Help if Your Puppy Snaps When Dogs Approach

For this in-home puppy training session we shared tips to help if your puppy snaps when dogs approach from the front.

Rusty is an 11 month-old Cattle Dog Shepherd mix who is currently in our Puppy Elementary class. In addition to puppy training exercises, we end each class with play time to help the pups develop and practice their socialization skills.

We noticed that Dusty is fine when a dog sniffs his but or is ok approaching other dogs in group play. But if a puppy approches his front, dusty gets stiff and starts showing cut off signals. If the other puppy doesnt back away, this puppy snaps when dogs approach.

Since many dogs and puppies approach each other, this is obviously an issue his human was concerned about.

Now its important to note that front to front or front facing approach is the most difficult for dogs and puppies. Most dogs consider a direct frontal approach as rude or a challange. Dogs are more likely to take a rounded approach and arrive at the other dog’s side or rear end.  A sideways approach is considered polite in the dog world.

While front facing isnt the most polite approach, it happens a lot. So if your puppy gets mad when dogs approach, you need to get that sorted out ASAP so you have positive puppy greetings. Time for some positive puppy training!

And the good news is puppies are still developing their social skills, so behavior modificaiton is possible. In fact the younger the puppy training starts, the better.

Ideally you would want to practice this tip in a large outdoor area. But the guardian had a large back yard and we were burning daylight so we decided to work on Dusty’s puppy greeting skills at his home.

What to Do if Your Puppy Snaps When Dogs Approach

If your dog or puppy doesnt like other dogs approaching, its important to identify why. Some time a puppy snaps when dogs approach because they are scared, others due to lack of early socialization. I was able to confirm there were no health issues as an injury or other health issues could contribute to having your puppy snaps when dogs approach

I wanted to creat a positive puppy greeting so I arranged for one of our dog daycare attendants to help by bringing her dog Fiona. Now Dusty has only shown some cut off signals so I didnt consider his behavior aggressive. But I did let my guard down which created an issue you will see when you watch the free puppy training video below.

When conducting positive puppy training while dealing with a pup’s emotions, you need to make sure things are safe. In retrospect, we should have used a tether or a second person to secure the leash. The good news is Fiona was fine, so we used the error as a learning experince.

In Dusty’s case, I think this is a combination of late social development and advanced puppy greeting situations. In puppy class, there are multiple dogs in class and its an indoor play area.

But at home, Dusty has been able to have one on one playdates with other puppies without incident. I recommended the guardian continue setting those up. The more positive front greetings Dusty has, the more comfortable he will be with dogs approaching that way.

But if the guardian runs into any issues, they can take a break, then come back and practice this easy puppy training exercise.

I asked Dusty’s guardian to keep me in the loop on how playdates go in case we need to adjust or modify this puppy training exercise on creating winderful puppy greetings.