How do you stop your dog from greeting every dog?

Now, if I see a dog coming and it's too narrow a path, I go the opposite direction so he isn't face to face with a dog in an enclosed space. I basically move away from the situation but this doesn't help correct it. If there's a little space on the side of the path, I step aside and wait for the dog to pass. I make him sit if the dog is further away. But he's got a threshold after which he jumps/ lunges to go meet the dog. I hold him back as much as possible. If there's a clearing on the side of the path I take him to the clearing, make him sit, stay and practice 'look at me'. He can't look at me for the first few seconds as the dog is close, but after that I have his attention. This attention span took weeks to build up to.

If you don’t want someone petting your dog, let them know. If someone asks and you don't want them to touch your dog, say no. If they are going to pet your dog without asking, the first thing to do is say STOP, and / or step in front or step away. You shouldn't have to give an explanation, but have one in your back pocket if you feel you need to. It might be ‘my dog is in training’ or ‘I am teaching her not to pull towards people because it hurts my back’, 'I am working on her not jumping up on people' or whatever works for you. Have the words ready, rehearse them, because in that moment, they need to come out naturally, comfortably, and quickly. Get a bandana or lead sleeve that tells people what’s the story, for example ‘Dog in training, please do not pet’ or ‘My dog needs space’.

If your dog is insisting on saying hi to every dog they see then they might be friendly, but they are not being polite. Not every dog wants to say hi and they need to respect that. A calm, confident, respectful dog will not be approaching copious amounts of random dogs for no reason. Saying hi to every dog is a big red flag to an impolite greeter. The best thing you can do to keep your dog safe is to understand what an appropriate on-leash greeting looks like, and what an inappropriate on-leash greeting looks like. If you are unsure if your dog is about to have an appropriate or inappropriate on-leash greeting you should air on the side of caution and opt not to stop and say hi. For some dogs, it is ok for them to say hi to dogs once in a while, once in awhile means saying hi to only 1 out of every 10-20 dogs.

Getting your puppy to stop the above behavior requires a full-court press approach to training. There are several commands that your pup needs to learn before having successful on-walk greetings, such as sit, down, stay, off and leave it, but perhaps one of the most important commands is settle. Settle, when trained correctly, will actually get your puppy to calm down a bit when commanded. Another important command is look, by teaching your puppy to look at your eyes on command, you will more easily get her to listen to your next important words, such as sit, or stay, or off. I would also teach your puppy the quiet command, because most likely, she will bark when excited and this gives you a command to stop that. I cannot overstate the importance of a good half hour of panting prior to taking your puppy out on a walk, a vigorous game of fetch or tug o’ war will help burn off that pent-up energy, perhaps enough to get her to focus on you when the greeting happens. If/when your puppy goes nuts, step on the leash so that there is very little slack between your foot and your puppy’s harness connection, this will automatically stop the jumping and lunging. Use everything in your arsenal at this point to help your puppy calm down and listen to you prior to getting into greeting distance with the other dog. If your pup barks, use the quiet command, if she jumps, use off, every time she stops barking for 3 seconds, mark it and reward, every time she resigns from jumping, mark it and reward. Simultaneously, you should be using look followed by settle followed by sit and stay, reward reward reward.