Reactivity
We have a 5 almost 6 year old female Cane Corso and she is quite un-confident/timid and fear reactive to people who try to reach into her face when we’re in public or want to pet her. She went through training classes and was amazing until my mom had surgery. We were both unable to drive as I was too young, and she had a cast on her leg. Unfortunately, as a result, we were unable to socialize her through her fear period and fearful moments. I am unsure how to help her through this now as she will not accept rewards when outside of the house, and otherwise seems uninterested in anything but leaving. She will be perfectly fine with people standing beside her, around her, walking past, and brushing against her when walking. But she does not like when they make eye contact with her, reach out, or try to talk to her. Her reaction is normally: a timid quick lunge, followed by a snap and a growl/bark. She has never bitten anybody, and when she snaps she doesn’t actually attempt to make contact just snapping in their direction. After she reacts to them she cowers away. Every time we’re in public I always find myself telling people that she is not friendly and she does not like people. 10% of the time people will speak with me first without engaging with my dog, giving me time to give them warning. We converse, they tell me how beautiful she is, how well behaved she is, and all of the such. However, the other 90% are times where people ignore me, and attempt to pet her without my permission, or before I can even say anything. (even when I do say something they ignore me). I’m fairly young so I kinda feel like people don’t really respect what Im telling them, and take it as a challenge because they think I don’t know what Im talking about, or they think they’re special because “dogs love them.” I’ve had to cut my outings short with her because it will sometimes happen multiple times in the same outing.
For example:
A few days ago, I took her to a PetSmart with me while I got things for my geckos and I wanted to get her out of the house. I got what I needed and I went to the back wall in the vet clinic waiting area, and sat in the seat in the corner furthest away from the people as it wasn’t busy. While sitting there I took the opportunity to respond to my mom’s messages, when I saw a tall old white man at the end of an aisle in front of me. Before he walked past the aisle, he stopped, and we made eye contact. From this moment I knew his intentions and I was right. He turned his cart and walked straight down the aisle directly towards me, with his eyes fixated on my dog. He pulled around at the end of the aisle n stopped n talked to her. While he was talking to her I was telling him that she is not friendly and she does not like people. I knew where this was going because he ignored my presence from the moment he came towards me. Without looking at me, he acknowledged my statement with a quiet “mm,” and before I could react to better my grip on her leash, he continued to reach his hand into face while baby talking her n saying hello. As expected, she barked at him n flinched forward, but never did anything else. Afterwards he says, “Oh I see,” and walks away without ever acknowledging me or saying anything to me. After that interaction I purchased my items and left to cry in my car before going home. This is one of many times this has happened. I am very non-confrontational, and I have bad social anxiety so it’s hard to assert myself. As I stated I think people take advantage of me being young and tend to ignore me but I could be wrong.
Do note that we do take responsibility for causing this behavior to form and know that we are aware of where we went wrong. We are already looking into trainers for her in our area, because we are aware this is not appropriate, especially with the breed she is. We were fully prepared for this breed and did research before getting on the waitlist with her breeder. I’m very open to respectful tips, advice, insight, and suggestions. I’m already looking into collars and gear that states “do not pet” and etc. I’m open to answering questions if I seem unclear or anything! Please be kind!! This is hard for me to post about because I’ve seen how some groups!🧡
My question to you guys, do these types of interactions happen to y’all as well?
If this has happened to anybody else, what did y’all use to prevent these interactions from happening?
Should I buy gear for her that states her not being friendly?
If so do you have brand/website recommendations?