Top tips for having people to the garden after lockdown

[swizzlestix]

Our pup is now 11 months and is not used to having anyone in the garden apart from us since last summer.
Next weekend 5 members of my husbands family are visiting ( including 2 children 7 and 11) none of them are particularly dog lovers.
I'm already feeling stressed about it to be honest as think it may be overwhelming for him/ that he'll bark lots.
Will make sure I've got lots to occupy him, a bone, will scatter feed him, lick mat frozen ready etc if he does need calming

He will need to get used to people coming into the garden, best thing to do is tell visitors to ignore him until he has calmed down and not rattle him up by excited voices and jumping about, chucking the toys etc, then once all calm they can treat him or pet him calmly which will reward him for settling down then go from there. If they come in and play with him while he is bouncing about they are rewarding the behaviours that you don't want to happen. So calm and ignore, turn their back on him if he jumps (alot easier with dog lovers) them once he is sat and settled treat and play.

That's great thank you I will ask them to do that, he's likely to be barking/ squealing excitedly!

We're going to have exactly this with our 9 month old, just getting to the point where our kids can run and screech around the garden without him going mental and just thinking about having more children round over the summer! We will realistically have to have him on lead whilst we work on it as he's big enough to knock kids over. I found with my kids to get him accustomed to them I did a lot of practising loose lead walking near where they were playing, then lots of scatter feeding etc. so we will do similar with guests. There will be lots of us in the same position!

I think a lead will help loads.

Once he's ignored and he's rewarded for being calm then you can drop the lead but keep it on him so that it's easily grabbed if he starts bothering people.

Our dog has an old sheepskin for sitting on in the garden. Her place, also good for scatter feeding.

Lead is an excellent idea and don't let the DC do anything with him that you are not happy with.

Do you have a friend you could invite round for a quick coffee in the garden before next weekend?

Lots of young dogs are not at all experienced in having people in their space, so will probably bark and possibly defend their territory. The calmer and more boring you can make it the better.

Start with him on a lead. Or use a pen.
Have you trained a “settle” command? That helps.
Is there anywhere he can retreat to inside safely if it’s all too much?

Yes, prep the guests beforehand. Especially if they aren’t doggy.

We used to save almost empty yoghurt pots for distraction at times like this. Also made sure she’d had a decent walk first.

The less fuss the better probably, ,,

Wow thanks so much for the really helpful
Suggestions.
We don't have a settle command as such but say ' good boy lie down' and I think that may be an equivalent.
Great idea re the yogurt pots too.
Yes he'll be able to come inside whenever he wants.
We're currently working on his not barking at our rabbits when they are in the run ( also behind a barrier for safety but visible) and not barking when the kids are on the trampoline, he's just not used to it and I guess it must look pretty scary to him. Using the click before he barks then rewarding with a treat, so far it has made a difference with the rabbits but still a long way to go with the trampoline. Good luck everyone too!