How to deal with reactivity to house guests?
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Anonymous
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Follow up from dog sitting thread….
Can anyone offer any advice for dealing with visitors and guests coming to the house? Our border collie flips out, barking and growling and jumping and lunging and scaring the guests. I had to eventually just cage him while my kid’s friends came over to play, and it took him a good 10 minutes to calm down. He was barking very loudly, growling and trying to jump on them. He just seemed out of control. Similar to how he gets with other dogs, particularly when we are in our own yard, and my kid is either holding his leash or the kids are just around. I think he is being protective. But he goes absolutely nuts and starts tearing apart our landscaping plants. I don’t think my in-laws socialized him much apart from having us and a couple other families over. Because of covid concerns. I tried to let him smell them. And then he started to calm. But then just started jumping on them and losing control and back to barking again. Not sure what else I could be doing. |
Anonymous
| Can u give him a treat that takes a while when people come over? Not quite the same but my lab barks incessantly when people come over because he’s so excited, I can shove a toy in his mouth and he Carrie’s that around and stops barking. |
Anonymous
Yeah I don’t know why I didn’t think of giving him a treat. Will try that. Thanks! |
Anonymous
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Over time, you can teach him the “place” command, and when people are at the door, he goes to a designated spot (dog bed) and sits and stays there, reinforced by treats, until you say a release word. But this is a very difficult thing to train, and I myself have not succeeded yet because dogs are innately excited when someone comes. They think they are the official greeters/warners. Not having visitors during covid made this hard for my pup as well.
You should leash him. If a guest (child or adult) is comfortable with dogs, give that person treats and instruct them not to give the dog the treat until dog has 4 paws on the floor. You might have a friend come over to specifically practice this with you. The second the dog is calm, 4 paws on the floor, guest gives treat. Guest should ignore or even turn his/her back toward the dog if jumping etc. But for now, just keep him leashed so he doesn’t hurt anyone by accident. Crating my dog would drive him insane if he couldn’t see/smell the guest and assess the situation, but ymmv. |
Anonymous
| Obviously you crate him. Muzzle too if necessary for getting him from the crate to potty breaks. Do not mess around with this. |
Anonymous
| Crate. |
Anonymous
| Give treat in a crate. My dog now growls but goes straight to the crate when visitors come in and stays there. I also read somewhere that it is easier to reactive dogs to come in the room once visitors are already there and settled, like they belong and the dog is the one joining the party, not letting the dog see people arriving as it can be too exciting. |
Anonymous
| Does your dog ever stop barking? Mine will sit in the crate the entire time a guest is there barking away… |
Anonymous
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Crate him. And get a trainer, stat. Barking, growling, lunging, etc. is not ok.
My neighbor thought her dog was “ok” because he stopped barking. He’d been punished for barking and growling, so instead started baring his teeth and once put his teeth on my kid’s leg. Never went there again. |
Anonymous
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Second the suggestion to get a trainer.
It’s really important to deal with this well because when the dog gets people to back off or to become fearful, it is getting what it wants from this behavior, which reinforces it. Having had a reactive dog, I can give some advice, however. When you are expecting guests, exercise your dog well before they arrive. A tired, contented dog is better behaved. A few minutes anyone comes over, crate the dog well away from the door. It’s best if this is on another floor even. Give the dog a favorite treat, like a bully stick or a stuffed Kong, so that it associates this crating with good things. When the dog is calm after guest arrivals, leash it and bring it to where it can see, hear, and smell guests. Proceed slowly; the dog only gets closer if it stays calm—no barking, growling, lunging, jumping or leash pulling. The moment those behaviors start, back up and wait for your dog to give you a sit. It’s possible that the dog takes hours to calmly accept the guests or never calms down. In that case, the dog does not meet the guests and stays safely in its crate. When the dog can calmly be in a room with the guests, give it treats for looking at the guests and then making eye contact with you. Pre-train this as “look” and “watch” commands. By doing this, you are counter-conditioning your dog. It will learn that guests are associated with reassurance from you and with treats. You can also have guests casually toss treats to the dog. They should keep talking or playing with each other and not make eye contact with the dog. This is also a form of counter-conditioning. Be consistent. Even if you are expecting food delivery or a tradesman, the dog gets crated. Do not let it jump, bark, growl, etc. at any visitor or it may start to escalate its aggressive behavior over time. |
Anonymous
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You obviously crate the dog before any children come into the house. You don't let an aggressive dog smell children, or jump on children even once. If the dog needs to go out to potty, you have the children in another room so they aren't walking past them.
Then you can work on behavior, with the goal of this dog being quieter in his crate when there are guests present. This isn't an animal you can trust around children. -- Someone whose loved one was mauled by a dog that was "good with children". |
Anonymous
| My dog has fear-based aggression when people come in the house. The trainer told us to have the people ignore the dog, and drop treats once in a while when they come in so the dog is distracted and then realizes this person is not being aggressive. It also helps if you touch the person or hug them to show the dog you are not afraid of the person, they are welcome. This doesn't work with repair people, obvs- my dog still barks her head off and chases them when they come in. But for friends, the above has worked really well. |
Anonymous
Please, please don’t let your barking dog chase after tradesmen. That’s is such a sh*tty thing to do. You are reinforcing the aggressive behavior of your dog. You are endangering the tradesmen. You don’t know what people’s experience with dogs is. I have been hurt by my own aggressive dog and bitten by strays. If you let your poorly controlled dog run after me, even indoors, I’m not forgiving you or inclined to do a particularly good job for you. |
Anonymous
When she does it, I pick her up or put her in another room. I'm not likely to invite you over, so don't worry about it. |
Anonymous
| Leash your dog in the house and call a trainer. |