One question I’m frequently asked is how should I handle my dog meeting a new person? Should the new person give my dog treats so they learn to love new people? Should I make my dog sit before meeting a new person? Whats the best way? For me the answer is “Go Say Hi”!
If a new person feeds your dog treats, you’ll be setting an expectation that new people will have treats. It makes sense on its face that pairing new people with food will help socialize your pup, but it also leads to the situation later on where your dog will run up to a new person expecting a treat. Usually people won’t carry dog treats around, so in response to your dog sitting in front of them, tail wagging, waiting for a treat, They may think “Oh what a friendly dog, I’ll lean down and pet you”. This might be fine for some, but a certain percentage of dogs will NOT like this. The abrupt invasion of personal space when they were expecting food may cause some dogs to lash out and bark or even lunge at the person for coming close to them. Fortunately theres another way.
When approaching a new person who wants to interact with your dog, stop and ask the person to hold out their hand with their palm facing your dog. With Fido in heel position (left side of the body) and focused on you, give the cue “Go Say Hi” and point towards the new friend.
At this point your dog will perform the “Touch” behavior with the new person, and TURN BACK TO THE OWNER FOR THE TREAT.
This reduces the amount of time your dog is in very close proximity to the new person, minimizing the chance your dog will get scared and have a bad experience.
This regains your control over your dogs attention immediately.
All around this method of meeting new people is the safest way to ensure positive experiences surrounding strangers, and creates a dog who won’t just run up to people who walk by them on the sidewalk.