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How do I teach my dog to be calm when meeting people?
Fletcher Leffler
2025-07-24 17:18:51
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: 18
Try to avoid situations with lots of strangers. When you are out on walks, try to maintain the distance from people that your dog is comfortable with. This might involve safely crossing the road so that strangers don’t try to approach them head-on, walking on quieter routes, or going out at quieter times. It's also important to think about what you are doing on a walk. Stay calm and try not to pull on the lead. Sudden pressure on the lead can increase their anxiety, as they may feel restricted and unable to move. Change your dog's response to people using rewards. To change your dog's reaction to new people, you want to change the emotion that your dog feels when they see someone new. With treats in your hand, head out for a walk. As you walk, watch your dog carefully and as soon as they notice a person, calmly acknowledge that they have seen them with a marker word such as ‘yes’ or ‘good,’ and then reward them with a treat.
Miller Wuckert
2025-07-21 12:49:45
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: 15
Your dog will need to learn to be calm, comfortable and quiet around unfamiliar people. To train your dog to act appropriately and be calm when he encounters strangers you should never punish reactive behavior, do not yell or pull back on a lead, which creates more excitement and anxiety and makes the behavior worse. You want your dog to be mentally relaxed when he encounters a stranger. Although he may be happy, and excited, or bark to let you know someone is there, there would be a confident, balanced, relaxed posture, and his behavior should be controlled and calm. The best way to create calm behavior around strangers is to socialize your dog early by exposing him to lots of different people and situations. Do not punish or force your dog to accept handling from a stranger during training, you will need to exercise patience and move at your dog's pace.
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Jaydon Feil
2025-07-14 02:35:15
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: 22
We're getting closer to a default sit or drop when a stranger walks past/approaches, but only people without dogs. I've been using our daily walks to try to practise being more calm as strangers approach for a pat or walk past, but it feels like super slow going.
Anastacio Grady
2025-07-06 12:42:36
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: 21
To help your dog to settle when new people come to visit it’s a good idea to have a safe space that your dog can happily settle in, away from the excitement. Giving your dog a good walk beforehand will help him/her to relax, since they will have burned off any excess energy. A tired dog will find it easier to switch off and relax in their safe space. Try and get your dog used to spending short periods of time alone in their quiet place so that it’s a normal event.
You can also use a physical barrier that reduces the risk of any unwanted physical contact between your visitor and your dog. If your dog is super keen to greet your visitor or to ward them off, then tossing some treats away from where you are will encourage your dog to accept some distance. Delicious long-lasting chews and enrichment toys like Kongs and Lickimats can help your dog to calm down and relax.
It’s completely ok for you to gently explain to your guests that you don’t want to encourage jumping up, or leaping into laps, or whatever your house rules are. Use your crate or safety gate and some yummy chews to give everyone some space to calm down.
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Vern Cremin
2025-06-23 14:35:27
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: 21
To help your dog learn to be calm when meeting people, it's best to begin practicing somewhere quiet. Reward relaxed behaviours, to begin with you may just need to reward your dog for any behaviour that doesn’t involve staring at you, pulling on the lead, or barking. Sit quietly on a chair with your dog on the lead and a blanket on the floor. Drop tiny bite-size treats to your dog as a reward for settling down on the blanket. Gradually reward more relaxed behaviours.
When your dog is relaxed, start increasing the time they must be settled before you reward them. Slowly start building up distractions by practising the ‘settle’ in increasingly busy areas or ask a helper to create a distraction by walking past, progressing to more exciting activities like sweeping or skipping. If your dog becomes unsettled or gets up, ignore them and wait until they settle again before rewarding them. Try to resist telling your dog what to do during training, the aim is for them to learn for themselves to be calm and to relax.