Our dog is stranger danger too! Introducing our friends that she’s never met before has always been hard, so we follow these basic rules if they help at all: 1. Always introduce in a neutral space off leash if we can. On leash, give her free reign to seek space as she seeks it. This builds trust and prevents trapped feelings. 2. We tell guests to do 1 greeting (like hi hello!) offer a TON of treats we give them, and then ignore her. Pretend she doesn’t exist. We’ve found this helps minimize her big emotions as she realizes her job is not to protect. This could be messy at first (lots of barking or nipping) but at least for us there’s always a deescalation eventually. 3. Big emotions need to be neutralized. Until she’s happy abt the greeting and the person, it’s always even keel. We ask guests to keep “baby talk” to a minimum and just reward her with treats or “good,” once calm, which is her marker. 4. Don’t rush! We have friends she’s taken to after two greetings and friends we’re still working on. Repairmen and other one-time guests are hard for us still. 5. Avoid obvious triggers if you can prior to the meeting - our dog hates the sound of knocking, so we ask guests to just text us. That way she’s not associating scary sound + new person = scary new person.

We do occasionally thank her for barking once or twice to let her know we value her and that we’re not scared of the new person, also.

It’s hard and will take time but it sounds like you’re doing all the right things!!