Need advice

Hello everyone,
Buster has been doing amazing although latetly since we moved houses he's been acting a little fu my towards people which is starting to worry me.

Since he was a puppy he's always been socialezed and every time we took him out he would be so excited to see people, he's still very friendly towards other animals and always ready to play, just the other day we took him beach and he was playing with this other staffy and the rest of the dogs so it's not due to not seeing people that he's acting the way he is because he's always been around people .

The day we moved in I took him out and some of neighbours stopped me to ask me a few questions and they were also staffy lovers but buster seemed very scared and for the first time he barked at someone he put his tail under which he never does and started barking and backing away they stroke him but didn't change anything he still was a little scared since then he's been doing this a lot although sometimes he's fine.

That same day I took him to town and he seemed scared of everyone it's annoying because people ask me if he's friendly and I say yes but then he looks scared of them he's not aggressive towards them though just seems frightened but it's been happening so much I thought I'd ask here.

Really hard to say. It could be the stress of the move. You could try having your neighbors feed him treats to get him used to being around them. I would just give him time to settle at his own pace.

He's about 7 months, isn't he? If might well be his 2nd fear period.

https://www.doglistener.co.uk/puppies/criticalperiods.shtml

See if you can manouevre Buster so the person ends up more side on and not looking directly at him. Talk to them looking directly at them and try and get their eye contact, which will take it away from him. In an ideal world you'd be able to ask them not to stare him in the face but that'd probably have the opposite effect. Head on eye contact is confrontational for a dog. Most learn to accept it but nervous dogs can have problems.

Treats might help but I'd suggest you ask the person to drop them on the floor, rather than have them bend down and stare him in the face even more while giving a treat. Dropping so he can get them, not throwing them at him, means he can see the treat coming from them without him having to deal with the eye contact.

Whenever possible, try and keep conversation going with the other person, letting Buster figure out that nothing awful's happening, until he's settled. Then you can leave, but if you leave while he's still worried he may learn that being worried gets him away from the scary person.

If it's any reassurance, Millie's just been through this with dogs. She was fab with them but then, 3 or 4 weeks ago she started growling and hiding behind my legs. I did the above and she's now brilliant again.

Cant add anything just to add your your voice calm and even with any commands you give him if he acts unusally.

Thank you Liz that was very helpful I never actually had a dog from a puppy I've always rescued so this is all new to me but that's great info you just have me I shall try..

There's many reasons that I can think the move and girlfriend is pregnant in hospital right now baby should be out today hopefully he's at my girlfriends dad who is the breeder and is with his sister dad and mum so hopefully when we pick him up later he will be knackered and feeling a little better.. Hopefully this is just a phase and we can work through it

Agree with LizP on the second fear period. they become irrational in what is scary and what isn't. Marley was petrified of moorings on the canal during his, absolutely no idea why. You just have to try and not reinforce anything while he is going through it.