May 13, 2024 • 17 mins
Navigating the choppy waters of canine territorial aggression just got smoother. Our latest discussion zeroes in on the strategies needed to manage dogs with a keen sense of trepidation when it comes to visitors coming into their home.
You'll discover how to categorize these guests into three distinct camps, and we'll pay special attention to those 'level two' visitors who, with the right approach, could move from unfamiliar to trusted allies in your dog's eyes.
We'll also cover everything from leveraging a safe space and the benefits of a pre-entry stroll to the favorable non-interactive stance a visitor should maintain upon entering your domain.
View this Episode on YouTube:
Ep. 36: Managing Your Dog's Territorial Aggression at the Front Door, Part 2
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About Scott Sheaffer
Scott Sheaffer, CCBC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog behavior consultant who has worked with thousands of dog owners and their aggressive dogs. Scott specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression, and phobias in dogs six months and older. For more information about Scott, see USADogBehavior.com.
Disclaimer
If you have a dog who is aggressive and dangerous to humans, it is important that you immediately consult directly with an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Take proper measures to ensure that your dog is never in a position to injure anyone. The information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is neither intended nor implied to replace the need for the direct involvement of an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Scott Sheaffer, the Grumpy Dogs podcast and USA Dog Behavior, LLC, are not liable for any incidents or outcomes resulting from following the advice given in this podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Sheaffer (00:00):
In our last episode we went over what
territorial aggression is, andwe also covered things to
consider before bringing someonein your home who might make
your dog grumpy and of course bythat I mean they don't like the
person coming into your home orshould I say their home right?
In today's episode, we'll coverhow I want you to manage your
(00:21):
dog and, very importantly, thevisitor once they are in your
home, for dogs that haveterritorial aggression.
If you haven't already listenedto the last episode, episode 35
, it would be very beneficial todo so before listening to this
episode.
This is part two of a two-partseries.
Are you struggling with a dogthat is anxious or aggressive?
(00:47):
You're at the right placebecause in this podcast series,
we educate dog owners,veterinary practices and dog
trainers on how to overcome dogfear and aggression using humane
methods.
My name is Scott Sheaffer andit's my mission to help you
better understand your dog'sbehavior.
You can watch the video versionof this episode on YouTube.
(01:14):
By the way, I provided a linkin the episode notes.
It'll take you directly to thevideo at the Grumpy Dog's
channel.
You can also search for theGrumpy Dog's channel on YouTube.
Territorial aggression, as wetalked about in the last episode
(01:34):
is primarily driven by yourdog's fear of someone coming
into their safe place and bysafe place, of course, I'm
talking about your home Someonewho they are not comfortable
with, they don't care for.
That makes them nervous, theylook scary, etc.
Some dogs can get more thangrumpy with these people.
They can even morph intoaggression.
Of course, by that I'm talkingabout barking, growling, even
(01:56):
biting.
Before we go on if you have adog, just a note here if you
have a dog who you think mightpresent any possibility of
biting a visitor in one of thesescenarios coming into your home
, or if their aggression isanything beyond mild, please
seek the help of an experiencedcanine behavior consultant.
All right, let's move on.
(02:18):
There are three types ofvisitors to your home, and this
is a really important thing.
If we categorize these visitorsinto different categories,
it'll tell you how you handleeach category of visitor and
it's really quite simple.
There are three levels Levelsone through three.
How you classify each visitorwill affect how you handle that
(02:42):
specific visitor.
First, let's define what alevel one visitor is.
There are typically only threeto five of these level one type
visitors coming into your home,and these would be family
members, neighbors, other lovedones.
Three to five is almost alwaysthe number, and again, that
(03:04):
includes your family members too.
What is a level one?
A level one is someone thatyour dog is completely
comfortable with.
In other words, you could evenbe out of your home and let
someone give someone keys toyour home and they would come in
.
Your dog would be just finewith them.
That would be a level one.
There's zero concern, they'rehappy to see the visitor, no
(03:24):
problems at all.
And again, I've done a lot ofsampling on this, and it's
almost always three to five, andI tell you that so you don't
feel bad, because that's prettytypical when a dog is presenting
with territorial aggressionthat we talked about in episode
35.
Next, let's define what a levelthree visitor is.
Yes, I know I skipped two, butI want to come back to that in
(03:45):
just a second.
Let's talk about level threenow.
A level three would betypically and the example I like
to use is a plumber A one-timevisitor to your home, a delivery
person who's coming indelivering something into your
living room, something like thatwould be a one-time visitor.
You have no relationship, youdon't anticipate ever seeing
(04:05):
that person again, and that's alevel three.
And what do you do with them?
It's real simple.
You just put them in their safeplace that we talked about in
the last episode.
So level ones you don't need todo a thing, they're fine.
You don't need to do anything.
Level threes just put your dogin their safe place once the
visitor rings the doorbell,before you even let the visitor
(04:28):
in, just put them in their safeplace.
All right, let's talk about alevel two visitor, and this is
the one that's the mostimportant, because this is where
we're going to do some, takesome opportunities here to do
some behavior modification.
This is the most important kindof visitor and we're going to
focus on that visitor for therest of this podcast.
This visitor is typicallynumbering in the five to 10
(04:51):
people.
In other words, there's five to10 people in your life that fit
in the level two category.
And what is a level two?
A level two would be someonefamily member, neighbor, close
friend, someone that the dog isnot currently comfortable with
but that you would like for thedog to be comfortable with.
(05:11):
Someone that comes over fromtime and time again and again.
It's typically about five toten people and we're trying to
show them that this unfamiliarperson, this particular person,
is not scary and they don't haveto do these behaviors.
And we're doing this bytreating the real problem, which
, of course, as we say over andover, is their fear of this
(05:34):
person.
The goal is to not only getyour dog bitter with these
people, these, let's say, fiveto ten people, these level twos
some of the dogs not good withbut you'd like them to be good
with but, almost moreimportantly, we're trying to get
them to generalize theirfeelings about visitors to
everyone.
In other words, they have goodexperiences with these five to
(05:55):
ten people.
It is our hope that it willlessen their fear of everyone
coming into the home.
It's called generalization ofgeneralizing the learning.
Before we move on to talk aboutlevel two visitors, just want
to make a note here.
If you'd like to learn moreabout scheduling an in-person
session with me, either inperson or online, please visit
(06:17):
grumpydogspodcastcom to contactus directly and learn more.
All right, let's pick back upwith the level two visitors.
Again, let's set up thescenario for a level two visitor
Ding dong, the doorbell ringsor they knock on the door and
your dog goes ballistic.
(06:38):
They start barking, they maygrowl, they may jump up on the
door who knows but it's not ahappy behavior and, of course,
you're not helping anythingbecause you're doing what
everyone else does You'reyelling at the dog and you're
getting frustrated.
Everybody's moving very fastand, of course, you know where
this is going.
(06:58):
That is an escalation of thisbehavior.
Does You're yelling at the dogand you're getting frustrated?
Everybody's moving very fastand, of course, you know where
this is going.
That is an escalation of thisbehavior.
What I'm telling you to do isto calm down.
We're going to talk about thatin just a second.
I know it's hard to do.
It's very frustrating to have adog like this.
Here's what I want you to do onthe level two visitor comes to
your door.
First, be calm.
When you go to the door, yourdog absolutely picks up this
(07:19):
intensity and this arousal andit only makes things worse, as
you can imagine.
So try to be as calm aspossible.
Go into a zen moment.
People really get revved upmore than you think you do, and
it's really contributing to yourdog's excitability here.
Next thing I want you to do isyou're going to be calm going to
the door.
You're going to walk to thedoor and I want you to talk
(07:41):
through the door.
This is going to be for a leveltwo Because, remember, level
one we just let them in.
At level three, we just put yourdog up.
You're going to talk throughthe door and you're going to ask
the visitor to let you put yourdog up.
So here it is Ding dong, knock,knock, dog's going crazy.
You're trying to be calm andyou'll want you to be calm.
You calmly go to the door.
(08:01):
Hi, can you give me a second toput my dog up?
And I'm telling you that that'sso easy to do because 100% of
people are happy for you to dothat.
Why?
Because that means you eitherhave an aggressive dog, or you
have, and or you have an unrulydog, meaning jumping up all over
(08:24):
you and making a mess of things, and so most people are very
happy to have you put that dogaway and they don't have to deal
with it when they come in.
So that buys you 30 to 60seconds to calmly take your dog
back to their safe place.
See that word that keeps comingup Calmly.
That's exactly right.
Just put one finger throughtheir collar if you need to.
Just gently take them back tothe room Everybody's real calm
(08:44):
and put them in their safe place.
Then you're going to return tothe door without your dog and
you're going to ask the personto do this.
Can I get you to stand a fewfeet?
You know, maybe 10, 15 feet?
Might even want to have a kindof a place, a demarcated place,
where you can say, stand by thattree.
Can I get you just to stand bythat tree for a second?
(09:06):
I'm going to go put a leash onmy dog and I want to introduce
him to you out front before youcome in, Because, as you or as
you may not know, my dog's alittle scared of visitors and I
want him to be better with you,and that's always a big thing to
say.
I want him to be better withyou.
So get a little buy-in on thepart of the visitor.
(09:27):
You're going to return to thedoor with your dog on a leash
and the three of you the twohumans and the dog are going to
take a little two-minute walktogether and all you're going to
do is walk down about I like tosay, a house or two and come
back.
And why a walk outside?
Because we're taking theterritorial component out.
(09:49):
We're taking the territorialcomponent out.
If you introduce the person toyour dog outside, they're not in
their territory and so theanxiety level goes dramatically
down and it works really quitewell.
We want to keep your dog duringthis little walk.
We want to keep your dog a safedistance from the visitor Maybe
(10:10):
a little distance to keep yourdog calm if necessary.
And you're going to keeptalking and chatting with the
visitor during the walk and youwant to do that because you want
to signal to your dog thateverything is normal, all right.
So person comes for the leveltwo.
Person comes to your door.
You say give me a second to putmy dog up.
You put him in a safe place.
(10:31):
You return, you talk to theperson saying my dog is afraid
of people a little bit.
Visitor's liking to be betterwith you.
Okay, can I get you to waitoutside, just a few feet from
the front door, and we're justgoing to take a little walk
together.
And you're going to take thatwalk and the person you two are
going to keep chatting.
Everybody's super relaxed, it'snot an event.
And then you're going to comeback to the door and we're going
(10:54):
to talk about that in just asecond During the walk.
The visitor, however, is, whiletalking to you, is not to look,
touch or talk or approach thedog the whole time, and that's
so that they don't look so scary.
If they're giving your dog alot of attention, that may make
your dog a little bit more scary.
You keep talking, but I don'twant the visitor interacting
(11:16):
with the dog at all.
This was discussed in the lastepisode.
When you get back to your homefrom this very short, one
two-minute walk.
So when you get back to yourhome from this very short, one
two minute walk, have thevisitor I love this part Walk in
first and make themselves athome, go to the refrigerator,
get a bottle of water, sit atthe kitchen counter, sit on the
sofa, sit in the bar, on a barstool, whatever, instead of the
(11:37):
visitor entering after you.
So the visitor goes in first,makes themselves comfortable,
and then you walk in with thedog.
We're reversing things a littlebit here Instead of you going
in first, think about it and thevisitor entering the home while
your dog is there.
That's a lot of pressure.
We're going to flip it and theperson is going to just casually
walk in, make themselves athome, and then you'll enter with
(12:00):
the dog.
So the dog doesn't experiencethat oh no, someone's coming
into my space Really really canhelp and it's a little bit
counterintuitive, I know.
When you bring your dog intoyour home, you just stay relaxed
and drop the leash so that justlet the dog drag the leash
around so that you can easilyregain control of the dog if
(12:21):
necessary.
In other words, just grab theleash and take them to their
safe place if they start gettinga little grumpy.
The visitor, once in your home,of course, continues to not look
, touch, talk or approach yourdog for the entire visit, and
the last thing I want to happenis have the visitor throw
high-value treats to your dogthroughout their visit once they
(12:42):
are in the home.
And I want you to pick treatsto your dog throughout their
visit once they are in the home,and I want you to pick treats
that your dog absolutely loves.
Little pieces of hot dogs andboiled chicken are always
popular, and these are treatsthat you don't normally give to
your dog except when you havevisitors over.
I think you see what we'redoing there and the person is
relaxed, throwing these treats.
So now we're making it arewarding experience now to your
(13:04):
dog.
A little bit ofcounter-conditioning.
What have we done here?
Quick, quick review for leveltwo your dog meets the person
outside, so we get rid of thatterritorial issue.
Your visitor is not doinganything to look scary not
looking, touching, talking orapproaching.
We talk a lot about that in thelast episode.
Not looking, touching, talkingor approaching we talk a lot
(13:24):
about that in the last episode.
When, returning to your home,your dog notices the person is
already in the home when theyenter.
Your dog is not havingexperienced the feeling of
someone coming into their space.
Finally, we've switched thescript on this and we've made it
not so scary or really not evenscary at all, hopefully and
(13:46):
made it rewarding for your dogto have a visitor.
Again, the goal is not just tomake your dog better with this
person, but to generalize thelearning to everybody over time.
This isn't something you'regoing to do in a day or two or
even a week or two.
This could take a few monthsand lots of these experiences,
but it really does work and youcan see some immediate benefits
pretty quickly.
It's what a lot of the feedbackI get.
(14:11):
There are two frequently askedquestions I get when discussing
territorial aggression.
One is how many times will Ihave to do this in order for my
dog to be okay with a person, anindividual person?
Well, you're not going to likethis answer, but you know what
it is.
Your dog will tell you withtheir body language.
You may have to do this manytimes with the same person and
don't assume that your dog isokay too quickly.
I'd rather you be superconservative on that until your
(14:35):
dog is just unbelievably happyto see this person jumps up on
their lap.
You get the idea it really isindicating with their body
language.
They're completely relaxed,soft body, mouth, open, almond
eyes, tail is down, not up.
Tail is down and relaxed.
The next question I get is whatif I have more than one person
(14:56):
at the door at a time?
Well, my rule is you can have acouple people, come over, two
people and you can do thissimultaneously with two people.
More than that, just treat themas a level three.
Just put your dog in his safeplace and certainly if you have
a party, put him in his safeplace.
One of the big mistakes peoplemake in territorial aggression
(15:17):
is they'll let their dog out.
I don't know why people do this, but they let their dog out in
a group of 20 people and theysay, oh, he did so marvelous.
Yeah, well, if you look whatthe dog is doing, he's cowering
and hiding everywhere.
He's overwhelmed, so he's nothappy.
And we do see some bitessometimes when someone thinks
everything is fine and reachesto your dog and they bite out of
(15:39):
pure panic.
So please don't do that in thissituation out of pure panic.
So please don't do that in thissituation.
This technique is really simpleand effective to help your dog
learn that strangers at the doorto them may not be so scary and
they don't have to beaggressive.
Learn is the important wordhere.
We don't teach them anything.
(15:59):
We don't really ever teach dogsanything.
If you think about it, theylearn something and that's the
most important thing.
Just like with humans, yourassignment is to try this with
someone.
I recommend a good friend orclose family member first.
Remember, just because a personmight be close to you doesn't
mean your dog is okay with them.
Your dog gets all the votes onthat.
(16:20):
If this goes well with that oneperson, you can expand it to
other people.
Also remember that if your dogis more than mildly aggressive
or if there is any concern aboutyour dog biting someone.
Please seek the help of aprofessional.
Thanks for listening.
Please contact me directly withyour comments and questions at
GrumpyDogsPodcastcom, whereyou'll also find my social media
(16:44):
links.
Thank you for joining me today.
Don't forget to subscribe andshare this podcast with other
dog lovers.
Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll continue our dive
into the world of dog behavior.
In our last episode we went over what
territorial aggression is, andwe also covered things to
consider before bringing someonein your home who might make
your dog grumpy and of course bythat I mean they don't like the
person coming into your home orshould I say their home right?
In today's episode, we'll coverhow I want you to manage your
(00:21):
dog and, very importantly, thevisitor once they are in your
home, for dogs that haveterritorial aggression.
If you haven't already listenedto the last episode, episode 35
, it would be very beneficial todo so before listening to this
episode.
This is part two of a two-partseries.
Are you struggling with a dogthat is anxious or aggressive?
(00:47):
You're at the right placebecause in this podcast series,
we educate dog owners,veterinary practices and dog
trainers on how to overcome dogfear and aggression using humane
methods.
My name is Scott Sheaffer andit's my mission to help you
better understand your dog'sbehavior.
You can watch the video versionof this episode on YouTube.
(01:14):
By the way, I provided a linkin the episode notes.
It'll take you directly to thevideo at the Grumpy Dog's
channel.
You can also search for theGrumpy Dog's channel on YouTube.
Territorial aggression, as wetalked about in the last episode
(01:34):
is primarily driven by yourdog's fear of someone coming
into their safe place and bysafe place, of course, I'm
talking about your home Someonewho they are not comfortable
with, they don't care for.
That makes them nervous, theylook scary, etc.
Some dogs can get more thangrumpy with these people.
They can even morph intoaggression.
Of course, by that I'm talkingabout barking, growling, even
(01:56):
biting.
Before we go on if you have adog, just a note here if you
have a dog who you think mightpresent any possibility of
biting a visitor in one of thesescenarios coming into your home
, or if their aggression isanything beyond mild, please
seek the help of an experiencedcanine behavior consultant.
All right, let's move on.
(02:18):
There are three types ofvisitors to your home, and this
is a really important thing.
If we categorize these visitorsinto different categories,
it'll tell you how you handleeach category of visitor and
it's really quite simple.
There are three levels Levelsone through three.
How you classify each visitorwill affect how you handle that
(02:42):
specific visitor.
First, let's define what alevel one visitor is.
There are typically only threeto five of these level one type
visitors coming into your home,and these would be family
members, neighbors, other lovedones.
Three to five is almost alwaysthe number, and again, that
(03:04):
includes your family members too.
What is a level one?
A level one is someone thatyour dog is completely
comfortable with.
In other words, you could evenbe out of your home and let
someone give someone keys toyour home and they would come in
.
Your dog would be just finewith them.
That would be a level one.
There's zero concern, they'rehappy to see the visitor, no
(03:24):
problems at all.
And again, I've done a lot ofsampling on this, and it's
almost always three to five, andI tell you that so you don't
feel bad, because that's prettytypical when a dog is presenting
with territorial aggressionthat we talked about in episode
35.
Next, let's define what a levelthree visitor is.
Yes, I know I skipped two, butI want to come back to that in
(03:45):
just a second.
Let's talk about level threenow.
A level three would betypically and the example I like
to use is a plumber A one-timevisitor to your home, a delivery
person who's coming indelivering something into your
living room, something like thatwould be a one-time visitor.
You have no relationship, youdon't anticipate ever seeing
(04:05):
that person again, and that's alevel three.
And what do you do with them?
It's real simple.
You just put them in their safeplace that we talked about in
the last episode.
So level ones you don't need todo a thing, they're fine.
You don't need to do anything.
Level threes just put your dogin their safe place once the
visitor rings the doorbell,before you even let the visitor
(04:28):
in, just put them in their safeplace.
All right, let's talk about alevel two visitor, and this is
the one that's the mostimportant, because this is where
we're going to do some, takesome opportunities here to do
some behavior modification.
This is the most important kindof visitor and we're going to
focus on that visitor for therest of this podcast.
This visitor is typicallynumbering in the five to 10
(04:51):
people.
In other words, there's five to10 people in your life that fit
in the level two category.
And what is a level two?
A level two would be someonefamily member, neighbor, close
friend, someone that the dog isnot currently comfortable with
but that you would like for thedog to be comfortable with.
(05:11):
Someone that comes over fromtime and time again and again.
It's typically about five toten people and we're trying to
show them that this unfamiliarperson, this particular person,
is not scary and they don't haveto do these behaviors.
And we're doing this bytreating the real problem, which
, of course, as we say over andover, is their fear of this
(05:34):
person.
The goal is to not only getyour dog bitter with these
people, these, let's say, fiveto ten people, these level twos
some of the dogs not good withbut you'd like them to be good
with but, almost moreimportantly, we're trying to get
them to generalize theirfeelings about visitors to
everyone.
In other words, they have goodexperiences with these five to
(05:55):
ten people.
It is our hope that it willlessen their fear of everyone
coming into the home.
It's called generalization ofgeneralizing the learning.
Before we move on to talk aboutlevel two visitors, just want
to make a note here.
If you'd like to learn moreabout scheduling an in-person
session with me, either inperson or online, please visit
(06:17):
grumpydogspodcastcom to contactus directly and learn more.
All right, let's pick back upwith the level two visitors.
Again, let's set up thescenario for a level two visitor
Ding dong, the doorbell ringsor they knock on the door and
your dog goes ballistic.
(06:38):
They start barking, they maygrowl, they may jump up on the
door who knows but it's not ahappy behavior and, of course,
you're not helping anythingbecause you're doing what
everyone else does You'reyelling at the dog and you're
getting frustrated.
Everybody's moving very fastand, of course, you know where
this is going.
(06:58):
That is an escalation of thisbehavior.
Does You're yelling at the dogand you're getting frustrated?
Everybody's moving very fastand, of course, you know where
this is going.
That is an escalation of thisbehavior.
What I'm telling you to do isto calm down.
We're going to talk about thatin just a second.
I know it's hard to do.
It's very frustrating to have adog like this.
Here's what I want you to do onthe level two visitor comes to
your door.
First, be calm.
When you go to the door, yourdog absolutely picks up this
(07:19):
intensity and this arousal andit only makes things worse, as
you can imagine.
So try to be as calm aspossible.
Go into a zen moment.
People really get revved upmore than you think you do, and
it's really contributing to yourdog's excitability here.
Next thing I want you to do isyou're going to be calm going to
the door.
You're going to walk to thedoor and I want you to talk
(07:41):
through the door.
This is going to be for a leveltwo Because, remember, level
one we just let them in.
At level three, we just put yourdog up.
You're going to talk throughthe door and you're going to ask
the visitor to let you put yourdog up.
So here it is Ding dong, knock,knock, dog's going crazy.
You're trying to be calm andyou'll want you to be calm.
You calmly go to the door.
(08:01):
Hi, can you give me a second toput my dog up?
And I'm telling you that that'sso easy to do because 100% of
people are happy for you to dothat.
Why?
Because that means you eitherhave an aggressive dog, or you
have, and or you have an unrulydog, meaning jumping up all over
(08:24):
you and making a mess of things, and so most people are very
happy to have you put that dogaway and they don't have to deal
with it when they come in.
So that buys you 30 to 60seconds to calmly take your dog
back to their safe place.
See that word that keeps comingup Calmly.
That's exactly right.
Just put one finger throughtheir collar if you need to.
Just gently take them back tothe room Everybody's real calm
(08:44):
and put them in their safe place.
Then you're going to return tothe door without your dog and
you're going to ask the personto do this.
Can I get you to stand a fewfeet?
You know, maybe 10, 15 feet?
Might even want to have a kindof a place, a demarcated place,
where you can say, stand by thattree.
Can I get you just to stand bythat tree for a second?
(09:06):
I'm going to go put a leash onmy dog and I want to introduce
him to you out front before youcome in, Because, as you or as
you may not know, my dog's alittle scared of visitors and I
want him to be better with you,and that's always a big thing to
say.
I want him to be better withyou.
So get a little buy-in on thepart of the visitor.
(09:27):
You're going to return to thedoor with your dog on a leash
and the three of you the twohumans and the dog are going to
take a little two-minute walktogether and all you're going to
do is walk down about I like tosay, a house or two and come
back.
And why a walk outside?
Because we're taking theterritorial component out.
(09:49):
We're taking the territorialcomponent out.
If you introduce the person toyour dog outside, they're not in
their territory and so theanxiety level goes dramatically
down and it works really quitewell.
We want to keep your dog duringthis little walk.
We want to keep your dog a safedistance from the visitor Maybe
(10:10):
a little distance to keep yourdog calm if necessary.
And you're going to keeptalking and chatting with the
visitor during the walk and youwant to do that because you want
to signal to your dog thateverything is normal, all right.
So person comes for the leveltwo.
Person comes to your door.
You say give me a second to putmy dog up.
You put him in a safe place.
(10:31):
You return, you talk to theperson saying my dog is afraid
of people a little bit.
Visitor's liking to be betterwith you.
Okay, can I get you to waitoutside, just a few feet from
the front door, and we're justgoing to take a little walk
together.
And you're going to take thatwalk and the person you two are
going to keep chatting.
Everybody's super relaxed, it'snot an event.
And then you're going to comeback to the door and we're going
(10:54):
to talk about that in just asecond During the walk.
The visitor, however, is, whiletalking to you, is not to look,
touch or talk or approach thedog the whole time, and that's
so that they don't look so scary.
If they're giving your dog alot of attention, that may make
your dog a little bit more scary.
You keep talking, but I don'twant the visitor interacting
(11:16):
with the dog at all.
This was discussed in the lastepisode.
When you get back to your homefrom this very short, one
two-minute walk.
So when you get back to yourhome from this very short, one
two minute walk, have thevisitor I love this part Walk in
first and make themselves athome, go to the refrigerator,
get a bottle of water, sit atthe kitchen counter, sit on the
sofa, sit in the bar, on a barstool, whatever, instead of the
(11:37):
visitor entering after you.
So the visitor goes in first,makes themselves comfortable,
and then you walk in with thedog.
We're reversing things a littlebit here Instead of you going
in first, think about it and thevisitor entering the home while
your dog is there.
That's a lot of pressure.
We're going to flip it and theperson is going to just casually
walk in, make themselves athome, and then you'll enter with
(12:00):
the dog.
So the dog doesn't experiencethat oh no, someone's coming
into my space Really really canhelp and it's a little bit
counterintuitive, I know.
When you bring your dog intoyour home, you just stay relaxed
and drop the leash so that justlet the dog drag the leash
around so that you can easilyregain control of the dog if
(12:21):
necessary.
In other words, just grab theleash and take them to their
safe place if they start gettinga little grumpy.
The visitor, once in your home,of course, continues to not look
, touch, talk or approach yourdog for the entire visit, and
the last thing I want to happenis have the visitor throw
high-value treats to your dogthroughout their visit once they
(12:42):
are in the home.
And I want you to pick treatsto your dog throughout their
visit once they are in the home,and I want you to pick treats
that your dog absolutely loves.
Little pieces of hot dogs andboiled chicken are always
popular, and these are treatsthat you don't normally give to
your dog except when you havevisitors over.
I think you see what we'redoing there and the person is
relaxed, throwing these treats.
So now we're making it arewarding experience now to your
(13:04):
dog.
A little bit ofcounter-conditioning.
What have we done here?
Quick, quick review for leveltwo your dog meets the person
outside, so we get rid of thatterritorial issue.
Your visitor is not doinganything to look scary not
looking, touching, talking orapproaching.
We talk a lot about that in thelast episode.
Not looking, touching, talkingor approaching we talk a lot
(13:24):
about that in the last episode.
When, returning to your home,your dog notices the person is
already in the home when theyenter.
Your dog is not havingexperienced the feeling of
someone coming into their space.
Finally, we've switched thescript on this and we've made it
not so scary or really not evenscary at all, hopefully and
(13:46):
made it rewarding for your dogto have a visitor.
Again, the goal is not just tomake your dog better with this
person, but to generalize thelearning to everybody over time.
This isn't something you'regoing to do in a day or two or
even a week or two.
This could take a few monthsand lots of these experiences,
but it really does work and youcan see some immediate benefits
pretty quickly.
It's what a lot of the feedbackI get.
(14:11):
There are two frequently askedquestions I get when discussing
territorial aggression.
One is how many times will Ihave to do this in order for my
dog to be okay with a person, anindividual person?
Well, you're not going to likethis answer, but you know what
it is.
Your dog will tell you withtheir body language.
You may have to do this manytimes with the same person and
don't assume that your dog isokay too quickly.
I'd rather you be superconservative on that until your
(14:35):
dog is just unbelievably happyto see this person jumps up on
their lap.
You get the idea it really isindicating with their body
language.
They're completely relaxed,soft body, mouth, open, almond
eyes, tail is down, not up.
Tail is down and relaxed.
The next question I get is whatif I have more than one person
(14:56):
at the door at a time?
Well, my rule is you can have acouple people, come over, two
people and you can do thissimultaneously with two people.
More than that, just treat themas a level three.
Just put your dog in his safeplace and certainly if you have
a party, put him in his safeplace.
One of the big mistakes peoplemake in territorial aggression
(15:17):
is they'll let their dog out.
I don't know why people do this, but they let their dog out in
a group of 20 people and theysay, oh, he did so marvelous.
Yeah, well, if you look whatthe dog is doing, he's cowering
and hiding everywhere.
He's overwhelmed, so he's nothappy.
And we do see some bitessometimes when someone thinks
everything is fine and reachesto your dog and they bite out of
(15:39):
pure panic.
So please don't do that in thissituation out of pure panic.
So please don't do that in thissituation.
This technique is really simpleand effective to help your dog
learn that strangers at the doorto them may not be so scary and
they don't have to beaggressive.
Learn is the important wordhere.
We don't teach them anything.
(15:59):
We don't really ever teach dogsanything.
If you think about it, theylearn something and that's the
most important thing.
Just like with humans, yourassignment is to try this with
someone.
I recommend a good friend orclose family member first.
Remember, just because a personmight be close to you doesn't
mean your dog is okay with them.
Your dog gets all the votes onthat.
(16:20):
If this goes well with that oneperson, you can expand it to
other people.
Also remember that if your dogis more than mildly aggressive
or if there is any concern aboutyour dog biting someone.
Please seek the help of aprofessional.
Thanks for listening.
Please contact me directly withyour comments and questions at
GrumpyDogsPodcastcom, whereyou'll also find my social media
(16:44):
links.
Thank you for joining me today.
Don't forget to subscribe andshare this podcast with other
dog lovers.
Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll continue our dive
into the world of dog behavior.
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