We Share Tips to Help an Anxious Beverly Hills Dog Get Over Her Fear of Men

For this Beverly Hills dog training session, we helped Parsley an anxious 4 year-old Havanese / Maltese mix who barks fearfully at men she doesn’t know.

Parsley was very uncomfortable when I first arrived for the session. I used some dog behaviorist tricks to help her feel more relaxed. Some of them were often overlooked by most people, such as ignoring the dog and giving it time and space so they can come over when she was ready.

I also used a treat tossing trick to help motivate her to come closer. It also helped her practice approaching me, having something good happen then being able to move away with nothing she didnt want to have happen, happen.

Later in the session, I took Parsley out for a walk without her guardian. She protested and attempted to stop it by simply laying down and refusing to move. I pulled her on the leash a bit as I knew this was not a fear based response. She simply didnt want to go and had learned that stopping got her what she wanted.

I kept going and after about 10-12 feet, she popped up and started following along behind me. She tried the stopping strategy a few more times, but each time she did I kept on walking and IMMEDIATELY removed any tension on the leash the second she got up. After 2-4 attempts, she continues walking without any hesitation and seemed to be enjoying herself.

I stopped at the end of the block and sat on a stoop to give her a break. To my surprise, she jumped up on my lap on her own. I gave her some love and attention for a minute, then we headed back to her home.

On the way back I used her pulling on the leash as an opportunity to help her practice approaching strangers. You can watch me use this trick to help a fearful dog approach strangers in the free dog training video below.

Id like to see the guardian arrange for family members to come by a few times a week after watching the above video. The more positive interactions Parsley has with new people, the more confident the dog will be around strangers in the future. With enough practice, she should learn that new people are actually a positive thing as it means she gets a walk and lots of tasty treats.

Helping a dog get over a fear of strangers or men is all about creating positive interactions where the dog is not reactive and does so on its own. We achieve this by creating situations where the dog feels confident and likes the motivation.

Parsley also suffers from separation anxiety, but due to her fear based issues, we focused on those and didnt get to work on the separation anxiety. I suggested we schedule a follow up session in a month to work on that problem so the humans can work on all the other tips I shared in this in home Beverly Hills dog training session.

To help the humans remember what we covered, we filmed a roadmap to success video that you can watch below.