How to stop a dog from being reactive to strangers?

To help your dog at home, make sure they don’t have immediate access to the front door. Where possible, use a baby gate to section off a ‘safety room’ that your dog is comfortable in, but a visitor will not need to enter. Place your dog in this room before a visitor arrives, or is allowed in. When your visitor is ready to leave, encourage your dog back into their safety room with food and toy. Have your visitor calmly leave, whilst continuing to ignore your dog. If your dog has issues with strangers outside the home, it’s important to consider where and when you are walking them. You may find certain areas or times in the day are busier and you should ideally avoid these times to try and reduce the number of potential stressors for your dog. Begin your training in a calm, familiar environment without too many distractions. Have your stranger stand or sit still at a distance, and reward your dog whenever they look at the stranger while remaining calm. If your dog is reactive or tense at this point, you need to increase the distance you are working from and try again. If someone your dog doesn’t know approaches you, keep an eye on your dog’s reactions, and reward them if they remain calm. If they seem unsure, use your “This way” cue to encourage your dog to move away from the person, and reward them when they come with you. This teaches them to make a good choice by moving away from things that scare them. When moving your dog away, as much as possible, stay calm and keep your voice and movements relaxed. Reward them for eye contact with you or loose lead walking.

Stopping a dog from lunging at people is all about making sure the dog feels comfortable and confident. If the dog’s handler manages the situation by helping the dog move away from things before it gets startled or fearful, it is essentially practicing not reacting to strangers. This is a version of something called BAT or Behavior Adjustment Training and its a great way to help a dog who lunges at people. You want to make sure its a wide open place that isnt too busy. Sniffing is a displacement behavior that can calm down many fearful or anxious dogs, so green space is important. Teaching your dog to “find it” is easy to do, simply show your dog a treat and say “find it” as you toss it into the ground right in front of the dog. Once your dog has learned to search for things hearing the “find it” cue, you can preemptively stop your dog from barking or lunging at people by tossing the treats away from whatever it is you know your dog’s going to react to. If you spot a dog offering any of these indicators, immediately play the find it game or call them away from whatever it is they are looking at. I recommended that Boba‘s guardian practice this exercise a couple of times a week in 20 to 30 minute practice sessions.