Strangers giving your dog treats- does it work?

Both of my young dogs could do with being more tolerant of strangers so I was thinking of a way to train this. It has been suggested that asking strangers (to the dog) to give the dogs treats might get them to regard unkown people in a positive light.
However, I could also see that it might lead to
a) my dogs mugging innocent strangers for food
b) my dogs ignoring me because the goodies are coming from someone else.

What do you think? Has anyone used this to desensitise a dog? (Not in the home, please - that`s a different ball game)

Yes, I have, quite successfully with Stumpy.

But although she is very food orientated I never had any fear of her mugging strangers for treats or going off with someone else because they had the treats (with the possible exception of Shona who Stumpy now loves )

It has made quite a difference. The only difficulties I have found are that there are still 'types' of people she is still frightened of - e.g. fishermen, people with walking sticks and golfers. Possibly because of her reaction to them (e.g. barking and growling at them), but I have found these people are often the ones who aren't friendly enough to approach with the suggestion, so we haven't made any real progress with them; but generally she is so much better.

These days I tend to alternate - sometimes I will give them the treat to give to her, other times they will pet her and I will give her the treat.

Yes.
We had a GSD X GR that hated people in those bright work jackets (so it included the police!)
It was becoming problematic, so I asked a Community officer to ask him to sit and feed him some tasty bics. He never had a problem with the jackets again, so yes it can work.

great. All I need to do now is to find a tall man in uniform..... oh - and ask him to feed my dogs (sorry, drifted off there for a second)

Well you never know, he may give you both a treat

gosh

Hi Claire I have used this method too with willing bodies always asking them to bend to call the dog to them rather than approaching the dog so if the dog doesn't feel comfortable with a person they don't have to accept ..

a) my dogs mugging innocent strangers for food
b) my dogs ignoring me because the goodies are coming from someone else...

No to both, I think you would need to do this an awful lot of times for this to happen, and if the people are different every time it is most unlikely

I have used it quite a lot with children, I always have bits of something in my pockets and when children come near take the opportunity and say 'would you like to give her a treat' then explain they must not approach the dog (or any strange dog ) better to call the dog to them to receive the treat. Good for the child and the dog

Its the method I used to socialise Missy with people outside the home. I asked everyone we met on our walks to ask her to sit and then give her a treat. It worked like a charm. She is now very sociable with people. A secondary bonus was most people stroked her - unasked - after giving her the treat, so she isn't worried by hands either.

She doesn't mug people for treats, but she is always pleased to see someone new. Most people respond by giving her a fuss, which she loves just as much now as the treat.

Missy doesn't ignore me, but that's probably because she saw I held the treats, I just gave one to a stranger to give to her.. I still kept the big bag.

thankyou. I will go and cook sossidges and waylay people who look reasonably sensible.

If there is a PAH near you (or another pet shop) that might be a good place to start - higher probability that the people will be dog friendly