my rottie, Murphy is 19 months old and can be very very weary of people, more so recently as he has had a major operation (so once hes allowed on full walks again we will be starting at the begining of his training again following the below:

What I do on walks is when I see a walker/cyclist/jogger approach I walk to one side of the path (if you can initally make sure that is quite some distance away from the other person) and get the dog to sit in front of you and try to keep the dogs focus on you whilst constantly giving the dogs high value treats/or playing with a toy (or whatever makes your dog tick) until the person/jogger/dogs has gone by and then praise the dogs in a high pitch fun tone (this is called the food bar approach)

Once the dog has got used to this you can then take it a step further but instead of constantly giving the dog treat as the person/jogger/cyclist/dog passes you only give the treat/toy once the person has passed and as long as the dogs has sat quietly focusing on you.

Once the dog has got used to this you can then reduce the space between you (and your dog) and the person/jogger/cyclist/dog on the path.

This teaches your dog thatpeople/dogs/cyclists/joggers = yummy treats

With Murphy I started with the food bar (loads of treats as people passed us) so he started to assocaie people/dogs = food (which he loves)

One day (after many months of this training) he was offlead and he spotted some joggers before I did and immediately did a sit and looked to me for guidance - I was sooooo PROUD of him.

The good thing about this method is you can always go back a step and build it up again, but patience and consistency is key here.

I hope this helps

Hi again Keziah. I now have the friend of mine with me who has the rhodesian ridgeback and she has read your post. Her opinion is this dog has not been socialised enough. Also if the dog is on a lead it will feel threatened because it cannot get away from either people or other dogs. She also says these dogs do not like people or other dogs approaching them, they prefer to make the contact themselves, i.e. if anyone comes round her house, she tells them to just sit down and relax, the dog then goes up to the person and all is well. But, if the person went to stroke the dog, the dog will retreat, showing their nervousness hackles go up and tail goes down. This still happens 5 years down the line, when the dog has been well socialised! Any help? Sounds like my g.s.d's, they like to do the introductions themselves, and don't like people going to stroke them first. Staring them in the face is a sign of aggression, so that is to be avoided too. The tail going down is actually showing nervousness and submission but the hackles are up and the dog "grows", but the tail going up rigid, dog growing in stature, hackles up means the dog is saying "I'm bigger and stronger than you, so leave me alone"! Obviously, you should never force a dog to accept somebody they don't like, as they will know who they like and don't like, read their body language at all times. Hope this is of some help to you.

Hello, everyone has given fab advice, i cant add anything!
Good luck with your girl x

did you manage to get any help with your dog,i have a border collie that was worse + with alot of hard work + letting her do it at her own pace very slowing she has become more trusting and settled do you have any problems with people in your house or is it just when your out

No. We are trying the suggestions people have made. We have problems when people come to the house too, it isn't just when we are out. It's OK if she knows them, and very oddly certain people she doesn't take any notice of. She hates my daughter's boyfriend but wasn't too bothered about his mother. There doesn't seem to be any logic to it. In a way I'm not too bothered about how she is at home because we don't have visitors as a rule, so chances are anyone coming into the house shouldn't be there IYSWIM, and I feel safer knowing she would alert us to an intruder. It's just her behaviour while we are out that I find embarrasing. (Particularly that it is our fault she wasn't socialised properly & I really feel bad about that)

well we started off in the home becaues my collie was the same she was only scared of alot of people but there was a few she was fine with we found that bringing people into the garden +getting them not to look at her totally ignore her she hated it but she soon got use to it then we did the same in the house but they sat down on the sofa + we then let her out to wonder around we told them not to notice her at all she barked when she saw them + she would run away + then she would come back + after a couple of weeks doing this with only a few people she started to get closer to them+ not bark but the trick is let her do it dont push when she realises there not there to harm her they get better + then she would start to lick them but still i told them not to notice her them she started to slowly let them touch her i found it then so much easier taking her outside because she still was worried but she had started to not think that they were going to harm her i was told by the vet that this is a good way of making her realise this +they also said it would be easier to do this at home because she would feel safer. i hope this might help