Guest Greeting Protocol
It’s the weekend!
And you’re ready to let loose and hang out with your friends, so before hitting the town, you decide to have everyone come meet at your place.
As the first knock happens, your dog launches themselves at the door with the force of a hurricane, barking and running about to let you know about the perceived intruder. As you shush them and rush to the door, your dog follows, continuing to get more escalated and excitable.
Assuming, like many owners, you proceed to open the door while your dog is in this emotional state, the likelihood of catastrophe is great. Regardless of your dogs’ breed, former experiences, potential trauma, or guarding tendencies, when someone approaches and enters their space, this can create big emotions and a recipe for disaster. If you haven’t trained your pup on clear expectations around guests arriving to and entering their home, then they may be nervous, unclear of expectations, and/or have a lot of big feelings.
In times of stress, we all go back to what we know and what we have rehearsed.
Our dogs are no different.
If in the past, a guest arrived and your pup's excitable,
big emotional reaction was then unintentionally rewarded by:
1) Allowing them access to the guest
2) Giving any attention at all during greetings with the guest (Examples: “No!” “Quiet!” “No jumping!” “Go Lay down!” (Assuming none of this has been trained and practiced prior, this is all just noise and nonsense contributing to the excitement of the guest arriving.)
3) Being touched or given a treat or chew while continuing to behave in any way you’d rather not see repeated
In any new to our dog situation,
we want to proactively set them up for success.
Dogs DO NOT KNOW OUR EXPECTATIONS until we clearly communicate this to them calmly, with clarity, with confidence and we do so consistently.
Dogs do not generalize well, so once we have laid a foundation for a cue or protocol, we must then proof this behavior to enable them to perform the cue confidently in a variety of settings and scenarios.
By following the Engaged expectation of always setting our dogs up for success coupled with utilizing the 4C’s to prepare them for any new situation, we can truly help our dogs be their best selves and have positive interactions with guests by ensuring we teach and practice the skills needed for when guests arrive BEFORE this happens.
The 4 C’s of Dog Training are as follows:
Calm
Clear Communication
Confidence
Consistency
You would not show up to the Super Bowl without having previously completed a LOT of practice games prior! Our dogs can not be expected to be successful in ANY skill that we have not taught them and practiced with them frequently.
While all dog training must meet you and your pup exactly where you are, accounting for individual differences to do so, here is a suggested Guest Protocol that will work for most pups and circumstances:
Engaged Guest Protocol
Upon reading this, begin practicing and implementing the Engaged Guest Protocol.
Remember to practice often, including times when knocking/ ringing the bell does not equate to a guest arriving or entering, as well as practicing with a variety of guests to proof the skill. Keep in mind Consistency and Commitment in using the learned skills are just as important as teaching the foundations of the skill.
Foundations:
Choose a “Place” where you want your dog to go when someone knocks/rings the doorbell.
This may be a bed, a blanket, a towel, a pillowcase, their crate, a cot, etc.
To begin teaching this skill, keep the Place marker in eye range of the door, but far away from it so that your dog can observe the guest coming in from a considerable distance away.
Teach your dog the Place cue:
· Using a lure or the Touch cue, lead your dog onto the predetermined Place Marker.
· The moment that their 4 paws hit the blanket:
o Mark and Reward them with: “YES!! Good Place!!” And release the treat to them.
· Throw a piece of kibble away and tell them to “Go Find!”
· When they look back to you, offering eye contact, Mark this behavior with YES! (This encourages visual check-ins and keeps your dog’s attention more proactively in this situation.)
· Using a lure or a Touch cue, lead your dog back to the Place marker. JUST BEFORE their paws hit the Place marker, verbally cue: “Place!” When their 4 paws hit the Place marker, Mark and Reward the behavior with ”YES!! Good Place!” and releasing a treat.
· If this is challenging for your dog, repeat a few times before moving on to the next step.
· Lead your dog to their Place marker. This time, aim to guide them into a Down. If your dog already knows Down, you can verbally cue this. The moment before they land in the Down shape on their Place marker, verbally cue “Place!” so that as they land in the Down on the Place marker, you can Mark and Reward: “YES!!! Good Place!!”
· Throw a piece of kibble away and repeat.
· As quickly as your dog is able, phase out extra/ unnecessary steps. For example, if you began by cuing Down, no longer use this word. Use a non-verbal to lead them to their Place marker, and verbally cue Place! Just before they land in it, Marking and Rewarding once they are on the Place marker.
Build Duration and Proof This Skill:
In order for your dog to be able to perform any cue, they must practice often and in a variety of scenarios in order to better enable them to generalize the skill.
Therefore, once you have taught the foundation of this cue, aim to practice often.
Knock on random surfaces and send your dog to their Place.
Play different doorbells on your phone and send your dog to their Place.
Have friends ring the doorbell and calmly enter, no touch, no talk, no eye contact while your pup maintains a Place. They are only allowed to greet when given permission.
Prior to your guest arriving, ask them to ignore your dog entirely and to listen to your coaching as you are training your dog. Let them know in advance whenever possible that it is not about them and what they are comfortable with, but rather that you are working hard to teach your dog important skills. (For example, just because your friend doesn’t mind jumping doesn’t mean it’s ok that they allow or encourage this behavior if you have decided it’s not ok in your training goals.)
To Build Duration:
· Leash your dog so that they can access the Place marker, but not much else. The goal is to keep them close to the Place marker if they should break the Place cue prematurely. You might clip them to a table leg, to a recliner, or have another person leash and manage them while you manage the doorbell interactions.
· Ask your pup to Place. Mark and Reward as soon as they land in a Down on their Place Marker. Begin to rapid fire reward them for as long as they maintain the Down on their Place. DO NOT SAY STAY. We are teaching an Implied Stay so you can work smarter, not harder.
· Keep your pup there, rapidly rewarding for 3-5 seconds to begin.
· Throw a piece of kibble away and repeat the exercise, this time rapid fire rewarding for 5-7 seconds.
· Repeat, lengthening the amount of time they are on the Place marker and you are rewarding them. As they get good at this and appear to have an easier time maintaining the Place, you can space your rewards out a bit and Mark and Reward intermittently.
· Be sure to base your rate of reward system off of the amount of challenge you are asking of them in the moment. For example: If your pup knows the Place cue well, but has not practiced it with actual guests arriving yet and someone shows up at the front door, let 1 person manage the door while the other rapid fire rewards the dog on their Place cue (leashed to prevent breaking the Place or getting accidently reward for breaking the cue.)
Proof the skill:
· Add challenge by changing the environment and the circumstances slowly. For example, you want to start practicing with the lowest about of distractions possible and add distractions for challenge as your pup gets good at the skill. Some added challenges may include the guest talking on their way in, the TV being on, or the guest attempting the engage your pup without pup having permission to engage.
· Be sure to always release your dog when you are done with a particular exercise. In order to teach the Implied Stay CLEARLY we must release by saying “Be free!” whenever we wish to give more autonomy.
· Added challenges include increased noise, increased visual distractions, attempted engagement with the dog from varying distances, changing tone, changing body language, moving in varying physical proximities from the dog, engaging in eye contact with the dog, others walking around/ movement nearby, and more.
Engaged Walks and Private Training Sessions enable your dog the opportunity to learn real life manners and then to proof them in order to be able to utilize them in everyday life in a variety of environments and situations.
Coming in September!
Engaged Dogs Presents: Bark 2 School Bootcamp
B2SBootcamp will allow Engaged Dog clients to practice their learned skills in a group setting alongside their pawrents around a variety of distractions in order to proof their skills.
Check out our new app portal at: Dashboard :: Gingr (gingrapp.com)
Book sessions, register for the group class weekly or as a group package to receive a discount, and schedule individual services to help your pup be their happiest and healthiest self, by your side.
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