Meet and Greet: Hitting the Trails Responsibly - a podcast by Ty Brown

In this post I want to talk about how to have your dog greet other dogs and people, whether they’re on- or off-leash. This is a question that I hear a lot from clients here in Utah, who like to go out on the trails. Over the years I’ve developed a formula over the years to facilitate this situation, and encapsulate that formula into one single, solitary word. Cool, right? In theory, it’s very easy too. What’s the word?

“Don’t!”

I know, maybe you were waiting for that. But my answer is always the same: don’t let your dog meet other dogs on a trail walk, on- or off-leash. This might sound a little extreme, like I don't want your dog to have fun. Now, I’ll admit that I might be a little more conservative on this topic than some other trainers might be. But that’s purely because I’ve witnessed and heard about so many nightmares that I don’t see any reason for allowing your dog to do this. Let’s devote some time to figuring out why this situation so frequently turns into a problem.

Dogs are social creatures, but the overwhelming majority of them haven't learned proper social skills. There’s a difference between being social and being able to behave socially. Humans are social creatures too, but that certainly doesn't mean that every human learns social skills. Plus, humans learn these skills at different rates; some people act better in social situations, while some behave worse.

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