give her treats from my hand without a puppy nearby. Progress.

We headed inside so that I could chat with her mom a little bit more about her fear of strangers and how we can help.

I learned that Shadows guardian had had a few relatives come to visit and stay with them. This was something that caused Shadow a lot of anxiety which manifested in barking at them.

I also learned that Shadows mother’s mother was coming to visit in a few days. To help her avoid another negative experience for Shadow, I came up with a strategy to help Shadow feel more comfortable.

How to Help a Dog Scared of Meeting Strangers

One of the tips I often share with people who have dogs who don’t like meeting new people is to meet outside. The open space makes the dogs feel more comfortable and the distractions of nature can help the dog avoid focusing on the scary thing or person.

While meeting outside can help, there were a number of other tips that I’ve used over the years to help whenever I have a dog scared of meeting strangers.

To make it easy for the guardian to remember them all, after the session I sat down in the space that I initially met Shadow so that I could detail the process for Shadow’s mother’s mother.

If you have an anxious dog or a dog scared of meeting strangers, the free positive dog training video below includes a number of tips that may help.

By creating short, successful interactions combined with some Dog psychology and activities that shadow likes, I’m hoping that Shadow’s mother is able to create a positive association with her mom.

Building positive associations is really important when you’re dealing with a fearful dog. I like to think of modifying behavior as building a wall brick by brick. If the brick is a positive one, followed up by another positive one, and yet another, eventually the dog starts to change their emotional response.

I recommended that shadows guardian sheer this webpage with her mother so that she can watch it before meeting Shadow and be familiar with the steps that I outlined.

She can also use it when other friends or family members are coming to visit so that Shadow isn’t such a fearful dog around new people.

It will be important that the guardian watches out for shadows signs of consent and incorporates breaks where she takes shadow into her bedroom away from the guest.

If you do this right, it should look like the dog is fine but just like when we have houseguests ourselves, sometimes we need to get away to have some “me time.”