How can I get my 5 month chihuahua to be more accepting of strangers? I want to show him and he goes to training classes but he is wary and will go for the judge. He is very loving to me and the family and to my other dogs.

The only way to get your chi to be more accepting with strangers is by overloading him with positive experiences with strangers. You have to socialize him a lot. Bring him everywhere with you, and let strangers handle him and give him treats, focusing on keeping everything positive. You don’t want to bring him to a place with lots of kids. Kids are unpredictable and will run up to him and grab him, that’s a negative. You don’t want to bring him to crowded places where he can be trampled. Bring him to friends’ houses, or small gatherings of adults.

Try to walk him whenever possible and not put him in a bag. When dogs are in a bag, they feel extremely protective of their owners, and they also feel a false sense of security. They feel more free to bark at people or snap at fingers, because they feel that they’re protected in that bag. Bags and carriers are great for transportation, but they are not for interacting with people. When you want him to interact with people, take him out of the carrier and let him interact with them on the ground, on his own.

Above all else, exposure is the key. He has to be exposed to as many people as possible, to learn that they are not there to hurt him, and that, in fact, they often have yummies and pettings to offer.

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