Should You Hold Your Hand Out For An Unfamiliar Dog To Sniff?

One of the most widely held beliefs when meeting a new dog is you should hold the back of your hand out for the dog to sniff.

But should you?

To us humans, a hand reaching out doesn’t seem like a big deal.

We know we are not going to do anything to harm the dog. We are just being friendly and available.

A dog who is confident, happy, bouncy and enjoys meeting others may not have any concern when a hand reaches out towards him.

Many dogs are not comfortable with hands reaching towards them, especially from an unfamiliar person and definitely not when reaching towards their head.

I believe being a familiar or unfamiliar person is key in how one should interact with any dog.

Think of it in your own life. You behave differently with family members than you do acquaintances, colleagues, or strangers.

I much prefer to coach people to greet unfamiliar dogs a slightly different way. Keep in mind, all dogs are different. Some are more confident than others.

A person standing still, who allows the dog to approach, sniff and retreat and doesn’t interact, is less threatening than one who holds out a hand then reaches to pat when the dog is close by.

From the dog’s perspective, the act itself, of a hand coming towards them can be concerning.

The cautious dog gets the courage to approach an unfamiliar person’s outstretched hand. He does a few sniffs, gathering some information, trying to determine if the situation is safe or unsafe.

Perhaps he’s starting to feel okay about it as the hand remains stationary.

Then the hand moves to go for the dog’s head. The cautious dog moves away.

If I were in the dog’s head, I would likely hear “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you”.

We take offence if the dog moves away as you try to pat him after his sniff. We interpret the sniff as permission to do more instead of interpreting backing away as an indicator of discomfort or fear. Our feelings get hurt because we know we only want to say hi and are not going to hurt the dog.

Instead of the dog being able to bank a good experience he ends up with yet another negative one.

Offering a hand is such a universally held belief. A difficult habit to change.

If you decide to change and allow the dog to simply approach and retreat, I believe you can be a part of helping a cautious dog gain confidence. The more successful greetings he has, the more deposits in the confidence bank he gets.

Quite frankly, I believe this is the way to greet any dog.

I believe it all comes back to the relationship and whether or not you are familiar or unfamiliar. We do not have the right to touch every dog we meet. It’s okay for any dog to simply sniff and walk away.