# How to stop my dog trying to meet everyone



## Milliekins

Looking for tips on how to stop Millie from running up to everyone! She loves fuss and attention and she tries to run up to everyone we meet out walking or in the park. On the lead she pulls at the last minute to put her face into the other persons path to get attention. Off the lead she runs over to people. How can I discourage her from running up to everyone? It's not easy as a lot of people want to fuss her (and encourage her), but some don't and I can't have her doing this as it's really rude and also she loves to run up to people having picnics..

The only thing I can think of is keeping her on a short lead as a short term solution, but I'm not sure how to stop her wanting to run up to everyone which is the long term solution really.
I've tried keeping her focused to heel with a treat to distract her which I think may be a good way to go? But this doesn't always work as she's pretty determined she wants to go meet people.

Until a couple of days ago we were doing great on recall so I could call her away if she started running towards people, but out of the blue in the same normal scenario's she's not listening any more so we're back to basics again.

I'm trying to find a good local training class that will fit round my work but not having a lot of luck with that at the moment. Think both Millie and I would benefit from some expert training!

Any tips appreciated :smile:


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## Countryboy

Milliekins said:


> On the lead she pulls at the last minute to put her face into the other persons path to get attention.


Operator error!  lol 

If u know she's gonna do it, don't let her...

I know exactly when Tonka is gonna run over to somebody. I'm smarter than he is . . . and I see oncoming situations before he does. So I shorten up on the retractable *before* he gets a chance to do it.

Walking a dog is not just an idyllic stroll. U've got to be paying attention!


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## Fluffyspoos

Have you taught her 'Leave it' ?


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## sarpoodle

Milliekins said:


> Looking for tips on how to stop Millie from running up to everyone! She loves fuss and attention and she tries to run up to everyone we meet out walking or in the park. On the lead she pulls at the last minute to put her face into the other persons path to get attention. Off the lead she runs over to people. How can I discourage her from running up to everyone? It's not easy as a lot of people want to fuss her (and encourage her), but some don't and I can't have her doing this as it's really rude and also she loves to run up to people having picnics..
> 
> The only thing I can think of is keeping her on a short lead as a short term solution, but I'm not sure how to stop her wanting to run up to everyone which is the long term solution really.
> I've tried keeping her focused to heel with a treat to distract her which I think may be a good way to go? But this doesn't always work as she's pretty determined she wants to go meet people.


Here is the approach I'm using with Saydee who is now 11 months old. Up until now, I have not discouraged that sort of behavior you're experiencing because I wanted her to retain that exuberance; in her search and rescue training, she needs to play with anybody and everybody, so I specifically left this area alone. Now she is being prepared for her CGC, and this must be dealt with.

First of all, poodles love people; it's a hallmark of the breed. Therefore, I don't want to train her in a way that works against it. 

My approach is to give her a completely different command. Like you, I keep Saydee on a short leash. As a person comes close, I put her in a "sit stay", as opposed to a "leave it" which means don't go near that person, etc. She is not allowed to break this command. The object of the exercise is for the person to pet Saydee while she remains in a sit stay. As the person comes in, if she gets up, I tell her to sit, and the person backs up a bit out of her reach. Once she is sitting again, the person comes back in. I ask them to pet her under the chin, instead of reaching for the top of her head. When somebody comes in high over the head, it will make her want to stand and jump up. By asking the person to come in low, it will naturally induce her to stay on the ground. If she breaks the sit, we start over. Once the person can touch her while she stays in the sit, the exercise is over. We throw a party, she gets rewarded, etc. Over time, she will learn that in order to meet a person under those circumstances, she must remain in the position I told her and not jump all over them in order to interact. Since I'm not telling her that people are to be left alone, there will be no conflict in her mind.

Because people want to meet Millie, you have a huge resource available to help you. They can assist you in this or a similar exercise as previously described. Take advantage of every opportunity to teach this while you're out and about. Be sure to reward her with each success. The interaction with people will be a reward in and of itself to her, but your reward will reinforce the notion that you are pleased with her.

If Millie were my dog, I wouldn't let her run off leash while working on this. Otherwise, she can self-reward and it will undermine the other training. Until a dog can reliably perform the desired behavior, you must control it at all times. When you think Millie is able to perform the way you want, then you can let her off leash to proof it. That will be your ultimate confirmation that she gets it. If she messes up, then more work is required with the control of a leash.

Greg


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## schnauzerpoodle

Fluffyspoos said:


> Have you taught her 'Leave it' ?


"Leave it" is a very useful command! You can use it when you don't want her to reach to a person (kid or adult) or a chicken bone. Human, dog, trash… doesn't really matter. 

Or right before you know she would go, tell her to "watch" - look at you. YOU should be more interesting than other distractions. Or bring a squeaky toy to get her attention and reward your dog big time when she focus on you again.

Practice "watch" as you walk her - Walk Walk Walk WATCH Praise Treat Walk Walk Walk …. throw in random WATCH'es when she gets familiar with the routine and treat treat treat. That way she knows she has to pay attention to you, your voice, your hand, your everything.


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## Quossum

Ha ha! Just goes to show how different our challenges are: My spoo Sugarfoot is the exact opposite: he is aloof to strangers and doesn't want them to touch him. One of our training goals has been to socialize, socialize, socialize, and let people feed him and such so that he doesn't skitter away. He's not afraid and doesn't offer any aggression, he just ducks away. He's getting better with maturity, though I don't imagine he'll ever be one of those people-loving spoos.

You've gotten good advice for your situation; I just wish I could let a wee bit of your girl's personality come over here. I'd been happy to loan you an ounce of reserve from Sugarfoot!

--Q


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## Dog catcher

schnauzerpoodle said:


> "Leave it" is a very useful command! You can use it when you don't want her to reach to a person (kid or adult) or a chicken bone. Human, dog, trash… doesn't really matter.
> 
> Or right before you know she would go, tell her to "watch" - look at you. YOU should be more interesting than other distractions. Or bring a squeaky toy to get her attention and reward your dog big time when she focus on you again.
> 
> Practice "watch" as you walk her - Walk Walk Walk WATCH Praise Treat Walk Walk Walk …. throw in random WATCH'es when she gets familiar with the routine and treat treat treat. That way she knows she has to pay attention to you, your voice, your hand, your everything.


I am new here and just learning. When you say "treat treat treat", do you mean a food treat?


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## Fluffyspoos

I use leave it as a general 'drop your focus and look elsewhere, or do something else' command. Whether it be them staring at the cats, going for something dropped on the floor, or just giving something too much focus on a walk.


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## sarpoodle

Dog catcher said:


> I am new here and just learning. When you say "treat treat treat", do you mean a food treat?


Whatever your dog's big paycheck reward is. It can be food which is reasonable and easy to manage in almost any situation. It could be playing with a favorite toy. Whatever it is, you don't want to skimp when teaching something really important.

The "watch" command is extremely useful, and is worth teaching. When I teach this command, we start with the dog in a sit. I say "watch" and once dog looks at my eyes, I mark it and reward. You can mark the behavior with a clicker or word to reinforce it. If the dog isn't looking at you in the beginning you can make a quick snorting noise, or bring the treat up to your nose. As the dog begins to grasp the command, add more time before you treat. Once he gets that, then start adding distractions. You can start by waving your arms around out to the side and holding his treat in your hand (letting him see it). When you start adding distractions, don't wait as long before marking and rewarding. When you train and make something harder, you lower your criteria for success. In this case, by cutting back the time. Gradually build the time under distraction back to where it was. Then add more distractions like moving around the dog so he's forced to move his head. Also, add more distance between the two of you, and so on.

By this time, he'll start getting the command, so take it on the road and start asking the dog to "watch" and random times, and in new situations.

The "watch" command is a great way to redirect your dog's attention as schnauzerpoodle suggests. You can also use it to get your dog to focus on you before issuing another command.

Greg


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## schnauzerpoodle

sarpoodle said:


> Whatever your dog's big paycheck reward is. It can be food which is reasonable and easy to manage in almost any situation. It could be playing with a favorite toy.


EXACTLY! Some prefer food while others prefer verbal praise and some go for a favorite tug toy. You have to observe and decide what gets to your dog. Some appreciate a simple "Good Dog" in a happy voice more than anything!


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## schnauzerpoodle

Quossum said:


> Ha ha! Just goes to show how different our challenges are: My spoo Sugarfoot is the exact opposite: he is aloof to strangers and doesn't want them to touch him. One of our training goals has been to socialize, socialize, socialize, and let people feed him and such so that he doesn't skitter away. He's not afraid and doesn't offer any aggression, he just ducks away. He's getting better with maturity, though I don't imagine he'll ever be one of those people-loving spoos.
> 
> You've gotten good advice for your situation; I just wish I could let a wee bit of your girl's personality come over here. I'd been happy to loan you an ounce of reserve from Sugarfoot!
> 
> --Q


Nickel was aloof like that and one day he found the friendly button and decided people were not that scary. Now he enjoys meeting strangers on the street and LOVES his dog park human acquaintances and runs to them for some TLC!


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## Milliekins

Millie is definitely food orientated. She likes hearing "good dog" but only because she knows that usually means she'll get a food treat (and she expects a treat!). She doesn't seem very impressed with just verbal praise and attention from me and if I didn't give food rewards I think she would probably listen a lot less than she does.

I have started to teach "leave it" but I hadn't thought of using it to stop her running up to people. I need to do more training with the command anyway so could do it with people too.

I can see the sit and stay method working maybe as we walk down the street, and I do want her to learn to sit to meet people, but in the park where there's people everywhere I'm not sure how it would work. At the moment she sometimes tries to run to people quite a distance away, so we're not always even close. I think maybe here "leave it" is a better option? 

It is nice having such a friendly dog, but obviously she needs to be controlled as has been pointed out. I think what makes it harder is that the times I manage to get her to focus on a treat or something and ignore the people walking past us, they usually seem to stop and want to fuss her so it encourages her to think that she is the centre of attention and then she wants to greet everyone she can see! I will try to get the people that want to fuss her to help me train her by only stroking her if she's sitting, but there's not usually a lot of time to say anything before they're actually stroking her. Most people seem to just look stop and stroke, without asking.

"Watch" also sounds like a really good command to have. I can see we'll be doing lots and lots of training with these


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## sarpoodle

Milliekins said:


> I can see the sit and stay method working maybe as we walk down the street, and I do want her to learn to sit to meet people, but in the park where there's people everywhere I'm not sure how it would work. At the moment she sometimes tries to run to people quite a distance away, so we're not always even close. I think maybe here "leave it" is a better option?


Keep in mind that this park is the peak of distraction for Millie. If it were my dog, it wouldn't necessarily be the place where I'd start training a new behavior. I would start with something controlled and less distracting, such as when going on a normal walk. In my neighborhood, everybody from kids to adults want to see and pet my dogs. When they ask to pet Millie, see if they'd be willing to help you out.

I was out with Saydee yesterday while running errands. People wanted to pet her, and I asked them to help me with the exercise previously described. If I didn't think they were getting it, and their interaction would work against her training, I told them they couldn't pet her. It's more important that she learn this new behavior.

I do a recall drill in my neighborhood where Saydee is dragging a long leash, in case she blows off my command, and I need to reel her back in. Sometimes when she sees little kids playing, she blows off my command and runs to them. I immediately shout out to the kids "don't pet her, and ignore her". I don't want them to reinforce that behavior with petting, etc. Once I've got her back, I make her do the recall, and then I bring her back over to them in a controlled fashion so they can pet her on my terms (with her in the sit stay).

My point is, folks in this thread have provided a lot of good options to utilize. Teach them to Millie in a distraction free area first until she's mastered them (or whatever you've chosen to use). Then take her to increasingly more distracting environments; lower your expectations, and build back up to where she can do it as reliably as before. While training the new behavior, try to avoid putting her into an environment where she will not succeed and winds up blowing you off. She will be able to self-reward, and it will take a lot longer to shape the desired behaviors.

Greg


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## Searcher

We had the same issue & worked hard to have her sit & let people approach her. Now we just have the issue where she jumps on people she knows (those who have her playmates). They don't reward the behavior but I think just the greeting itself is a reward at this point. Still trying to figure out how to get that to stop. But now that meeting stranger politely is working found out that in 'obedience' you go up to people with your dog & are to meet them with your dog standing --- there also seems to be something to work on. 
It did take a few months if I remember correctly for her to get the 'sit politely' down. I also stronger recommend having people pet her (only with permission) under her chin & on her chest. I don't let anyone, even kids, pat the top of her head & physically will block that from happening. I explain to them that it is very rude & threatening to do that to a dog even though I know she will tolerate it.


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