How to deal with reactivity to house guests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I'm confused. Is he your dog or your in-laws? This is what I have done with my pup. First get a trainer. Second, you need to go slow and not have him go over his threshold... too quickly. for example, a visitor comes in and says far away but, he can see them. I have him on leash. If he barks I call him and give him a treat. Each time he looks at the guest and back and doesn't bark..he gets a reward. Then if that goes well I have the guest move closer. If he is fine we keep going. If not I have the guest go back. Normally it takes two full visits for him to greet the new person and like them. Normally they are giving him belly rubs by the beginning of the third visit.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

You need to put her in the other room before you open the door. Otherwise you're just encouraging the aggression, and threatening other people.

[Anonymous]

My dog is reactive when people come to the door but if I know someone is coming and meet them outdoors with the dog then the dog is totally welcoming. Lots of treats for the dog and keep them on leash so they can’t hurt the guest. We drop the leash once things are calm. We crate in the rare instance she doesn’t calm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is exactly what my dog is like he is much calmer if people are sitting down and relaxed rather then when they first walk through the door, but obviously he mostly meets people when the walk through the door and he barks crazy. We are working on it slowing by giving him a spot to wait. But not everyone is the house is following the procedure.