Hello everyone!

Recently I've noticed my pup has developed a sort of fear towards strangers. When we took him to petsmart for the very first time he would completely shut down and try to hide from everyone. As he grew older we kept taking him out to try and get him to be more social with people and their dogs. So far he's gotten much better and actually walks around in the store now. But the other day at petsmart, a man came up to him while I was paying at the register and went to grab at Deamon without asking me if it was okay or even acknowledging me and Deamon unfortunately, snapped at him.

He's done similar things like this before where he'll cry out of fear and hide behind me or my boyfriend when someone goes to pet him. I don't know what could be causing this behavior. My boyfriend thinks it's because he gets unexpectedly touched a lot and roughly played with sometimes by people or their kids out in public. However Deamon doesn't seem to snap at people or have any problem with those who ask us first if its okay to touch him because we are actually able to tell them beforehand to be gentle and slow when petting him. Most of the time people don't ask us for permission before petting him and it worries us because we can't control how he'll react to people popping out of nowhere and grabbing at him. We don't want him to end up biting someone out of fear but we also don't want to isolate him. Any advice? :/  I'm so torn between continuing to take him out and socializing him or just simply leaving him at home to avoid stressing him out. I don't understand, he's so good with us at home! Never has he snapped at us or shown aggression.. It's only when he's out in public.

He needs to get out. Start taking treats with you and have the stranger s give her treats before they pet her so she has something good to associate with them. People that don't ask to touch drive me crazy. It's inconsiderate and rude. Surprisingly I have had some luck with tying a yellow ribbon to my girl's lead or collar. I don't do a bow because people thought I was being cute but just tying it quick to her makes people wonder and they will ask. Yellow ribbons on dogs or their equipment is meant to mean caution. At first I didn't think anyone would pay attention or know, and for the most part people don't know what the ribbon means, but it seems like it catches their attention enough to get them to ask.

TwisterII wrote:

He needs to get out. Start taking treats with you and have the stranger s give her treats before they pet her so she has something good to associate with them. People that don't ask to touch drive me crazy. It's inconsiderate and rude. Surprisingly I have had some luck with tying a yellow ribbon to my girl's lead or collar. I don't do a bow because people thought I was being cute but just tying it quick to her makes people wonder and they will ask. Yellow ribbons on dogs or their equipment is meant to mean caution. At first I didn't think anyone would pay attention or know, and for the most part people don't know what the ribbon means, but it seems like it catches their attention enough to get them to ask.

I get a similar reaction from people when Ami has his backpack on - everyone assumes he's a service dog and asks about him and permission to pet.

Thank you for the advice! I had a guest come over last night and Deamon got scared/slightly aggressive. He eventually calmed down after my guest sat down and started petting him so I guess he has to learn strangers mean no harm.

This is a some what controversial method but I've learned that people are very cautious to touch a dog wearing a muzzle. Interesting since thats when they -can't- bite, but seeing it there makes them leary to grab on.

With a nervous dog I would consider trying it, he's nervous because when hes out in public he expects to get grabbed unexpectedly, his anticipating a negative experience. A muzzle would keep most people back.

If the dog hates the muzzle that will make things stressful in a different way so if you do try it make sure to introduce it to him gradually so that he's not uncomfortable wearing it.

I like that yellow ribbon idea too, if a muzzle sounds too extreme. Anything that makes people stop and ask, some people just dont care though. I've seen people that will pet and play with service dogs wearing "DO NOT PET" vests, so if you have issues with that a muzzle would deter even the rudest of strangers.