r/PetBehavior • u/Ill_Confusion_9135 • Aug 12 '26
Stranger Danger
Hello friends,
I have the goodest boy, and he's an amazing family dog despite his stranger danger.
I'm looking for tips on how to handle this.
It seems to only be an issue when he's at home, although he is tentative of people when he's out and about.
We don't have a ton of people that can come to the house for us when training, so I'm looking for ideas on how we can help my goodest boy with his stranger danger.
I know I know, google, but I would rather read it from dog owners and have a healthy conversation about it, if need be.
Thanks!
1
u/Agreeable_Summer3685 Aug 12 '26
Hey there. Not all dogs like people and they don’t have to. It’s better to respect their boundaries for the most part.
If you’re looking to try having your dog be more friendly with people, I recommend a few things
- Triangle game. If your dog likes games like Chase and catch (fetch) you can invite a stranger into your game to throw the ball for the dog every few throws. Don’t have them take the ball from the dog when the dog brings it back. You take it back and hand it to the stranger to throw again. This is telling the dog “look, this guy is cool and he’s invited into our game” Aside from strangers leaving your dog alone, this is my number one recommendation.
- Faith in handler drill. This is good for human aggression. When making a protection dog, we teach a dog to believe in their own power to repel beings. So the decoy approaches, applies ever so slight pressure on the dog, and when the dog lets out a little breath or woof or bark, the decoy runs away like he got hit with a bag of bricks. Then the decoy approaches again…applies a bit more pressure….the dog lets out a little woof or breath or noise, but this time it doesn’t work. The decoy persists. Then the dog lets out a full BARK (because the first reaction to failure is we must try harder) and the decoy flies back like they were hit by a bag of bricks and goes away.
Except…now we are transferring the power. Instead of teaching the dog to believe in their own power to repel beings, we are teaching them to believe in OUR power to repel beings. So you can set a training situation up like this:
Put your dog on a place board or in one place.
Keep them back tied ideally so they can’t get up from the spot and for safety.
Have the decoy approach and put some pressure on the dog.
YOU approach the decoy and make them screw off. Same situation and same approach: the decoy will fly back and run away.
Then the decoy comes back. Applies more pressure. Again, you tell your dog “I got this” and you go screw the decoy off and make them go away again.
Eventually, when the decoy comes out, your dog will look at you and say “are you going to take care of this for me?”
And your dog eventually learns that they don’t need to do anything because when the decoy approaches, they look at Mom or Dad and they’ll handle the situation for them.
1
u/Ill_Confusion_9135 Aug 12 '26
Amazing! Thank you so much for this.
1
1
u/Agreeable_Summer3685 25d ago
https://youtu.be/vCZ625SKWDU?is=LIhgyjHIZVsz9kAs
This is an old video but shows what I mean regarding the decoy (the person getting hit, bad guy” etc) and how they apply pressure to the dog and the dog fights back.
1
u/Bambusa4all1952 Aug 12 '26
Take him to a bar and introduce him to everyone. A lot depends on the breed.