Very defensive around visitors...and relatives!

[Mbright]

We’ve been dealing with this issue too! Our older dog who we brought home in Jan 2020 (right before the pandemic) didn’t experience much visitors. Our 5 month old puppy has experienced visitors. Their reaction to people coming over are polar opposites. Older one gets defensive and starts barking up a storm. Our younger one gets too excited and cannot contain herself but also barking up a storm. Not very pleasant for people coming over, lol.

We deal with both dogs differently as their emotions are different to the visitors although the reaction is the same (barking). Puppy who is over excited gets rewarded for calm behaviour and if she cannot calm down we put her in the kitchen and bring her back when she’s calm. Older dog who is defensive and I guess a bit fearful/uncomfortable that someone is in the house needs reassurance that the visitors aren’t a threat. It’s a labourous process but we have our visitors meet ours dogs in neutral territory - thankfully there is a park close by. We do a short walk, we have them throw his ball and give him treats. There has been no issue with them entering the house and he just settles and is quite chill for the evening. Thankfully he’s friendly/calm with people outside the house, so it makes it easier. Hopefully over time we don’t have to go through this lengthy ritual lol.