We have some friends coming to stay for two nights next week. They have 2 rather high maintenance children (we know them really well) aged 2.5 and 4.5 who, according to my friend when we spoke tonight, are now scared of dogs (not sure why, no reports of any specific incidents, they don't like cats either but luckily our cats don't like the puppy anyway...), arrrgh. Our sprocker puppy is 17 weeks old and therefore not very big but quite bouncy. She is generally very good and responsive to being called but New Children To Sniff are her favourite thing ever. She thinks all new children want to play with her and will bite a flappy trouser leg pronto if she gets the chance. She doesn't take long to calm down and get used to the New Child but I can't see how we'll get past the first few minutes without World War Three breaking out.
Friend asked the following tonight:-
- Is the dog jumpy? Yes, she is a puppy...
- Can you keep her in a cage away from the kids? No, we gave up crate training after a week because she kept pooing in it and we couldn't keep her in a crate for the whole two days anyway obviously
- Can you shut her in a room away from the kids? No, our house (it is a new-to-us house so they haven't seen it before) is very open plan with one room opening into another and in my experience, kids are crap at closing doors.
Our own kids are 2, 4 and 7 and fine with the dog although she does still give them the occasional nip if when she gets over-excited or one of them stupidly sticks their face right up to hers no matter how many times they have been told not to.
I am thinking of seeing if I can borrow a stair-gate or maybe two to try and split the house up a bit but our house is very long and thin so that working will be very dependent on said children and adults remembering to close the bloody things and not leaving the outside doors open (we have outside doors in virtually every room downstairs) so the dog can run round.
I have explained to my friend that if she can explain to her children that if the dog comes up to them they need to stand still and look away then she is less likely to try and play with them than if they scream, flap their arms and make yelping noises. Friend doesn't think this will work (and I'm minded to agree as mine were pretty useless to start with).
What else can I do?! Put her on her lead as soon as they arrive and let her sniff them whilst on the lead and maybe get them to give her some treats and chuck a toy round outside with her to deal with introductions in a nice calm way? Or does that make her think they will always play with her? We're puppy training on Wed night this week so I will try and get there early and ask the trainer for some survival tips but any advice anyone can offer would be very gratefully received! Her husband is very Victorian old school in his attitude towards kids (his kids, our kids, any kids...) and is exactly the type to smack an excited puppy hard on the nose in an entirely inappropriate manner which will make DH and I cross so we absolutely need to get an action plan in place before they arrive.