When you’re out and about with your dog, you probably find that people want to approach and greet your dog – sometimes with a pup of their own.
While this can often go well, and you might even exchange some of the best dog treats between your pooches, greetings aren’t always a good idea when your pup is on their leash.
Certified dog trainer Melissa Goodman of Mission Pawsitive doesn’t usually allow on-leash greetings when she’s walking her dog Aspen, and she explains why in a recent Instagram post – it makes perfect sense!
“I do not recommend on-leash greetings for several reasons,” Goodman begins, before demonstrating in the video what she does when someone wants to greet Aspen – explaining they can’t when she’s on her leash.
“Generally speaking, it’s incredibly easy for on-leash greetings to go south and quickly,” she continues in the caption. “When dogs are on leash, their movements are restricted which affects their body language. And if one or both dogs feel uncomfortable, or perceives body language the wrong way, that’s how those interactions can become aggressive.”
While she says that the family in the video were nice, and that their dogs seemed nice too, she doesn’t want Aspen to become overly interested in other people or animals, which can happen if your pup is allowed to greet everyone. In turn, this can make it harder to walk your dog and take them out in public. (If your dog enjoys pulling on their leash, don’t miss this article: My dog’s leash pulling made walks miserable until I helped her reactivity, here’s how.)
“Neutrality is what I recommend,” she explains. “Aspen doesn’t expect to say ‘hi’, nor does she care, because I trained her to ignore people/dogs and made myself much more interesting.”
So, what Goodman does is say something like “She can’t say ‘hi’ on leash” or “Sorry, but we’re training”. And, because she’s trained Aspen to be neutral, on an occasion where she’s more relaxed and lets other people or dogs greet the dog, the encounter is more casual and calm.
On-leash greetings can go smoothly, with the dogs getting on perfectly well. But other times, things can go wrong – and there’s not necessarily any way to know how it’s going to go. Dogs can’t greet each other naturally when they’re both on leash, so why not teach your dog to calmly pass by, or let the other dog pass by, rather than letting them greet each other?
If it’s your dog who tends to initiate greetings – particularly with other people you pass, you might find this article useful: I tried everything to get my dog to stop jumping up, here’s what actually worked.
