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Hi. Wow - I lurve forums!
My 18 month old Ellie dog has always been wary of some (not all) men. She has been on restricted on-lead exercise for about 8 weeks now due to an injury. However, when she is on her lead she has begun to be very anxious when she sees people approach (men and even some women - with dogs or without). She is beginning to worry me a bit as she growled at a man yesterday.
What to do?

I use treats to distract Molly from dogs/cats/children etc that I think might 'wind her up' ... she's ok now with most people, unless they're wearing hats, have their hoods up or sometimes if they're carrying shopping bags!!

If you don't want to distract her with treats, you can try a toy that she particularly likes ... really it's to focus her on you & not whatever it is that upsets her.

Thanks for that. I have tried all the distraction tricks I know, even before I think she has seen them, but nothing works. She stiffens and pulls away from me on the lead with all her strength. I just cannot get her to come back to my side, listen or look at me. Lures dont work - don't even think caviar would get a response!

Hi Cjris,

Sorry for the huge delay in my reply. If she is ignoring the treats/distraction then the stimulus is either too close or to great. i.e man too near and threatening or too many men in one location.

The idea of distraction training is to work Ellie at a distance from men where she will respond to the distraction i.e. eat the treats. The technical term for this is working sub threshold. Then gradually over time you decrease the distance, at each step wating for stress signals. A good sign is eating, if the dog will still eat then generally you are ok.

Gill