How to teach your dog to greet other dogs nicely?

To teach your dog to greet other dogs nicely, what we should all aim for are appropriate on-leash greetings with other dogs. 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. 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. Appropriate On-Leash Greeting includes both dogs consenting to the interaction, short and sweet greetings, dogs greeting with loose body language, and if one dog turns or moves away the other dog does not follow. 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. Remember, just because your dog is friendly does not mean he is being polite, he needs to not only be friendly towards other dogs, but also be respectful of other dogs.

It starts with developing their ability to listen to you and accept your guidance even when they’re excited and want to do something else, which gives you the ability to teach them right from wrong in any situation. If your dog won’t listen to you reliably at home, or without much distraction around, they’re never going to listen when they’re SUPER excited about another dog. The most important things to teach are: Your dog’s self-control and Your dog’s ability to listen to you, even when they don’t want to. Once you have a good training foundation, and your dog has learnt self-control and how to listen even when they’d rather do something else, you can start teaching them to greet dogs calmly close at hand. This means you can closely monitor their behaviour and step in if they make a bad choice, to teach them what is and isn’t appropriate. As they get more practice, they develop the habit of greeting nicely and eventually, you can trust them to greet new dogs politely, even without you right there.