hi! im a police officer in belgium. im training a young dog currently to become a patrol dog. i had my pup since he was eight weeks and this dog has really solid nerves( it seems). he is very self confident on strange locations and there isnt one place where he showed any kind of fear whatsoever. water, bridges, concerts, balloon meetings,open stairs, you name it and the dog has done it. when it comes to strangers wanting to pet him, he will bark. i believe my dog has strong genetic pack drive. that might be an answer or am i wrong here? my dog has been among people day and night but he will still bark when people raise their hand to pet him. you might think my dog is not self confident, but my helpers at the club praise me for having such self confident dog, he proves it on the sleeve(for puppies,any location, any helper). my dog had a gun shot test at nine weeks and he didnt even look back. explain that to me pls. and should i correct the barking? handing food to strange people whole the time is hard since het meets tons of people every day that want to pet him. he is now 4.5 months old. for the people being concerned my dog is doing sleeve work,he had build a lot of drive doing it. i have most of Ed's DVd's and i know he's not fond of bringing a young dog on the helper but he just loves the game. any ideas on the barking or just ignore, many of my colleague's K9 cant be petted by strangers.

i remember Ed saying in the DVD raising a working puppy we shouldnt allow our dog to be petted unless its a sharp dog. would you consider the dog being sharp although he hasnt showed any signs of fear or hessitation in all kinds of situations...

Describe the barking when people go to pet him. Is he backing up?

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i remember Ed saying in the DVD raising a working puppy we shouldnt allow our dog to be petted unless its a sharp dog. would you consider the dog being sharp although he hasnt showed any signs of fear or hessitation in all kinds of situations...

Doesnt quite make sense. If my dog is sharp, I'm not allowing people to pet him. Too risky.

If you are raising a PUPPY who is sharp, it can help to allow more socialization.

If you have an adult that is good in the work, but who isn't social, just ignore it.

Don't let people pet the dog. I wouldn't address it at all.