Winter break is here, and your children have waited excitedly all fall to see Cousin Eddie, Aunt Catherine, and Great Aunt Edna. The holiday season just wouldn’t be the same without your extended rambunctious family coming to stay!
While you prepare the bedding and check your grocery list, you may be leaving off something important on your holiday to-do list: Preparing your puppy for holiday guests. As cute as your puppy may be, there is nothing cute about a puppy jumping up and knocking over elderly and small children, nipping at heels, peeing excitedly on top of everyone’s feet, rushing out the door, or not having a place to settle down. This holiday season, get your puppy ready for guests by teaching your puppy how to handle holiday visitors so everyone has a good time.
Get Your Puppy Ready For Visitors
Your puppy is still a baby, but she is capable of learning commands to help your puppy greet visitors calmly. However, you have to think things through and plan out techniques you will use to reach your goal before your guests arrive.
Begin with a positive attitude
The holiday season is a whirlwind of preparation due to decorating, purchasing and wrapping gifts, planning and cooking special menus, baking holiday goods, and preparing your home for visitors. It can be exhausting, and tempers can flare with the neverending to-do list. You may feel like training your puppy to ensure expectations during the holidays is low on your priority list, but you need to make it a priority so your guests are comfortable.
You’ll probably get frustrated if things are not happening as quickly as you’d like. Training takes time and consistency. A little bit each day goes a long way. Keep your attitude upbeat so your puppy stays eager to please you. Don’t forget the enticing treats to make the process a smooth one!
Start training early
The few days before guests arrive is not the time to be introducing commands for the first time. You should start training your puppy from Day One with basic puppy training commands like “sit,” “down,” and come when called. After these basic commands are going well, you can introduce “wait” or “place” to use when guests walk in the door.
Socialization: Ready for any scenario
Socialization is not just making sure your puppy has other puppy friends. It helps to work through a puppy socialization checklist to ensure your puppy is ready for any scenario he encounters, especially in his “safe space” of home. If you have relatives who use walkers, practice creating a positive or neutral response to a walker well before your visitor arrives. If you don’t have elderly people or children in your home, exposing them to different types of people early will help them adjust quickly to your visitors.
Jump up? No, get down!
You could have sworn you adopted a Pawrade puppy, but a kangaroo arrived instead! Some puppies are impressive jumpers, even the little ones. When your puppy was just a tiny bundle, it may have been cute to look down and see him standing on 2 legs with his paws outstretched, resting on your shins. However, puppies grow quickly and don’t understand the power their bodies have. In a few short months, your puppy’s paws may reach your chest! Unfortunately, puppies that jump up on visitors can cause serious injury, especially if they knock over people or cause them to trip or drop what they’re carrying.
Try out a few of these techniques to prevent your puppy from jumping up on people:
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Ignore method: Instruct guests to walk in and stand still, not engaging with your dog. When your dog has 4 paws on the floor, then they may greet your dog calmly. You’ll have to tell your guests not to come in loudly, waving hands around and making high-pitched baby voices like we tend to use when greeting cute puppies.
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Leash method: Place a leash on a front-clip harness and have your dog sit at the door. Put your foot down on the leash as guests enter, preventing your puppy from jumping up. She will learn guests will only greet her when she is in the “sit” position.
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Treat scatter method: Train your puppy to search for treats when the doorbell rings. As soon as people enter, throw treats and scatter them in the opposite direction of the door. Your puppy will scamper off to find delicious morsels while everyone gets into the door without getting bombarded.
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“Place” method: Teach your puppy to go to and stay in a special place away from the door, like a bed or crate. The doorbell or a verbal command is the cue to start trotting to their special place before you open the door for guests.
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“Wait” method: Your puppy can learn to sit and wait when a door is open. This will hopefully prevent them from running past people and bolting out the door, only to joyfully frolic around the neighborhood.
All of these methods require repetition, consistency, and patience, so practice them daily starting at least a few weeks before your guests arrive. Your puppy may not get the hang of it right away, but persistence can really pay off if you spend even 5 minutes daily working on teaching them to be a Good Boy or Girl.
A tired puppy is a well-behaved puppy
Puppies have boundless energy, and the key is to “get the zoomies out” before your guests arrive to reduce overexcitement and behavior problems. Harness their desire to run and play by spending some quality time with them. You can take your puppy on a long walk, visit a dog park, play tug-of-war or fetch, and let them chase you around the yard. Follow the recommended amount of exercise needed for your dog’s breed to meet their activity needs. If you’re busy making preparations, rely on another family member to occupy your puppy before guests arrive. While you’re outside exercising, have your puppy empty his bladder to reduce excited peeing.
Properly exercised dogs are more likely to be calmer after their play session. Exercise releases endorphins, allowing your puppy to feel good and focused. If you don’t exercise your puppy enough, he might greet guests with fear, stress, anxiety, or even aggression.
Conduct trial runs
Recruit some family members and friends to put your techniques to work! Start by working with just one person entering the house. Try out which technique your puppy responds best to and build your strategy around what is working. Using short, frequent sessions, enter and exit the door until the newness wears off for your puppy and you’re getting the results you want. Gradually add in more people arriving at the same time. You can also recruit people who are unfamiliar with your puppy to get him used to strangers coming over. Practice makes perfect!
Create a safe, calm space for your puppy
Overstimulated puppies can have all sorts of naughty behaviors. When they get riled up, they’re more likely to bite, chew, jump up, and even try to steal food off the table or out of people’s hands. Create a calm, safe place somewhere away from guests where your puppy can go to decompress, calm down, reset, or nap. Pay attention to your puppy’s naptimes and be proactive in putting your puppy down for a nap just like a baby to prevent behavior problems that stem from overexcitement.
Designate a “puppy minder”
During the excitement of having guests in your house, it can be easy to forget about your puppy’s needs, too. Delegate the task to an enthusiastic family member or guest to be the puppy’s babysitter. This person should watch out for signs your puppy has to go to the bathroom, is showing anxious body language, seems to be getting into more trouble than usual, or is bothering guests who are too polite to say anything. Making sure your puppy eats and naps on schedule is also important to keep their routine as steady as possible during the hubbub of the visit.
Prepare your guests
While yes, we’re talking mainly about getting your puppy ready, you can also prepare your guests for tips on helping your puppy get used to visitors. Instruct them on how you’d like them to walk in the door – do you need them to refrain from a high-pitched voice? Do you want them to have treats in hand to toss or give when in the “sit” position? Should they come in one at a time instead of piling inside? Do you want them to ignore your dog and let him come to them, then they can pet him when he's calm? Be sure to especially set some ground rules with children on how to properly play with a puppy safely and calmly. Tell your visitors to refrain from giving your puppy table scraps, especially chocolate, xylitol, grapes, and other foods toxic to dogs. If everyone is willing to work together, your puppy will have a smoother transition adjusting to guests.
Greet a Pawrade Puppy
It’s the best feeling to watch your puppy experience the holidays for the first time. Everything is so exciting and new, and he’s so happy to receive the smallest of treats with his tongue hanging out and eyes sparkling.
If you want to experience this magic but don’t have a puppy yet, it’s not too late to adopt a Pawrade puppy for the holidays. All puppies come from trustworthy breeders who we choose using a selective process. Each puppy arrives at your door, airport, or local pickup with a health certificate, a 3-year comprehensive health guarantee, 30 days of free MetLife insurance, and more. We can’t wait for you to greet your new best friend when you browse our puppies for sale!
