Lake House Series Video 7: Your Dog and Strangers in the Home

Lake House Series Video 7: Your Dog and Strangers in the Home

Hi, good morning! I am at our lake house and I just wanted to check in with you because we’re having some windows put in today. It’s somewhat heavy construction. Two guys showed up with a huge truck. Here’s the way I managed this and the way you can do this with your dog. First, I got her here before they got here. I had her in a crate, in the car. Then she heard me talking to them, she heard the truck come up, she heard all of that. Then they started carrying things in while I started getting things set up too.

So, all this time she’s listening, hearing their voices, smelling them and getting a feel for what our interaction is going to be like, so that helps calm her down. Or keep her calm I should say.

I want her to be protective. I should mention, I’m talking about Rae, my young dog. She’s two year old Australian Shepard. She’s very excitable and protective and I want to make sure that she welcomes people into this house. So, I’m working on some of her behavior as we move to this new house.

I brought her a bone and she just found it. So that’s going to keep her busy today. We’re going to be in a side room and I’m going to be working on some business work for the online class that’s coming up, or membership that I’m going to be doing. And she’s going to be in this room with me.

So this is Dr. Carolyn Lincoln with Play to Behave and you can find out more about me at playtobehave.com. Basically, this is part of series called the Lake House Video series that is just sharing with you how I’m moving to a new place and how I want to get the dogs used to the new neighbors and new people around. This series should help you if you’re doing some of the same things or you’re trying to get your dogs used to strangers and so forth.

So, one of the best ways to help your dog adjust if you have people coming in your house is to go ahead and let them get used to the sounds and the smells of the people that they don’t know. Then have them in a separate room, if possible, for a period of time until they relax and then they can go out and meet these new people.

Now, since this is just construction that’s going on, I’m probably not going to have her go out and meet them. Maybe at the end… I don’t know, we’ll see. For the most part she’ll be on a leash if we go out and she’s just going to be in this room with me or I’ll put her in a crate. I can always bring a crate in this room if I need to, but it’s a really small room and I’ve just got the door closed. So, that’s where we are right now. She’s going to have a bone to keep her happy and she has barked which, as I’ve said before, is great because I want her to be protective, but I don’t want her going crazy and barking all the time and being obnoxious. I think it really helps if you let your dog get used to listening to people’s voices and smelling them before they’re ever introduced. Especially if they’re confined in a safe area where they feel like they don’t have to necessarily do anything.

She’s been great. She’s really been great. They’re out there working so I’ll take the phone out there and show it to you a little later, but right now all they’re doing is putting up plastic and starting to take the molding off the windows. So we’ll get some new windows! I’m really excited about it.

Alright, you guys all have a great day and I’ll check back with you and let you know how things are going. And if you have any questions about your dog getting used to people coming into your home, let me know.

This is Dr. Carolyn Lincoln with Play to Behave. See you soon.