Tips and Tricks to Train a New Dog Overcome Her Fear of New People

In this Omaha dog training session we worked with a one-year-old Border Collie, Jolene, who needed help to her stop fear of people and stop reactivity to loud noises.

After I arrived and greeted Jolene, she started to get anxious about me staying in her home. Since she was recently adopted and had only been in the home for less than a week at this point, I reminded her guardians that it is normal for her to go through several behavioral changes while she gets acquainted to her new home.

Since she became fearful of me and started barking at me I used the BAT (Behavioral Adjustment Training) method to help stop reactivity and help her relax while I was in her home. To see how I accomplished this you can watch the video below.

As you can see in the video I tried to make myself smaller to help her relax around me because it made me look less intimidating.  This helped her make some progress so she could start to approach me. Remember that the goal is to help Jolene make positive decisions about greeting new people to help her get over her fear of guests. Since she is nervous about me she can learn to stay farther away from me until she feels comfortable approaching.

By the end of the session Jolene was sitting by my side and happily taking treats from my hand. To keep up with this good behavior the guardians will want to continue to use our Petting with a Purpose technique and set up situations for training so they can make positive experiences for Jolene. We wrapped up this dog behavior session with Jolene’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.