Dog barks at nervous people

[vincentaroony]

My dog is 5, a cross Labrador springer spaniel. He's obedient, good recall, chilled out and good with the baby. However when we are out for walks he will sometimes randomly run up to someone and bark at them, which is pretty frightening for them and me. He's usually wagging his tail while doing this but his bark is loud and he gets close to them. It seems to be people who are nervous of dogs and who have nervy body language. Obviously his behaviour is not going to help someone who is already afraid of dogs! Any ideas please?

Keep him on a lead?

I've been snapped/bitten by enough dogs to be a nervy dog person.

It's massively unpleasant when they charge up to you. More sdo if they're barking.

I thought tail wagged when they're questioning something?

Keep him on a lead.

Use a long line? You can't let him run up to people and bark. Could see yourself reported for having a dog not under control.

Thank you, I wondered if anyone had an idea why he might be doing this as it's very sporadic - maybe once every few weeks do not like it is happening every time we walk. I always leash him if i think it's needed but we walk across fields with a buggy so it's just not possible for him to be on a lead the whole time

I guess what I'm saying is I want to address and stop this behaviour if I can.

they do it for shitz and gigglezz

one of dd's boyfriend was a little wary of dogs and on meeting the dogfaces exclaimed "they're like DRAGONS!" ....they are two very sizeable GSDs,

Now one was a barker, he loved it, would bark at the children every single day they came home from school, also all visitors got a bark, but once in the house that was it, done.

The other one, who never bothered to bark tormented this boy...he'd walk up and LOOK at him, deliberately sit on his feet to the Bf's obvious discomfit, and would bark at him every time he got up to move. Obv we didn't encourage this reign of terror, but the dog has never done it to anyone else

We were glad when DD moved on with her bf choice! Interestingly the next bf was a bad egg pita, but not scared of dogs...they were both normal with him!

Maybe just keep your dog under control?

A longline or not letting your dog off lead of you don't have recall will stop this behaviour completely.

This can totally be solved by vigilance and decent recall. Then if you see your dog approaching anyone you can call him back before he gets shouty.

You cannot control other people in public places and it is your responsibility to control your dog.

I have a small mouthy dog with a tendency to do the same, we did lots of work on recall and getting his attention on me and solved the problem.

TBF, I think OP came here for more active solutions than keeping her dog always on the lead: a labxspringer is going to need to really RUN.

It really is a case of being on the dog's case the whole time, glancing behind you on paths at intervals etc, and verbally reeling him in the second you see someone approaching. We have a dog who isn't fond of joggers and will bark at them, until he's sniffed them and ascertained that they're just people, so when I walk him I am constantly on the alert. I have also done endless work on his recall, which has helped.

Food circuits are a good one:
Pick a new recall command, and vow only to use it when the dog is actually definitely coming to you.
When your dog is in range, chuck out a treat. He'll eat it and then look at you, hoping for more.
As he does so, back up a bit, urging him towards you and once he starts definitely coming towards you (and only then), call the new command.
When he gets to you, another treat.
Then throw out a treat... and keep on going for a few minutes.
And repeat, repeat, repeat on as many walks as you can.