I spend lots of my time working with families, teaching children how to behave around dogs to keep them safe. Both with their own dog or new puppy to build a strong bond so they grow up best of friends or around dogs they don’t know. 

Dogs teach children all kinds of life skills; care, compassion, love, respect and responsibility, and growing up together is a wonderful, rewarding thing … if it’s done correctly. 

I teach children never to touch a dog without asking the owner first if it is okay, along with teaching them and their parents how to spot any body language from dogs that may indicate that the dog is uncomfortable or anxious to prevent bites, along with where to stroke a dog so they find less threatening. 

However, adults need to take heed – they are much worse than children for touching strange dogs without asking if its okay.  

Many dogs can be a little shy, spooked, or anxious about strangers just sticking a hand out and stroking them on the way past. 

Personal space is important, for people and dogs. 

Think about it for a minute, if a stranger walked past you in the street and stroked your hair or patted you on the bum would you be impressed? Absolutely not. In fact, you’d probably be quite freaked out by it and pretty cross about the whole thing. 

I was in the pub and a drunk guy I don’t know stumbled towards me to try and give me some kind of hug – believe me, he was told very clearly to get the f#ck off me as he approached. Nobody has a right to touch you if it’s uninvited. So why should our dogs be expected to put up with it, day in, day out? 

Would you touch someone’s child as you walked past? No you wouldn’t because that would be wrong. 

So why do people think they are entitled to touch any dog they want?  

Firstly, it’s not their dog and in the eyes of the law a dog is a ‘possession’ … and it’s simply not theirs to touch as they please.  

Secondly, dogs, like humans, have personal space and may not want to be touched by people they don’t know. 

I’m the same! 

I work with owners to build their dog’s confidence around people, but this takes time and the last thing they need during their training is for their dog to get scared by a person trying to touch their dog while they are working on helping their dog slowly overcome the problem.

It’s up to you to be your dog’s protector, especially when the dog is on a lead and unable to move out of reach of those weird scary humans. 

There are loads of yellow dog coats, leads, bandanas, lead sleeves etc. on the market that say “give me space’ or ’Please don’t touch’ so if you see one give them space and don’t approach – if you do and you get growled at for touching a dog with a big sign on saying very clearly “DO NOT TOUCH ME” then who’s fault is it?

A little respect goes a long way, ask the owner if it’s okay to say hello to their dog, and then ask the dog if it’s okay too; yes, you should ask the dog – it’s his body! 

Let a dog approach you, which he happily will if he wants your attention, if he stays still and doesn’t approach when you offer a hand to sniff, or backs off then he doesn’t want you to stroke him … so don’t! 

So if you stroke a dog without asking and it barks and backs off or grumbles at you, don’t have a go at the dog’s owner – you shouldn’t have touched it without asking first – IT IS NOT  YOURS TO TOUCH. Even the most sociable dogs don’t always feel like being touched. We all have off days. 

But your dog should be safe around people so help make them feel safe and happy, if you need any help with that give me a shout.