Hello, My 2 year old Labrador Molly has always been very nervous. That’s just her personality but we love her the way she is, however she’s got very nervous ever since we took her to the kennels.. she now has a massive fear for men with hats, coats that make a noise, bald men. We have no idea where this has came from. Instead of cowering (which we’d prefer) she goes towards them and protectively barks and growls at them, she never bites or goes for them but she continuously barks and it makes her look dangerous. We call her back and she comes back but then if we don’t get her on the lead in time she goes back. We don’t want her to look dangerous, or suddenly turn aggressive towards someone, because she is the softest thing, she’s just petrified of men. Anyone have any tips in making her just leave them alone? I’ve tried just saying leave, but sometimes they want to stroke her because she’s adorable and she starts barking at them. Please help!!
Hi @Mollythelabrador I suggest you find a dog trainer who can teach you the BAT protocol. It can be designed to desensitise and counter condition your dog to men, and those wearing hats
So - first off, you need to protect her from people's advances if you think she will be afraid of them. Please don't worry about being socially polite - prioritise her needs. Walk off and away from people. Any training you implement to fix this needs to be built on the basis of adequate management and prevention and you can undo a lot of good work by allowing people to trigger a response from her as you describe. Have a read of this article: https://notesfromadogwalker.com/2013/05/10/stand-up-for-your-dogs/ Second, Michael's suggestion of BAT is a good one - if you have a CBATI in your area: https://grishastewart.com And lastly, using Look At That will help an awful lot in the meantime: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/look-at-that.22184/
