Jack Haskins: Good dogs don’t always have to be friendly

DEAR OLD TRAINER: Kong, my 3-year old standard poodle, learned his basic training with ease. He is the smartest and most loving of my four dogs, and the best trained, but he refuses to make up with anyone but me. He is not aggressive to others as long as they leave him alone, but if they reach out to pet him he growls and shows his teeth. I’m afraid he will bite someone. How do I train him to be friendly to people?

A: Don’t worry about Kong, Alexis. Poodles are a smart breed. They think things through before they make a move and have complex reasons for what they do, the theme explored in the movie “A Beautiful Mind” – the more powerful the mind, the more powerful the impulse it produces.

Dogs are excellent judges of character and if they dislike someone they don’t bother to fake it like humans do. Even the most affable dog dislikes someone now and then. Kong takes it further than most dogs and applies it to everyone, but there is no logical reason to force him to be friendly to people.

Joker, my youngest border collie, has that same instinct. He loves on me all day, loves all other dogs, and is happy every minute of the day. Yet he growls at anyone who tries to touch him. He doesn’t dislike people – he gets up close to anyone we meet and studies them – he just doesn’t want to be touched.

I don’t consider it wise or productive to train a dog to ignore a self-preservation instinct so I didn’t even try with Joker. He is smart enough to make that decision and if he doesn’t want anyone but me to touch him, that’s fine with me. But he has no choice when it comes to snapping. That’s not allowed.

My suggestion is that you apply the same standard to Kong. He is a smart, well-trained dog, so he has reasons for his behavior, just as Joker does, even though we may not always understand them.

Rule No. 1 when you have ANY problem with a dog who is already trained is to go back to basics and work on training every day. What you are really doing is reminding Kong to focus on your interests as well as his own.

You already know Kong learns fast so it will be easy to train him to keep his distance, but refrain from aggression when strangers are around. Go through sit, stay, come, hold, and all the other commands that Kong knows every day.

When anyone else arrives remind Kong right away to look at you. The minute he focuses on anyone else say, “No, Kong, look at me.” Warn the other people not to attempt to touch him.

If you sense any aggression, or if he starts to bristle, interrupt his focus by calling him to you and making him sit. Give him a lecture and remind him he is free to ignore people and doesn’t have to interact with them, but is not allowed to growl at them. He won’t need to if you tell people to leave him alone.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 10:37 AM with the headline "Jack Haskins: Good dogs don’t always have to be friendly."