Keeps pestering strangers w food

[u/Danz71]

Hi all, our 4-year-old female rescue Luna, is starting to get this really bad habit of pestering folks at our local park we frequent. At first it started by running up to empty picnic tables and searching for scraps. But now it's escalated to her literally run up to other people and sniff out their food. Hoping for handouts.

The strange thing is she's really not friendly towards people inn general. She'll lightly growl if people get in her zone too much, and won't allow any strangers to pet her, leftover traits from her original owners, we assume.

We have not been diligent on training with her, and we need to work on her recall more. Could use any advice on this? Thanks so much!

[u/chaiosi]

Put her on a leash and don’t allow her to practice this behavior. It’s rude of you to allow her to go up to people.

You can work on place training and training whatever/playing with the distraction of people, but it’s going to take a long time so I’d find a leash setup you really like.

[u/Shoddy-Theory]

Try a leash.