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Muffin is my 6 year old peek a poo. She is great with me but doesn’t like other people petting her. Is there anything I can do to get her where she feels comfortable with others petting her? She is around people often and if they put their hand out for her to stuff and wait for a sign that she wants them to pet her…they will be waiting forever. If they just start petting her usually she will allow it for a moment but then comes and gets in between my legs and barks at the person. I got Muff when she was young, possibly too young? and I wonder if maybe that is why she acts this way. Any advice to help break this habit would be most appreciated.
Small dogs are 98 percent universally suspicious of strangers, so it’s not surprising that your dog doesn’t want others to pet her.
It’s perfectly okay to tell visitors that she doesn’t like petting from strangers & it would be better if they don’t reach out to her, because it worries her.
She would probably be alright with relative strangers if she had some time to get to know them.
Often, if your guests just ignore the dog, that intrigues them more than anything & they start watching & thinking.My mom had this problem with a pom… First when people came over we told them to totally ignore the dog, no eye contact, just act like he wasn’t in the room. We would give the guest some dog treats so if the dog became curious and cam over to sniff, the guest could hold out a treat, still no eye contact, talking or touching. Soon the dog felt better about coming over to strangers and then if they would let them pet him he got a treat! After doing this for about a month he was sooo much better about letting guests touch him.
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