Quote: dennis jones

Its what you want the dog to do that determines petting or not. If you want sloppy happy dog park house pet go ahead have fun. I want my dogs to focus on me when I'm "working" them, not nose bumping people for pets and treats. As Ed pointed out in his DVD once you shown the puppy that other people are nothing to be concerned with and you are the most interesting thing in his world you really get some solid training in. JMHO

I totally agree with Dennis,

I have made the mistake of letting everyone have free rein with my Malinois pup when she was younger. It has been an uphill battle to keep her focused on me since.

I really wish that I never allowed it, especially total strangers. Some people can be/are really knobs about it. They see a young pup and gravitate towards your pup like it is their god given right to pet and go all smooshy over your pup.

Now I have to constantly correct her and encourage her not to deviate her focus from me on to strangers, it is a real pain. I've seen people get really offended with me now that I am trying to break her of that bad habit, when I correct her and walk away. They are like "Hnuuh I want to pet your puppy" totally clueless.

Plus to tell you the truth it is a safety issue for your dog as well. That's all she needs is to even make a move at someone to go get pet and that person is afraid of dogs and boots your dog in the chompers. Whose fault would that be? Yours... Your dog is not in control. Why even take a risk with the welfare of your animal?

I'm really pushing for my dog to be always in the return to heel position before anyone can touch her, even if I would let them... Mostly I just cinch up the lead and walk away now.

To bad if they don't like it.

One thing that confused me is the way Ed encourages two strange girls to give his pup a treat in the puppy DVD? But in another DVD he shows how to teach the dog to ignore strangers?

That was just a demonstration on how to socialize a puppy that needs it.

According to Ed, if a puppy is friendly and confident around people, there's no reason to let anyone pet it.

If the puppy however seems afraid or unsure of people, then he recommends having strangers toss treats to the pup, and even pet him to show him that there's nothing to be afraid of.

Once the puppy is comfortable with people, this petting & treating stops

The only valid reason I can think of as to why a stranger should not pet your dog is liability. You don't want your dog accidentally play-nipping someone and drawing blood then getting sued because they overreacted to your mean vicious dog If you handle and train the dog correctly then focusing on the handler shouldn't be an issue. Most peoples dogs here are family dogs, pets and weekend sport dogs. It really won't affect the dogs working abilities to be petted by a few strangers here and there.

If you can avoid it, or are in the middle of training, or there is a liability concern, then sure, don't let people pet your dog. Other than that, it's usually more of a jealousy thing than a practical thing... "Oh I don't like it that my dog likes this stranger". It's very annoying, I know all about it But it hurts the handler more than it does the dog. I'm not saying "Go let everyone pet your dog!", but don't go into panic mode everytime someone touches your dog. The stress levels are more harmful to the handler than the experience was to the dog

Every trainer has their own style and their own beliefs. If you don't know what you're doing, pick a style and follow it by all means. Most of the common stuff that is discussed out there, Leerburg, Balabanov etc is great stuff and your dog will do well by it.

 Quote: yuko blum

That was just a demonstration on how to socialize a puppy that needs it.

According to Ed, if a puppy is friendly and confident around people, there's no reason to let anyone pet it.

If the puppy however seems afraid or unsure of people, then he recommends having strangers toss treats to the pup, and even pet him to show him that there's nothing to be afraid of.

Once the puppy is comfortable with people, this petting & treating stops

That's exactly what Ed said in the DVD. The pup he used in the demonstration wasn't afraid or shy of people, but was only used to show what to do with pups who are. I would imagine it would be hard for Ed to find a pup within his litters that was afraid of people, so he had to use what he had

I agree with Mike Arnold's statement: "A dog is a dog is a dog, and any dog at any time is unpredictable." Some may be more predictable than others, but it's not something I would count on. All my GSDs since I was little, if they were being petted by someone even children, always looked at me with the unmistakeable "can you please make them go away now, I don't want to do this???" They tolerated it but just didn't like it, so I learned from them, and don't subject them to petting.

Judy, that story beats all vet stories I have read so far.
Good GRIEF!!!! I have to laugh, I just have to...good grief!!!

Sandy, I figured it was worth a mention!

It was one of the more insane moments in my experiences with him .

I don't know who I'm more mad at...her for not being the professional I should be able to assume she is or me for assuming she was the professional she turned out not to be .

As much as I want to be mad at her and know I have every right to be, I think I'm the bigger twit for not reacting fast enough and pulling my dog away. I swear it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, I couldn't move, or speak . I was that flabberghasted.

I now think the smart thing to do is assume every living soul (except for you guys, of course) is a raging idiot where my dog is concerned and act accordingly .

Hahahaha, "weekend sport dogs" heheheh thats a good one! Funny, Mike.

I like Ed's thoughts on this one, and as our pup gets older more and more people (Adults) do ignore him and his antics, but he seems almost desperate to meet people.

Also, since I do take him with me almost EVERYWHERE and we are at many an Ice Arena for my son's hockey games and there are children everywhere, I'm with you that I think it is good for him to be able to handle being pet by children, et cetera.

I have noticed that MOST people do Ask 1st if it is okay for them to pet him.