Asking our dogs to automatically befriend other dogs who are strangers to them is often asking for trouble if not handled properly. Consider, do you want to run up to and greet every human you see? Some outgoing and gregarious humans just may but some more reserved humans just may not. Personally, when I arrive at a seminar for example, there are lots of people who I do not know yet, I do not get excited and waggle and start saying “it’s a human! look at ALL OF THESE humans!” I tend to keep to myself, set up my chair, have a quick yet reserved look around for someone I may know and I may offer a polite smile to another human who looks in my direction. By the end of the day or weekend, I will have made a new acquaintance or two.

If I were walking in a public park with my young neices and nephews, and came upon another family with young children, I may give my neices and nephews the opportunity to smile, approach if they wanted and even give a moment for a polite hello if they wanted but I would certainly not force them to interact with other persons whom they do not know.

Our dogs do not speak English and cannot say “hey mom, I’m not really in the mood for new friends today”. So it is our job to be sensitive to their needs.

Understanding how dogs greet, and how they do NOT greet is very important. Dogs generally do not greet other dogs whom they do not know with full front and face to face. They may merge together from a lateral perspective, one may follow the other and grab a sniff, they may take a quick glance at each other without staring.

Dogs greeting on-leash can be a particularly sensitive situation. Dogs can feel trapped and under our “control”. So thus in the dogs perspective, the human handler is marching full front and face to face with “YIKES a Strange Dog” and not giving their dog an opportunity to exhibit polite doggie language first. This often ends up in some growling, barking, some spit but it can also cause an altercation.

We humans are not much different, we have subtle signals that we offer as a sign of friendliness (or as signals that we are not friendly at that moment). We smile, we approach with some finesse. We do not stand in each other’s space (or bubble as I like to put it) while having a conversation, we keep our bodies at an angle and avoid full frontal positioning. Seldom would a human, upon seeing another human who was unknown to them, rush up quickly and encroach upon their space and get in their face and start a conversation. When we are not interested in being approached by a strange person who appears to be coming our way, we may turn our body to the side, look away, walk in the other direction, or act busy. A fast and threatening approach is not generally well received in the human race as much as it is not well received by our canines.
Our canines also will avoid, look away, look busy (ie: sniffing or scratching).

Take into consideration the dog you are walking, is it yours for example. Is it stressed. What were his experiences during the day? In dogs, stress is cumulative, much like us. We have a bad morning at work and the day seems to get worse. Dogs are not much different.

Sara Kalnajs offers two DVD’s with wonderful footage and examples of doggie body language and signaling.
Turrid Rugaas’ book “On Talking Terms with Dogs; Calming Signals” is also an inexpensive yet valuable resource.

Both items can be purchased from www.DogWise.com or www.Amazon.com