Dog owners/trainers, hear my plea!

[3fsh]

Yes, a private trainer would be the ideal solution, but if you cannot find one, here are some tips (coming from someone who took their dog to a private trainer for several months):

1: Make people a source of food! For example- whenever you are out walking her and people come up to her, give them a treat to give her. She will start to think that "people approaching me = food!" (Don't let them pet her, just have them give her a treat.)

2. When she starts looking for food from people coming up to her, have them pet her before they give her the treat. This will change the equation to "people + allowing myself to be petted = food".

Do this very gradually and carefully... it should help quite a bit until you can get her trained professionally.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

Yes, a private trainer would be the ideal solution, but if you cannot find one, here are some tips (coming from someone who took their dog to a private trainer for several months):

1: Make people a source of food! For example- whenever you are out walking her and people come up to her, give them a treat to give her. She will start to think that "people approaching me = food!" (Don't let them pet her, just have them give her a treat.)

2. When she starts looking for food from people coming up to her, have them pet her before they give her the treat. This will change the equation to "people + allowing myself to be petted = food".

Do this very gradually and carefully... it should help quite a bit until you can get her trained professionally.

although good advise for some, this exercise is not right for me
my particular dog cannot be won over with food
we have tried this once
the samoyed in her makes her extremely intelligent, and loyal but it also makes her very fast and very powerful
you see, the reason samoyeds instincts are somewhat more present then your average dog, they have almost a wolf like streak
while most breeds come from other breeds or foxes/wolves and other wild dogs
samoyeds are the begining of the breed
they are the first, and they are the originally wild dogs

so to make a long story short, although she was determined to get the food, she held no trust whatsoever to my second uncle (who we wanted her to like)
she would snap and slink with her hair raised and her legs braced and if he moved she would deeply growl
she is not this bad at the sight of a stranger, only if they try to pet or approach her (closer then a meter)
it was only because we were somewhat forcing her to come into contact with this man
it was frightening to see this behavior
it was like watching a wild animal
the thing about her is, that at ANY moment i could have put my face on hers of my hand in her mouth without even the slightest chance of me being harmed
because she knows me

 

[Ruby Shark]

Hi Pointy

Any luck finding someone?

By the way how old is she and how long have you had her?

Do you know if she was exposed to many different people when whe was younger? Specifically men?

 

[Auratus]

Our great dane we got from the pound sounds just like your dog. She is very scittish around men and anyone wearing a hat or helmet. Belle doesn't lunge at people though, she runs away then barks from far away.

The first thing is if someone wants to approach your dog you should ask them to take off their hat, that's what I always do with belle when I'm at the dog park and people are usually very nice and take off their hat when they pet her.

Maybe muzzle her and have a man pet her, someone that you know that's comfortable with your dog, like your dad or something. Another thing you can do is wear hats yourself around the house, I started wearing my hood around belle a lot and she seemed to get more comfortable with it. She barked at me a few times but then she got used to it.

Just reasurring your dog and holding her and petting her while someone else is petting her shows that they aren't going to hurt her. I'm not good with this kind of stuff but I just thought I'd tell you what I did.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

Hi Pointy

Any luck finding someone?

By the way how old is she and how long have you had her?

Do you know if she was exposed to many different people when whe was younger? Specifically men?

i have had her since she was about 5 months old and she is 2 years now
the spca said the owners just dropped them off
i think they were just irresponsible and didn't fix their dog, ending up with unwanted pups
but she has been afraid of men since we got her so i think her short stay with them was a bad one

Auratus
that sounds like very good advise
i think it fits this case perfectly
she usually doesn't try to bark if she has tha muzzle on
she is instantly depressed and quiet
i have not found any trainers

for now i will walk her, approach men and ask if they are afraid of dogs
if not i will explain to them that i am training my dog and put a full muzzle on her
then i will start off by approaching the man and shaking his hand to reaasure her that i his contact with me is a possitive thing
then i will proceed to pet her, and slowly allow him to pet her aswell
with the muzzle on tight and a short leash
she will not be a danger

 

[SailfinGirl]

1: Make people a source of food! For example- whenever you are out walking her and people come up to her, give them a treat to give her. She will start to think that "people approaching me = food!" (Don't let them pet her, just have them give her a treat.)

I would have thought this to be a very bad idea around large and powerful dogs. They associate new people with food, get excited about said forthcoming food, jumps up at random people because they think food is coming and the dog phobic/ small child is on the floor.

Just a thing with the collie, she wasn't displaying aggrassive behaviour. She was trying to herd the family/ cars etc, its what collies do. She probably wasn't out to hurt anyone.

 

[Pointy_kitty]

1: Make people a source of food! For example- whenever you are out walking her and people come up to her, give them a treat to give her. She will start to think that "people approaching me = food!" (Don't let them pet her, just have them give her a treat.)

I would have thought this to be a very bad idea around large and powerful dogs. They associate new people with food, get excited about said forthcoming food, jumps up at random people because they think food is coming and the dog phobic/ small child is on the floor.

Just a thing with the collie, she wasn't displaying aggrassive behaviour. She was trying to herd the family/ cars etc, its what collies do. She probably wasn't out to hurt anyone.

my dog doesn't jump up
she is perfectly trained, except for her protectiveness
if we could end her agressive behavior (decrease or correct her fear of strangers) she would be a very well behaved and gentle dog
she does love to play, but she does not jump up
and she only rough houses if innitiated by the human (my brother graps her and puts her in a headlock and she lays on top of him to pin him down so she can steal his socks or hat and run like hell

*EDIT although like i said before we have tried this food method and it does not work