Nervous Dog Stranger Feeding Session

In this video we show some of the various steps we take with dogs who have trouble around strangers.
This is a "fast forward" video to show multiple parts / steps of the process with a dog who has already done a lot of foundation work in obedience, self control, desensitization, learning to work for food (building food drive), etc.
We always start with the dogs being acclimated to noises FIRST!
Work on your dog listening to sounds that trigger them to react - doorbell, knocking, dogs barking, greetings / talking at the doorway, etc. etc.
Then we work on obedience commands in the face of distractions: starting with noise first, we work on the dog being able to hold commands. Then we add in visual distractions at low levels to begin (easy distractions) and building up to higher level distractions.
When we start adding a stranger into the mix we can do indirect rewards by feeding in the strangers presence (allowing distance so as not to put too much pressure on the dog). We correct any barking / lunging and get the dog to focus on alternate behaviors or just hanging out not reacting.
Then we transition the feeding from handler to stranger as slowly as needed for each individual dog.
The dogs start by being thrown food from a distance.
They must be hungry, interested and enthusiastic about receiving the food.
As the dogs build confidence we close the gap between them and the strangers who help during our training sessions (again slowly over time as needed per the individual dog).
If the dog is a high potential risk to bite we always recommend muzzle conditioning / training and utilizing a muzzle during interactions for safety.
You can start small with just accepting 1-2 pieces of food and then calling the dog away to reset and not have them linger to potentially act out. Build up their confidence and ability to hang around the person longer and accept multiple food rewards.
Then you can also ask the dog for obedience commands to further encourage trust and working with the new person.
Lola is at a point where she is able to take food from the strangers hand and even accept some petting.
We still keep her sessions short and allow her the ability to move away or stop petting to give her the chance to re-engage or chose to end the engagement on her own terms.