I read some of the articles on this site which are a bit confusing. One article advises owners not to allow their dogs be petted by strangers, or come in contact with unknown dogs. But another article encourages owners to give strangers hot-dogs to feed their dogs in order to properly socialize them. Can anyone comment on this.

I don't allow my dog to go up to strangers, but if someone we don't know ASKS if they can pet my dog (and they are an adult), I let them.

If a child walks up to my dog, I always make a point to explain that they need to ask first because some dogs are afraid of children and might bite. I also wait for the parents to show up to 'okay' it all.

I never offer for people to pet my dogs. That just seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

If a pup is shy or skittish then turning everyone into a hotdog dispenser is good for them to get over the shyness.

But if dogs are pack animals, and we let a stranger pet them, doesn't that confuse them?

 Quote: Michael Kosek

I read some of the articles on this site which are a bit confusing. One article advises owners not to allow their dogs be petted by strangers, or come in contact with unknown dogs. But another article encourages owners to give strangers hot-dogs to feed their dogs in order to properly socialize them. Can anyone comment on this.

I don't think you will find much contradiction here about unknown dogs.

Different goals (protection, companion, therapy, etc., etc.) and different dogs' personalities, though, generate different personal feelings about strangers petting one's dogs.


JMO.

Thank you.

My dogs aren't confused n I don't care who pets my male. My female is antisocial so I don't force the issue, people generally don't ask to pet her, its much easier when your dog hates people

For the intent of Leerburg's articles, turning people into hotdog dispensers for a shy dog is intended to alleviate problems down the road. For example, fear based aggression issues because the pup has been taught that its OK to be afraid and shy away from strangers. A behavior you see in a pup will carry over into adulthood in an amplified way, its the handlers job to judge how to handle it while the dog is young in order to get the desired result as an adult.

Being social with other dogs is un-neccesary and risky IMO, but lets say you have a pup that is afraid of other dogs for some reason and tries to run the other way whenever another dog heads his way. If you let that behavior continue then odds are that when your cute lil puppy is a big puppy at 12 or 14 months old, he will be barking at every dog coming up the street toward him, "attack or be attacked" mentality because he grew up thinking it's correct to fear other dogs. So if my pup shows me that behavior then I will make him sit next to me and accept that there is another dog walking up to us. No sniffing, no socializing, just sit there and deal with it. The pup grows up thinking "OK, I just gotta sit there and deal with it and look, nothing happens".

Now take that same logic and apply it to a pup that is naturally shy of people. If you let the behavior continue then you will run into problems having guests into your home later. Some people misunderstand this as the dog being suspicious and protective of their home, when in reality the dog is simply just scared of people.

These are kinda extreme examples, and often times pups just get over it on their own. But it does no harm to deal with it while you can still easily mold your puppy's behavior to avoid these possible problems later. I would rather teach my pup to be confident and social than to be shy of people and letting the pup practice the stupid backing-away behavior. A confident pup is a happy social pup.

As Connie said, it is goal specific for the owner, but I would make people a hotdog dispenser for any shy dog regardless of the goal. If I want an antisocial guard dog that doesn't like people, I will choose the pup that is confidently (forwardly) aggressive to people at 6 months old, not the pup that runs away from people Not the dog for most people though, if you see that aggression at that age you are in for alot of pain in the ass.

Great advise! Makes sense. If you have a shy dog towards other dogs and make it sit until the other dog passes, do you correct the dog if it tries to back away?

Just have a really quiet, really well-behaved dog approach with his owner during a walk. Have the other person put their dog in a sit or down and hang around with your puppy.

Eventually, the puppy should see that there's nothing to be afraid of and will be comfortable getting closer and closer.

Don't push him though. Don't encourage the fear by cooing and petting him either when he's acting scared

I would only correct an adult dog for showing aggression, but not for showing fear.
If your dog is so scared that he doesn't hold the sit, I don't think it's fair to correct him for that. Lower expectations a bit.
Just stand there and talk to the other owner while you ignore your dog. If the other dog ignores yours and you stand there long enough, your dog should calm down and stop trying to run away or hide. Then you could ask for a sit and expect him to maintain it.

My male shepherd was shy around large dogs as a puppy. I didn't make a big deal out of it. I just made sure we met friendly, calm dogs every day on walks. At first my puppy would stand next to me and even hide behind me on occasion but I simply ignored him and talked to the other dog owner.

As my pup got older, he lost his shyness and would eagerly step forward to sniff the other dog.

He's now as dog-friendly as can be and is very confident but gentle and playful with other dogs. He will also ignore other dogs with a "leave it" command from me.
Worked well in our case - it just takes patience and small steps. Don't ask the dogs to play together or even to greet eachother. They should just learn to be around another dog without freaking out.

Good luck


Oh and just in case it wasn't obvious, all this should be done on leash where both dogs are under control ;-)

 Quote:

Being social with other dogs is un-neccesary and risky IMO, but lets say you have a pup that is afraid of other dogs for some reason and tries to run the other way whenever another dog heads his way. If you let that behavior continue then odds are that when your cute lil puppy is a big puppy at 12 or 14 months old, he will be barking at every dog coming up the street toward him, "attack or be attacked" mentality because he grew up thinking it's correct to fear other dogs.

Awesome explanation! Though my pup didn't exactly run from others the outcome was about the same. Sadly, I probably helped create it by doing what all the "experts" told me to do with my pup.

IMO, puppy-to-dog "socialization" is way over rated, especially if your pup is showing signs of over-reacting or stressing from it. I should have done exactly what Mike said ... sat my pup down, not made such a big stinkin' fuss over it and not insist he be OK with every dog that came down the pike. But it was pounded into my head that ANY reactivity was inappropriate and the goal should always be a dog who gets along with other dogs. So I kept trying to work things out and some of the things we did (that in theory, should have helped) just made it worse. By the time he was 14 months he was a lunging, barking, get-them-before-they-get-me mess. Which is a little odd because he's never been "attacked" or "jumped" or had an aggressive dog incident since I brought him home at 13 weeks.

Now, at 32 months we are finally making some decent progress. Maturity has helped, but make no mistake, this has been a real drag to fix. (I'm glad he doesn't have issues with people too!) We are working toward neutrality; he doesn't have to want to mingle with other dogs, but I won't accept drama, meltdowns or one-upmanship at the sight of them either. His attitude is improving and I'm better educated and better prepared (than I was a year ago) to deal with any stuff that comes up.

Gotta love hindsight, huh?

Cher