Triangle Training Games for Stranger Danger Dogs
These are my favorite games for helping shy, timid, fearful with new people dogs make friends and build trust with new people. My sister is someone who looks after our dogs when needed so I like to make sure she has a great relationship with all of our pets. She was Nick’s first stranger to make friends with and she is also who is helping Julia how to open her circle.
Julia is very mild on the scale of stranger danger so these games go pretty quick for her. She is just shy, but is a very affectionate friendly pup. Nick on the other hand took a lot longer to make friends with new people and these games might take 2-3 meet ups before he was settled with that person.
How it works:
Triangle Fetch:
If your dog is like Julia and LOVES to play fetch this can be a fast way to make new friends!
I hand my sister the stick
She throws the stick for Julia
Julia brings the stick back to me
I hand the stick to my sister and we repeat 2-3 times
Then I will toss a couple to release and pressure before resuming
My sister is instructed not to reach for Julia, not to call her over
My sister is instructed that she can pick the stick up and throw it only after Julia is offering it to her
Once Julia is bringing my sister the fetch item on her own you can see how much her body language is shifting as she finds my sister fun and trustworthy. My sister is still not reaching for Julia or calling her over. She did not pet Julia on this meet up, because Julia never asked for that. My sister has been instructed not to try to touch her until I give the ok. And I am looking for Julia to approach happily and solicit greeting with my sister which she has not yet done.
Triangle training:
In addition to triangle fetch we also do triangle training. If your dog doesn’t fetch you can just move straight to this game. If your dog likes both toys and food, start with fetch first as it is less pressure for the pup. If moving straight to triangle training without fetch I would start the game by handing my sister treats one at a time as Julia watched and have my sister throw them to start loose and low pressure.
I instruct my sister, telling her that I will give Julia a cue like “sit” or “down” (I pick easy things I know my dog likes to do) and that when Julia does the behavior my sister is to say “yes” and toss Julia the treat.
At NO point is she to hand the treat directly to Julia, all treats are tossed so Julia doesn’t have to approach my sister for the food.
When Julia is happily looking to my sister for the treats I tell my sister to ask for a behavior, for some dogs this is a big step, so it may take an entire session of just the first step to reach comfort level for some dogs, and then to toss the reward to Julia when she does the behavior.
This is where you need to really be ready to coach:
It does NOT matter if the behavior is done correctly or the dog offers the wrong behavior, the helper still tosses a reward
Be ready to remind to toss the treats as some people easily forget that part and want to reach their hand to the dog to reward
After every behavior or two toss a treat further away to release any pressure and show the dog they can move away
This is a game about trust building and helping a dog get comfortable with a little communication pressure from a stranger, if the dog makes mistakes it’s ok, just reward anyway, the pressure they feel can make it harder to understand what the person wants, and people all have their own ways of moving so when I ask for a sit or down I will look and sound differently than my sister, so it’s natural for a dog to not quite understand, so we do not correct or give repeated cues, we just keep playing.
For dogs that have big responses to strangers talking to them the first steps might not be a cue at all, you might just have them say your dog’s name and toss the treat so your dog gets comfortable with the person speaking to them.
If your dog has big feelings about these games make sure you reach out to me so we can cater it to what your dog needs. Take it slow and above all else have fun! You can see here Julia is off leash because she is shy and would not reach towards a stranger, with a dog like Nick that does reach towards a stranger I would have him on leash that I would hold.