Fearful when approached and arms open

Hi,

My dog is fearless and loves people and dogs. She plays in the park every night...

I have noticed that if you approach her with both arms open, almost like you are going to try catch/trap or pick her up..., she backs off. It could be when she was a puppy and people picked her up.

How does one overcome this ?

If I approach her with one hand , or side on , she is fine. I tried today to change her association of this by having peanut butter on my inner fingers. She runs and starts licking my hands and is NOT fearful.

What do you all recommend to overcome this/treat this ?

when dogs attept to intimidate each other their hackles go up, they raise their head and stand tall (make themselves larger) so when you do this you probabilly look huge and very scary if she is other wise a submission dog. So i would stop doing it, but if its a must get down to her level when you do it don't open your arms fully and call her excitingly perhap embrace her in a hug with loads of kisses. but yes perhaps as a younger pup she was picked up wrongly picked up by kids of the owner its uncomfortable they grab them unber the arms the pup moves to quickly and the kids catch the back end and the dog is upside down etc.

When you say she backs off, does she do it in a fearful way, with her tail down & ears back, slightly crouching? Or does she just back away as though she doesn't want you to catch her?

If it's the 2nd then she's probably playing with you. If it's the first, then I would say someone in the past has frightened her by doing this.

Try crouching down nearer to her level & hold out your arms - see what she does. Practise at home first & then outside.