What do you do when your dog does not like being petted by visitors?

Some dogs love visitors. Some do not. Some have bitten visitors. Some have not bitten. Yet.

This is just one of those stories about a dog who had already bitten people. Not just one person. Several.

Fortunately, the bites up to this point were not serious. No one had ended up at the emergency room getting stitches. But bites, nevertheless, are concerning.

This gentleman called me for help because his dog was biting visitors. That is definitely a problem.

When we first met, we sat and talked through everything in more detail, as I always do with a new case. This dog did not want strangers to pet him. If visitors tried to pet him, he would bite. As I mentioned, not any bites yet that had resulted in any serious injuries.

If the visitors gave him space and left him alone, he never bit anyone.

So, while this was a dog who had bitten several visitors, we also knew exactly what the trigger was. And we also could control that trigger quite easily. Assuming that visitors would follow instructions. DO NOT pet the dog.

I explained to this guy that, certainly, we can work on helping the dog learn to like visitors more. And possibly even tolerate petting. And maybe even enjoy it sometimes.

However, as we're talking through this, I asked, “Why do your visitors need to pet your dog?”

If your dog likes YOU petting him, but not others, why is that a problem? Can you just tell your visitors to leave him alone?

And I blew his mind. It had never occurred to him that was an option. I told him we can work on this and get your dog to tolerate touching from visitors.

But I also gave him an option he never considered was a possibility. Do not let your visitors pet your dog. Period. There is no reason that your visitors NEED to pet your dog.

I made a grown man cry when he realized he didn't have a terrible bad awful aggressive dog. His dog was allowed to NOT want visitors to touch him.

It is not a character flaw in your dog if they do not want to be petted by people that they do not know well. Do you like people you do not know coming up and touching you? For most of us, that answer would be a big bold NO. Why can't dogs feel the same way?

Sometimes, part of my job include helping people to look at things from a different perspective, and to an extent, respect that dog and what they do or do not want. As long as it's reasonable, we can make adaptations.

Without having to do any extensive training, I made that dog's life a WHOLE lot better just by shifting someone's perspective. And I helped to improve the man's life too, not just the dog.

Sometimes training is in order. Sometimes, depending on the circumstances, a shift in perspective along with some reasonable management is all that is needed.

Sometimes I love my job!

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