How To Get Your Dog To Trust You

  Contributed/Collaborated Post:

Building trust with your dog is one of the most important parts of owning a dog in the first place - if your dog doesn’t trust you, how are you going to train them, take them for walks, trust them in your home, and so on? How are you going to enjoy them and give them a good life, in other words? 

Photo by Sean Brannon

The question is, of course, how can you earn a dog’s trust because although you might assume they’ll just give it to you, there is some work involved. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to get your dog to trust you so you can start the right way with yours. Read on to find out more. 

Be Consistent 

If there’s one thing you need to know about dogs it’s that they thrive on routine and predictability (just like humans!), so being consistent is a big part of earning their trust. That means feeding them, walking them, and playing with them at the same time (as close as possible anyway) every day - and they’ll learn that time as well, so if you’re not there with their food or leash, they’ll know it, and they might even start to trust you a little less. 

If you’re able to stick to your routine with your dog, they’ll know you’re reliable and that you’ll be there when they expect you to be, and that’s going to make a massive amount of difference to how much they want to be around you and how well they behave. 

Give Them Time And Space

If you’ve just got your new dog, it’s absolutely vital to give them time to adjust to their new home - it’s going to be strange for them to suddenly be somewhere new with new people, and you can’t just explain it to them, so they’ll need some time to get used to things before they can really feel settled and start working on trusting you. 

The key is not to expect too much to start with. Although some dogs, especially puppies, might warm up right away, some are going to take more time, and you’ll need to respect that and not force any interactions with them, or they’re not going to trust you. They need to learn their way around and understand that you’re not going to hurt them, and only then will they want you to come near. Work with the dog’s timeframe and trust will come; rush it, and you might not be trusted at all. 

Use Positive Reinforcement 

One of the best ways to build trust with your dog is through positive reinforcement, which basically means using praise, treats, and affection when they do something right - they’ll get a positive association with you and they’ll feel good about interacting with you because they know you’ll be kind to them. 

So, every time your dog does something you like (it could be anything, like staying calm, following a command, and so on), give them a nice reward. And always avoid punishment! Trust can easily be broken if your dog has negative associations with you instead of positive ones, and trying to get it back could be an impossible task.