My biggest pet peeve since we got a puppy? Those intrusive people who feel it's OK to loudly baby talk Ezio even though he's FREAKING out on his leash and I'm clearly trying to calm him/teach him to be calm around other people and dogs. Yes, he's cute. Yes, he's a husky. No, I don't appreciate you taking the training 3 steps back and ruining our walk. Please go away and kindly STFU.

It's one thing to ask me if you can pet him BEFORE you freak my dog out, it's entirely another to just assume it's alright and yell your baby talk from across the street. He goes from the most well behaved 6 month old husky to almost unmanageable - pulling, whining, jumping, barking. And when you see me struggling to sit him down and hush him, and you keep doing it? SERIOUSLY?! I don't know how to handle these people. It's not Ezio's fault he gets so excited when a random stranger does it on purpose, but it literally makes the rest of the walk miserable. He gets more excited for everything, he pulls harder and more often. Nothing can calm him afterward. I don't know how training a puppy to be a well-behaved, calm dog is even possible with all these idiots hijacking the leash training.

Don't be afraid to tell them to stop!

I was hesitant about this at first because I thought it would be rude. But one day we had a particularly difficult walk and by the time the fifth person approached my dog I lost it. That poor man must have thought I was crazy. But he listened and stepped away until I had Saphire under control.

Now I just tell people that they need to stop and let us come to them. Then I make Saphire sit, focus on me and then we slowly approach the new person. If she gets wild again we start over with sit. So far things are going much better.

And for the people who won't listen, and I promise there will be a few, tell them they can NOT interact with your dog period. Then turn and walk the other direction (This also works for your pup because they learn that if they are wild they don't get to interact and if they behave they do.)

dbingham12 wrote:

Don't be afraid to tell them to stop!

I was hesitant about this at first because I thought it would be rude. But one day we had a particularly difficult walk and by the time the fifth person approached my dog I lost it. That poor man must have thought I was crazy. But he listened and stepped away until I had Saphire under control.

Now I just tell people that they need to stop and let us come to them. Then I make Saphire sit, focus on me and then we slowly approach the new person. If she gets wild again we start over with sit. So far things are going much better.

And for the people who won't listen, and I promise there will be a few, tell them they can NOT interact with your dog period. Then turn and walk the other direction (This also works for your pup because they learn that if they are wild they don't get to interact and if they behave they do.)

I had a woman say to Ezio, "I know your parents don't want you to jump, but I don't mind!" Now, I know the dog doesn't understand her, but SERIOUSLY?! Luckily he didn't jump up at her that day. He sat really nice and surprised my husband and I (we were super proud). I couldn't help but think, "How is it going to be when we have kids? People are gonna say they can just not follow the rules because those other people don't care?" UGHHH.

I'll just have to start speaking my mind. I just hate to be rude, even when the person I'm being rude to is completely ignorant of puppy etiquette.

It bothers me too. They all let Callie get away with things because "she's so cute!" but that back pedals training. And I HATE the baby talk. She doesn't respond to all that and it's dumb to think she's going to answer to that. Callie is right at that stage where she's starting to be wary of strangers (I'm not sure if huskies ever go through this stage, but Cal is part boxer so she's not as accepting of strangers anymore) and everyone just comes up on her really quickly and then are instantly reaching to pet her. I know she's just a puppy but I think people should still approach they way they would with a grown dog. Be slow about it and offer your hand first. Don't just OOH PUPPY and clobber her. She doesn't like that and it's doing the opposite of successfully socializing her. And when she is a little more playful, then yes, it becomes tough to control her because she's pulling and jumping and squirming to get to the attention and all the cooing just encourages her.

As your dogs owner and protector - if you know your dog is reactive (or you're training) do not hesitate to tell them that your dog is not friendly or that your dog is in training and to kindly stop interrupting you/him.

Realistically if you have a puppy that is like that - they're over their threshold and what you need to do is find the level at which your puppy isn't over it and begin training from there. Bring friends over to help you or neighbors etc. Once you find the threshold the training becomes a lot easier.

When Bella was super reactive to dogs and other critters I taught her the "look" command and I -always- made her sit and watch. With people regardless of the training - she was allowed to see people and socialize regardless of how she was acting. I also don't have a dog that is super excited to see people and is pretty reserved when being approached. I've never had anyone baby talk her or me though and Bella doesn't respond to that. I guess she's not a dog that looks like she should be baby talked-to.

The same happens to me all the time when I am on a walk with Tala. Event though I tell people I am teaching her not to jump up at people and please wait until she is sitting before petting her, they don't seem to take any notice and call her over and try to pet her anyway.

I will actually go along with their logic for a while so as not to turn them off and make them not listen to my point of view. Often I am talking to teens or older kids when I run into this situation. If they tell me or the dog that it is okay for him to jump on them, I simply say, "I'm sure you would love having him jump on you. And I know that he would be having as much fun and probably even more fun than you would be if I were to allow that behavior. However, he and I are around alot of little, tiny children. If I allow him to jump on you he will think that he is allowed to jump on anyone. Since he weighs 50 lbs, he could really hurt a little kid and I do not want that to happen!" Most people get that logic. If they think you are being fuddy-duddy because you are afraid someone will get dirty or get ripped clothing, they just don't care as much as when you mention serious injury.

Hopefully it will get better for you!