When encountering a dog for the first time, is it a good idea to extend your palm?

It is better to extend your hand palm down, so the dog is not feeling threateend by your open palm and can snoff the back of your hand.

If you offer your palm, the dog does not know if you might slap them.

It is always better to ask the owner if a dog is friendly before approaching it in any way. If the owner says yes, then you can extend your hand for it to sniff.

While that’s a good way to make friends with a dog who likes people, I wouldn’t recommend it universally. The best way to deal with scared or aggressive dogs is to keep your hands close to your body. Those dogs have sometimes associated hands with pain, so an approaching hand could make them bolt or bite.

Only if you anticipate no further use for that palm or the arm to which it is attached.

Be sure and fold your fingers under, and like @zenvelo said, palm down.

Ask the owner first (unless your in a dog park) and like @zenvelo and @smudges said when extending your hand have your palm down. Also be slow so you don’t startle the dog.

I let cats sniff my hand.

Even if a dog associates a hand with being hit, it is better that they see your hand than to have it in your pocket. I find even non-aggressive dogs don’t like it when people have their hands in their pockets where they can’t see them and it’s even worse now with masks because they can’t see your face. Dogs never understand what our intent is but our body language is something they look at. Just like humans see someone in a relax state is more approachable, so do dogs, and being in a hurried state can look like being nervous, and towering over a dog is never good. That is what other dogs do to each other to show dominance.
You may have been also too close to his owner. Some dogs are very protective of their owners. Voices also set them off. If you have a very deep voice they can see that as a growl, of course there are dogs that are just very nervous. My daughter has a dog that has to take medication for anxiety. He can nip a hand, but not to attack but rather his anxiety can go from 0 to 200 in seconds. Even when he’s happy to see you.

Whatever you do, move slowly and carefully watch what it does. If you see teeth, stop.

Extend a down-turned fist, not a palm. Bitten fists are in less danger than bitten fingers.

Yes, a fist sounds aggressive, but instead think of it as letting them smell the back of your hand.

https://www.wikihow.com/Meet-a-Dog-for-the-First-Time. In case you want to read this.

This Q was very interesting to me. Thanks for asking.

I’m semi-afraid of dogs, and I don’t extend my hand, because I don’t want to pet the dog, and I want to discourage the dog from coming near me. Friendly dogs seem to still try to get a petting. Aggressive dogs, I’ve luckily never been attacked, but I’ve probably never been face to face with a dog whose first instinct is to bite, but I have been aggressively barked at, and I can’t tell when it’s a bark that means I can kill you and will (terrifying) vs. a bark that the dog just likes to talk a lot.

Rule of Thumb or keeping your thumbs on this:

Judge if you feel it is safe
Ask the owner if you can do this
Let the dog come to you on the same level ground
Offer a closed hand on your lowered arm
Proceed based on the reaction.

No. People hit dogs with an open palm. Better to extend a closed fist.

@JLeslie – dogs usually bark at strangers due to fear. In that case, just leave it alone.

@RocketGuy I do leave it alone and keep my distance. Dogs do charge without provocation sometimes. Or, we don’t understand what provoked them anyway.

My neighbor’s son has a dog that barks for many reasons from what I can tell. It’s a very playful happy dog. The barking is annoying and too much. Luckily, he only visits about 4 times a year. He’s a cute dog. He goes over to the back door of my other neighbor and barks to play with her dog. Lol.

I’ve always extended the back of my hand with a good distance between the dog and myself and allowed the dog to approach my hand instead of bringing the hand towards the dog.

Ask the owner first, then extend palm down. If there is no one to ask, then you should not be approaching the dog at all

I agree with some of the above answers that it’s better to ask the owner. And only if s/he says yes, and the dog seems friendly, should you cautiously extend the back of your closed fist. (Don’t offer a mouthful of tasty digits, just in case!)

As a cat person, I don’t know much about dogs, although I have met some nice ones over the years.

Shortly after reading this, I met my nephew’s large dog for the first time. I duly extended my hand, palm down, fingers curled, just as if I knew what I was doing, while my nephew looked on approvingly. The dog had her sniff and we were fine. I was glad to have had this advice in mind.

Pretty soon she was leaning against my leg and waiting for some strokes.