Common Stranger-Greeting Mistakes

The biggest mistake is allowing strangers to loom over your dog with direct eye contact and an outstretched hand. In dog body language, this is a threat display.

Another mistake is narrating your dog's fear to strangers: "Oh, he is nervous, he might bite." This primes the person to be tense, which the dog reads as confirmation of a threat. Instead, manage the space by stepping between the dog and the approaching person and calmly redirecting.