My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help?

My 7 month old pup has never been abused. i have had him since 2 months. I have been taking him to puppy class where can experience being around people. He has been going for 4 months now. I walked him in town, around the neighbourhood, through crowds.…

    My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help?

    My 7 month old pup has never been abused. i have had him since 2 months. I have been taking him to puppy class where can experience being around people. He has been going for 4 months now. I walked him in town, around the neighbourhood, through crowds.…...
    Dogs Training Discussions : My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help?...

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    • My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help?

      My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help? Dogs Training Discussions
      My 7 month old pup has never been abused. i have had him since 2 months. I have been taking him to puppy class where can experience being around people. He has been going for 4 months now. I walked him in town, around the neighbourhood, through crowds. He is absolutely fine when people are walking by him, his tail is high and he looks fairly confident. Even in busy city crowds he is fine. But the only problem is when men try to actually interact with him. I can see how this has developed, because we never really had many men come to visit, it was mostly friends and other mums and kids around our neighbourhood. He is exccellent with kids, so gentle and calm. With strange women, he will be cautious and keep his distance for a minute, but after a minute or so, he will approach tail wagging.When men try to interact with him, he gets very skttish and if they try to pet the top of his head, he will move away and sometimes bark, but he still comes back to investigate a few minutes later. It seems like he is very interested and inquisitive with new people, he WANTS to go and sniff them and check them out. But he just doesnt like it when they talk to him or try to pet him.How can i help him overcome this? I dont want to be forcing people to help me with my dog, as i know not all people like dogs or have the time. I looked online about intensive 2 week dog confidence courses, where the dog goes away for 2 weeks, but i dont know. Any help? If it helps, he is a Spanish Water Dog. They have a very 'stranger cautious' nature, it is a very typical breed trait, but i dont want him to fear strangers :(

      My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help?

      My dog isnt good with strangers, how can i help? Dogs Training Discussions
    • Invite your friends over so your dog can get more used to other people. Your dog probably just wants to protect you from strangers. Our dog is afraid of bearded men and barks at them because they don't look or smell like his master (my dad). Hope this helps!

    • Many naturally 'reserved' dogs are cautious of men because they tend to have more intimidating features: lower voice, walking tall/confidently, etc. Dogs can be cautious around figures that appear more "dominant". This coupled with not having enough socialization is probably the cause of your pup's fear.You need to solve this as soon as possible before he becomes an adult. As a puppy, his mind is still relatively vulnerable and malleable and it is up to you to choose what he learns in this crucial stage. This is not to say that you cannot teach him as an adult---adults are extremely teachable--but two things make it more important to teach him now: 1. What he learns as a puppy will have more of an IMPACT on his later years than something he learned at two or three years, and 2. Behaviour problems become habits if they are allowed to remain for too long. It sounds like he is a fairly stable dog still, and the issue isn't severe. So far, his reaction is pretty normal. However, it could escalate, so you should prevent it doing so by socializing him with men as much as possible and as often as possible. Tell people not to approach him in a confident, straightforward manner. Tell them that he's "a bit shy" and to move slowly and wait for him to approach THEM first. Encourage him to do so and make it a positive experience. You can teach him the command, "Say Hello", which basically means that he walks up to the other person, places a paw on their shoe/or makes contact with his muzzle, then runs back to you for a treat. In this way, it becomes a challenge that,A. He knows how to deal with. You've given him a default behaviour instead of him getting upset and not knowing what to do. He walks over and touches the other person, then returns to you. When he's scared, he can rely on this as something stable and secure.B. Is fun. He gets a treat, it's more of a positive experience, and you are rewarding him for acting this way. Rather than the person approaching and scaring him, HE gets to approach THE PERSON. Big difference. This method should really help his comfort levels while being approached by strangers outside of structured training sessions. However, in the end, you must teach him to deal with being approached and intimidated so it no longer becomes a fear. Don't do this outside of the home. It's too hard for your dog to handle. Teach his "default behaviour" and practice it wherever/whenever possible. Default behaviour is a balanced equation, with a positive and negative thing on each side to neutralize each other. Take a look:Person approaches and he feels intimidated (negative) default behaviour kicks in and he knows what to do (positive) = makes contact with person (negative) + gets a treat (positive)Eventually, the negative things should start to be affiliated with POSITIVITY in his mind. Some dogs with terrible fear problems never completely recover, but are so well trained to their default behaviour that they no longer react with lunging/barking/cowering, etc. Their "default behaviour" is a replacement for their fear response, even if they're still apprehensive. For other dogs (probably like your pup) with *minor* fear issues, the default behaviour "fixes" the problem and is no longer needed after a while. If this happens, then there is a second step after "fixing" the problem. After you fix something, you often want to top it by adding a "reinforcer" or something to really prevent the issue from happening again. The problem was created because it was located in a weak area, and rather than just replacing the hole, you want to add a second patch so that accident-prone area doesn't become weak again. For your pup, the same concept applies. Go an extra step by training him to be comfortable with people yelling and doing jumping-jacks around him through positive reinforcement, taking one step at a time. This ensures he is MORE comfortable than most dogs with extra activity, making sure he REALLY doesn't revert back to his previous fear response. His tolerance level doesn't need to be abnormally high, but you should make sure he won't get scared of people dancing around him and talking to him. Don't send him away to be trained. That's almost never a good idea. You can't see what they're doing with your dog and you have not observed how they train and treat him. Plus, when he comes back he may have only learned with them--and go back to the previous behaviour with you because YOU have not trained him. Best of luck :)