Every time we have guests at our house it’s a bit of a process getting the dogs comfortable and the people trained 😉 Don’t pet Maxwell, don’t stare at Maggie… and so on…
These past few days we had a small person in our house! Granddaughter Katharine is 5 years old, and is very curious about dog behaviour. She was a willing and cooperative participant in making Maxwell feel comfortable. Maggie has a proven record around kids, but needs help staying calm around newcomers.
I’ve been working with Niki Stevens (Perry), a professional dog trainer and behaviour consultant from Vernon, BC. In addition to developing systematic behaviour modification programs for both Maggie and Maxwell, Niki offered some excellent tips for introducing Katharine and Maxwell, and, in general, welcoming people to our home. In this case it was Katharine’s parents, and they totally get it that reactive and fearful dogs are complex.
Most of this I do already, but a few extra tidbits from Niki (in bold) really made a huge difference.
- Put dogs in their crates before the visitors arrive.
- Once visitors are settled in the house let them know you’ll be bringing one dog in at a time.
- Ask them to not move, look at the dog, or attempt to pet the dog. They can carry on with their conversations.
- Bring in first dog on leash. As soon as the dog sees the people, throw food on the floor (really good stuff). Let him eat, then promptly leave the room again, keeping the leash loose and everything calm. Repeat the sequence. If the dog seems comfortable you can get a little closer but don’t overdo it.
- Don’t make it all about the people in the house. After #4 bring the dog into the room, and work with him with clicker and more good treats. Hand touches are easy so we often do that. But something more complex, like a shaping activity, will make the dog more focused on the task and less on the people (who are still being very obedient by the way — sitting, not staring, etc)
- Repeat this a couple times, then put that dog away and bring in the other. Repeat.
- Also, practice “look at that” (click for looking at the person, then treat)
This worked like a charm. Once both dogs could calmly enter the room and work with me without any signs of stress, I simply slipped off the leashes. This allowed the dogs lots of time and space to sniff around and check everyone out. After a few minutes I put the dogs away again with some tasty stuffed kongs so people could actually get up and move around!
Eventually we got to the point where dogs and people could be moving around together. We had a bowl of dog yummies (kibbles, vegetables, cheerios, and miscellaneous leftovers) on the kitchen counter everyone was encouraged to simply feed the dogs. With Maxwell and adults that started out with dangling the hand and having him approach on the side. Katharine played “find it” where she tossed the treats on the floor. By this time Maggie and Maxwell were pretty impressed with these awesome people in the house! Most importantly, they showed no signs of stress.
If it seems like a pretty elaborate process it is. We don’t have people to our house very often, and never have surprise visitors knocking at the door because of this sign on our front gate:
So it’s not too surprising that Maxwell and Maggie would need time and patience to ease into this sudden change in their environment. If I’m not confident that visitors to our house understand this, then we go on to plan B, which could include not inviting them. I’m not kidding!!
The next few days were carefully managed. Baby gates and crates were used when there was too much chaos, or when the dogs seemed tired. Because here’s another thing I learned from Niki — Maggie and Maxwell probably don’t get enough sleep. Even when they’re lounging beside me in my office they get little uninterrupted sleep during the day. After all, I’ve been told to get up from my desk every 20 minutes. Look, Maggie, she’s making tea! Look, Maxwell, it’s time to bring in firewood!
Despite the careful management there were a couple slip ups. One morning I didn’t get up in time to put the dogs away before Katharine came upstairs from the basement. It was still pretty dark. Maxwell barked and charged toward the Katharine at the doorway, but stopped as soon as he realized who it was. Phew! Katharine remembered to play statue.
Katharine also knew the other rules: no hugging and no teasing. Of course, we never left her with the dogs unsupervised.
Niki suggested that once the dogs are nice and comfortable, do hand touches, or shape foot touches. We did that and then some. That was the most fun for everyone!
