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How to help my dog overcome sudden fear and aggression towards people?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Male | neutered | 9 months and 10 days old | 26 lbs

We love in a quite neighbourhood and last week we found out the our bongo is extremely afraid of people . We used to have relatives coming to our house and he always used to greet them . But last week there was a festival and when I took him out for a walk he got extremely afraid by looking at people nearby and anyone who tried to come close he literally got extremely fearful and aggressive . My question is : how to get him overcome his fear of people ? How to overcome his fear ?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Alysia Van Scoy, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on March 24th, 2018

Poor Bongo! I bet the amount of people being around was overwhelming to him. Heck- it overwhelms me. If he has a good food drive, I would recommend using that to train him. It is best to use one person st a time. Make sure they have a yummy treat- something he only gets during training. Have the person walk by & gently toss the food to him & keep walking. No telling or staring at him. He will start to associate yummy treat with people. Have the person move closer if Bongo isn’t responding. The person holding Bongo’s leash needs to remain calm and praise positive behavior & ignore unwanted behavior. When he has that down- have him sit & allow the person to hand him the treat (make sure you trust that person). I would not place him in situations with large numbers of strangers for a while. I would also recommend a good basic obedience class-it will help him learn in a group setting. Thanks for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

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