I have a 2 1/2 year old Border Collie who does agility and is starting in Search and Rescue. She is great with other dogs, and loves kids. Unfortunately she is quite wary of strangers and I need to solve that in order for her to certifiy in wilderness Search and Rescue. My question is what is the best way to go about that? So far all the advice I have gotten is to go to a park and have kids feed her treats. But it is the adults she is afraid of and no one wants to approach a dog who is backing up to give her a treat even if I ask them to.

The younger the dog, the better. The dog guide school gives us a service dog tag the day we pick up a 7 week old puppy. The public is asked to tolerate us taking a 7 week old puppy into restaurants because it is important to socialize them early.

With her bred in distrust of strangers on top of her age, it may be difficult. It will help if you are firmly established as top dog. If the top dog is at ease with a stranger, it will help her to trust them. It might help to enlist people you know, that she doesn't. Maybe even work with a fence or something between them and her. And try the treats. I don't use them very much, but this is one good place for them. If she won't approach them, let them roll the treats to her. Many dogs fear having things thrown at them. It is hard to fool a dog, but you need to control your tension and keep up a happy banter with the person, being careful not to praise her for showing fear. Push the limits of human acceptability on physical contact with the person. The dog needs to see that you like and trust the person.

You could also try working up in size and age. Many of our puppies have liked little kids so well, my kids speculated about whether the dogs realized they are just young humans.