[ColesMommy01]

I've had Rasta a little over a month now and he's adjusted to my family perfectly. He loves my son who's only allowed to play with him supervised and with my husband. The only "problem" I have is that he is very wary/suspicious/aloof with strangers(even with training). I don't really see this as a fault with him it's just a personality trait that he has. I dont want to force him into a situation where he's not comfortable and risk the chance of him having a negative reaction. For example I took him walking Thursday and a woman came RUNNING up to us(if you've watched the news and heard of Fort Hood and some of the issues we've had lately you have to know her running towards me made me extremely uncomfortable). This sent Rasta on "full alert" where he was tense, staring her down, and was basically in attack mode. I picked him up as the woman was reaching for him(she didn't ask to pet him) she told me how cute he was and reached again Rasta ignored her and I told her he does not like ppl running up to him and does not like to be petted by strangers(he'd rather play). She was disappointed but I did not want to risk anything. Two other times my neighbor tried to pet him(with my permission) but I told her he would have to come to her first. He didn't. He looked at her turned away started walking and did this strange "huff/growl" noise. He's done that before with strangers he doesn't see regularly unlike my neighbor who we see at least every other day. So that's the background lol. My problem is I have two dogs Rasta the Yorkie and Roxie the Bulldog they both get walks everyday(unless it's too hot for either). Roxie loves everyone Rasta doesn't and out of the two when walking someone is going to want to pet one. I dont want to put Rasta in an uncomfortable predicament but I also don't want to stop Roxie from getting the attention/rubs she likes. Sorry for the long post but I really do need some advice...should I walk them separately/just tell ppl they can't pet either? I really don't know but any help will be appreciated.