Do you leave your dog in utility room (or similar) when certain visitors come over?

[Tumty]

My dog is mostly out in kitchen/living area. And when people she knows comes over of course she stays with us. But I am finding it difficult at times when certain visitors are here. Workmen, children that she doesn’t know well (my own kids friends) etc. I get a bit stressed myself thinking I hope they know how to behave around dogs or should I give them a list of instructions or not. My dog is friendly but does have an anxious side to her. When new people come in she sniffs them and if they reach down to stroke her she either behaves perfectly and sweetly or she jumps back frightened. It seems to be largely dictated by how calm and confident the person who is visiting is around dogs.

I have started telling visitors to ignore her. Which works to an extent. But I am wondering if I need to aclimitise her to staying in utility room and that she doesn’t always get to meet guests.

does this work for you? I don’t want her to end up more anxious. I know if I did this tomorrow she would whine and cry to come out again. So would need to be a work in progress. My other option is to train her to stay in her basket only when people come over. Which would take a LOT of perseverance

If she's nervous around guests then you need to shut her away for everyone's safety, really.

Our two (lab and spaniel) sometime go in the kennel when people come round as they bounce 😂

I’ll put my dog behind the gate in the kitchen if anyone is coming into the house. If they need free roam then the dog will go and nap in her crate for a bit.

Mine has favourite visitors, and visitors he thinks have come to kill us all (usually any man he doesn’t know) 🫣

For the favourite visitors, he stays with us as normal. For the would-be murderer visitors, he goes upstairs to his bed (crate with open door) before they arrive, and comes back downstairs when they’ve gone. If the scary visitors need access to the whole house, such as plumbers etc., we shut the crate door. He has been crate trained since he was tiny and is very happy in there with his nest of pillows and blankets and his personal TV 😂

My dog gets shut in my home office when the cleaner comes over, only because she would constantly try and play with them and they wouldn’t get any work done.

Thanks I really these appreciate. I think I need to find a way to manage this so will try a few of these different ideas

I always shut my dog away when the man who services our range came-he was very scared of her, despite her being a soppy, cuddly mutt, and it wasn't fair to him to make him work with one eye nervously over his shoulder in case a ridiculous fluff ball tried to say hello!

My dog believes he's a plumber/boiler fixer/upholstery cleaner/time in motion man masquerading as a dog and that all these people need a helping paw. So I shut him in the utility room unless they are serving the boiler in which case I shut him in the bathroom. I suspect he's slightly disappointed as he clearly thinks he knows best but he copes.

Yes mine are shut away when people come, even people they know for the first 10mins ish so nobody gets flattened.
I also prefer to be able to speak to visitors properly without a massive dog in the way 😄

It hasn’t effected them badly in the slightest.

Can I come to your house please? No need to shut the dogs away! If being smothered by Leonberger cuddles is how I go, so be it

Thanks leonberger. That’s a good idea we should do that I think. Feel a bit silly now we haven’t done that to date

You sound anxious about the dog if she's unpredictable it's fine to put her away, maybe ask visitors not to pet her until she's calm. I put my dog away if he is going to be bouncing all over visitors.

Haha yep, our beagle is the same

We had someone over to fix the internet a while ago and he spent the entire time lying next to his toolkit "helping"

Yes I also have a "helper" dog last.time it was the meter reader dog ran into the cupboard to "help"🙄😃 so I've had to just put the pup away.

Yes I have an anxious dog (after an interaction with a workman, I didn’t see what happened). We’ve done behaviour therapy and it was one thing the therapist recommended. She gets shut in the kitchen behind a stair gate. If it’s someone she will be seeing regularly, I ask them to give her treats over the stair gate and she comes around..but if they are only coming that once, I just keep her away.

My ddog take himself off himself when visitors come if he's not in the mood, he gets shut away for tradespeople as he is slightly unpredictable, loves some not so much others! Children in particular he isn't keen on so whilst he won't approach I would close the door if they are not compliant staying out of his way, one particular young guest in the past would go searching, even if we put him in our bedroom which isn't fair on him, he's just not a sociable dog, I swear he's autistic (like most the household!)

I have a very friendly dog, but he is huge. Not everyone likes dogs, but often people don't say so because they don't want to offend. I shut him in a spare room when we have visitors we don't know well. He might be disappointed but he gets over it pretty quickly.

We pop ours either outside or in a different room when visitors arrive. He just gets over excited. He can come in once and if he stays calm but as soon as he gets giddy again he goes back out. Usually takes a few attempts to get him to chill out. (Usually depends on the visitor and if they ignore him or not)

Workmen or the like he's out. Don't know how he would behave with a stranger in his house so just don't attempt it.

Our dog is put safely in another room when we have workmen in the house, as she needs a certain approach before she trusts new people (especially men) and they’re there to do a job, not boost her confidence. The exception was our bathroom fitter, who was there for two weeks, absolutely loved dogs and more importantly, didn’t see himself as some amazing “all dogs love me!” Dog Whisperer. She adored him and missed him when he’d finished, so we hope he is available to do our kitchen refurb too
Our previous dog was bombproof around people but I still put her in another room unless visitor was there to see her as part of our family. I didn’t want anyone feeling they had to put up with an enthusiastic Labrador out of politeness or because I was paying them to do a job.

@ThisWormHasTurned can you remember did the therapist specify whether dog should be able to see or not see the visitors over stair gate? Is there a preferred? I have a glass door I can put her behind (if in kitchen) Or could use utility where she wont even be able to see them? I wonder if there is a general preference that experts would say. Is dog likely to be more stressed if they can hear visitors but not see them. Probably over thinking all this, but need to have plan straight in my head

it's not that people should know how to behave around dogs, OP, it's the other way round. Most people who don't want a dog around while they work/visit will be too polite to say so, or fear offending you, so why not just assume they don't want it and put the dog in the utility room. If they like dogs then they can say so and you can let it out.

She specifically suggested a stair gate so that Wormdog can see who is there. There is a sliding door into the kitchen. She gets frustrated if the door is shut. Her anxiety/aggression seems to stem from worrying about protecting her humans so she likes to see who is about. She is getting the idea that she goes in the kitchen if there are new people about. Also she’s a clever dog who worked out how to open the sliding door so it’s not enough on its own 😂

Thanks @ThisWormHasTurned is your sliding door a normal door? Not a glass one? Just wondering if my glass door will work or if I should put stair gate there so she can smell them etc.

When we move to a bigger house I’m planning on doing this, DD inexplicably has a year full of children mortally afraid of dogs.

It’s a panelled glass sliding door, the glass is frosted so she can’t see through.