Animal behaviours can be complex and just like human behaviour, are responses arise from to many stimuli. A significant factor in dog behaviour is often people, their owners, family, and strangers.
In this latest article Lisa Hird outlines one common situation you can help your dog with.
Discover more about her work and training experience on her website: https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/
Dog Friendly Dogs
A common situation many dog owners face, on a daily basis, is their on-lead dog being harassed or frightened by off lead dogs running over, followed by owners shouting, “It’s OK, my dog is friendly” or another dog owner and their dog coming right up close so they can say “Hello” because their dog is sociable and “just wants to say hi”.
Having a sociable dog is great but it doesn’t mean that just because they are sociable, they should be in other dogs faces, especially if the other dog is nervous or even reactive.
Socialisation is the process by which puppies learn to relate and act appropriately to people and other animals. That doesn’t mean they should interact with every dog they see. Quite the opposite in fact. Socialisation is exposure to – not get to meet and play with every dog they see. 
It is not the job of other dogs to teach our dogs sociable behaviours.
Many sociable dogs just want to play and when they can’t, they may pull or whine or begin to lunge towards the other dog. Quite apart from being sore and unpleasant for the handler, it can often set the greeting off on the wrong foot.
Imagine someone you don’t know, coming over to you, screaming HELLO in a loud voice, running at you with arms outstretched… worse still, you are tied up….
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