Do People Fear Your Dog?

No matter how much you love dogs, it doesn’t mean that all your friends and family love them. There are people who have had a bad experience with a dog when they were kids. Some people simply have phobias about dogs.

Sometimes dogs do things or act certain ways that scare people. In these cases, it’s important to try to learn what scares people. It’s up to you, as a dog owner, to find out what you can do to stop your dog from doing things that may frighten people.

The Basis of the Fear

The first thing you should do is to talk to your friends and family to find out what they think about dogs. You need to find out if they have any particular fears. For instance, think what it would be like if you were scared of someone’s dog when it growled at you. How would you feel? Would you like the dog’s owner to blame you if the dog growled, or think that you had an irrational fear? Of course not!

So, talk to your friends and family and find out the things that scare them about dogs. You should start out by thinking that there is a good reason why someone may be scared. Then you can see if you can do something to work on the problem.

You can ask your friends and family members if they’ve seen your dog do something that scared them. Ask them if they experienced something frightening with a dog when they were kids. Were they ever attacked by a dog? If you can figure out what caused someone to be afraid of something then you can start looking for ways to overcome the fear.

Is Your Dog Scaring People?

You may find out that your dog is doing something that scares people and causes a problem. If that’s the case, then try to keep your mind open. Don’t get mad or defensive. Most of the time owners don’t want to admit that their own dog could be the cause of a problem. They have blinders on. They think their dog is perfect.

But, if your dog is growling at people, or doing other things to scare them, you need to recognize that there’s a problem. It’s not the fault of your friends or family members. Your dog is doing things to frighten people.

You should start by looking at the behavior. If your dog is being aggressive for space or territorial reasons, you need to control the area and make sure that your dog knows you’re in charge.

As soon as your dog knows that you’re the one who’s in charge you will need to make sure that people are treating your dog properly. Make sure that people are not trying to challenge your dog or get physical with him as these actions can make dogs uncomfortable and fearful.

Is the Fear from Something in the Past?

In many cases people are scared of a dog and it has nothing to do with anything the dog is doing. The dog isn’t causing the fear and anxiety your friends and family are feeling. You may feel like just telling them to “deal with” their fears but that’s a little callous.

On the other hand, you can’t just tell your dog to go get in a corner and stay there, hiding him from your family and friends. Instead, there are some good ways to deal with a conflict like this one. Your dog and your family and friends can learn to get along together without fear or blame.

You can begin by teaching your dog not to jump on people. Make sure your dog stays calm and behaves well when strangers visit. Next, make sure that your visitors know that they don’t have to pet your dog or interact with him. They are not obligated to greet your dog. Your dog should not beg or demand attention.

For your dog, when he is ignored, he should learn to ignore the visitor. Your dog should learn that this kind of body language, where he is ignored, means that someone wants to be left alone. If someone doesn’t touch the dog to pet him, or make direct eye contact, the dog should ignore the visitor.

Eventually, you can show your family and friends that your dog is calm and well-behaved. Your guests may learn, in time, that your dog is under your control and not to be feared.

If your dog needs some training to develop better manners toward your family and friends you can contact www.CanineBehaviorSpecialists.com at 615-776-9663 or a good trainer in your area.

Until next time…..