What to do when visitors are coming over?
There are many reasons why a dog may struggle with the idea of unfamiliar (or even familiar) visitors coming to their home. For some they may have experienced trauma in their lives that very quickly and urgently taught them that people (or other dogs) outside of your family unit are dangerous and something to avoid. In these circumstances, having this threat enter their home triggers a trauma response where the dog feels completely out of control and unable to cope. This can result in high levels of reactivity or even aggression as they attempt to deal with the threat that they cannot (at least in their mind) escape. Other causes of these behaviours may include a genetic predisposition for anxiety or fear, poor or lack of socialisation (key early experiences telling the dog who is safe and who isn’t), parental behaviour, breed predisposition (behaviour traits selected for over hundreds of years that are switched on by trigger events), hormonal changes (e.g. lack of testosterone after neutering), pain (causing general irritability) and more.
As with any behaviour, the more it is practiced the stronger the behaviour becomes and the harder it is to modify. It is also worth noting that reactivity and aggression, although emotionally not something a dog wants to engage in, are functionally reinforcing. If your dog is scared, stressed or even just irritated by the presence of strangers and tries to increase distance between them and that stranger through barking, lunging, snarling or bite attempts – the moment that stranger moves away and increases distance, your dog learns that these behaviours are highly effective. Now that isn’t to say we should keep our dogs in these highly emotional, highly stressful states of being to prevent accidentally reinforcing the behaviour – this is not only unsafe but will most likely lead to your dog experiencing a traumatic event (which will inevitably make the behaviour worse). Instead it highlights how important it is to prevent our dogs from experiencing the trigger (visitors) outside of a behaviour modification set up, wherever we can. As such, it is always best to utilise effective management strategies to allow us to live our lives without making the behaviour worse; as well as implementing behaviour modification practices to try and change your dog’s behaviour response to visitors.
It is also highly important to recognise that for some dogs we may never cure this problem. This is especially important for those that have a genetic predisposition (through breed or parents) or have experienced a traumatic event. In part, this is because to modify a behaviour like this we need to put in such a huge amount of time and energy into the behaviour modification protocol which often just isn’t realistic. Secondly, an animal suffering from trauma may struggle to learn due to the traumatic experiences they have had. Finally, our environments may not be the most suitable for our dog to learn effectively and for many people completely uprooting their lives to change all of the different factors impacting this behaviour is not going to be realistic.
Management Suggestions
Limit visitors to your home wherever you can, where possible meet your friends/family/guests at a local pub, café, their home, mutual friends etc.
Have a parcel box at the bottom of your drive/away from the front door to try and limit home deliveries and letters being posted through the door
Utilise window fog or other visual barriers to prevent your dog from being hyper vigilant at the window – this may include moving furniture around to reduce visibility if you have a dog that likes to jump on to the sofa or windowsill to watch the world go by
Take your dog for walks at quiet times of day (6am/7am in the morning; after 7pm at night; midday on work days) to avoid seeing too many unfamiliar people out and about on walks
Pop your dog in the car and travel to more rural, natural locations (fields, woodlands, nature reserves etc) to provide them with quieter more enriching walks where you have the space to be at a distance to unfamiliar people
Avoid street walks as it can be difficult to keep a safe distance (in your dog’s mind) to unfamiliar people – if not possible, utilise cars, trees, driveways, crossing the road and other spaces to give your dog space when people are coming
Take a bright umbrella with you on walks that you can pop open as an emergency shield if you need it (however spend some time at home training your dog to be comfortable with the umbrella suddenly opening near them)
Create a safe space at home where your dog can go if you need to have a visitor come over (i.e. upstairs room; with a radio/sound system that can play loud classical music or similar; with comfortable beds/a den; chews/kongs/lickimats with high value meat/cheese/peanut butter (or a mixture); new high value toys such as those with rabbit skin/fur attached; adaptil diffuser; lavender or other calming scents (make sure to double check dog safety if using scented oils/diffusers)). Make sure this room does not have heavy footfall passing by (i.e. next to the bathroom or kitchen where visitors need to keep passing) or manage your visit so that you are the only one walking passed the door if this needs to occur. Make sure to spend time training your dog to associate this room with all of the goodies you give them in there, building on the time they can spend in the room alone.
Some dogs love the car and this (weather/temperature and location dependent) can be a safe space for your dog to go – especially if you have a crate and water bowl in there.
If you know a visitor is coming over take your dog for an enriching walk (such as to a secure field or more natural location they enjoy), on a long line so they have freedom of movement and the ability to express their behaviour and exercise fully. Then take them to their safe space BEFORE the visitor arrives. In an ideal world they won’t even be aware that the visitor has entered their home.
Prevent visitors from knocking on your door or ringing your bell as these are often the triggering events for the reactivity or distress – instead have the visitor text you when they arrive and stay in their car or away from the door until you are ready.
Both on walks and at home be brave and communicate with unfamiliar people and visitors – express that your dog is very uncomfortable and needs space, if they refuse to listen then you must advocate for your dog and give them the space they need.
If you have guests that need to stay at your home then it may be recommended to have your dog stay in a kennels they are familiar with or with any friends they may possibly have. If they have no friends, chat with the rescue kennels to see if they have any space to house your dog for that period of time.
Behaviour Modification
It is important to make sure that behaviour modification approaches utilise positive, force free methods to help your dog to learn a safer, less reactive response to visitors. A large part of this will usually involve desensitisation and counter conditioning to change the dogs emotional response towards the visitor, so they are no longer fearful or uncomfortable. We can also use training to teach an alternative behaviour in place of the reactivity, such as going to their bed or relaxing in a different room.
For further support in training or behaviour modification please have a look at the services we offer. These behaviour issues are usually quite complex and the assistance of a professional trainer will make sure you (and your visitors) stay safe throughout the process, as well as getting the most out of your training sessions.
