Easter is here and the family and friends will be arriving soon. You are running around like a chicken with their head cut off as you try to make sure everything is perfect. The ham is not dried out, the potatoes are not too lumpy, the cherry pie is not burnt so on and so forth. Then there is your dog.
He is pacing excitedly step for step with you. Getting more and more intense as your anxiety and anticipation rise together. The one thing you forgot while preparing for the
blessed occasion of your family and close friends are coming over for the wonderful Easter meal, your dog goes bananas when people come over. Jumping and barking, acting like a child walking towards the entrance to amusement park after drinking a Red Bull. You try to think on your feet as your guests are expected to arrive soon. What do you do? How do you handle him? What if he tries to jump on counter while the pies are cooling. What do you do? You have less then 15 minutes to get this under control. Well, luckily you are reading this because, although this information will not solve all of your dog’s hyper active problems, it potentially will make things a little bit easier to manage for the big event!
The first thing I suggest, calm down. The stress and anxiety you feel is multiplied by 100 to your dog. “Zenning†your self will make your dog that much easier to control. You will better represent someone who will is effective as a direction giver. You will not be seen as someone who has no clue what you are doing, making your dog less willing to try to control the situation or qualify people at the door or feel entitled to the food on the counter. With the proper mind set, this should not take more than a few minutes.
The next step I would suggest would be to find a way to quickly burn off mental energy. If you have the time, I would highly suggest taking your pooch for a short, yet intense, walk. Keeping the pace high enough to get him (and you) breathing heavy. Keeping him in a following position, engaging his brain by asking him to follow you as you create a new route for your walk. He wont be able to go into auto pilot mode because of the new and unique path you took, hence putting him into a state to follow and ensure you both make it home! The walk should last about 5-10 minutes, if you can give more time to the walk the better off you are.
After the walk, run through some basic exercises ranging from simple obedience to more challenging boundary tests, focusing on the entryway and door. Putting into your dog’s already following mind, that the usually exciting event of the door bell ringing no longer means get crazy and excited but to wait for someone to give them commands and direction. Although at this point, he will still be excited, but the goal is to make him manageable and ready to listen as more people arrive. After the first people arrive, you should notice the door/doorbell ritual will lose a lot of it’s excitement because the things you went through earlier has put him into more of a following/working mind set, you should be able to at least keep him from embarrassing you completely!
After the first one or two door cycles, I would suggest giving him something to occupy himself with. A hard food or marrow filled bone should take enough of his time until the craziness of the door. Most of your guests should be present by now so you should not have to worry about that trigger any more, giving you a calmer presence in turn chilling your dog out that much more as he finishes his bone.
Now, as people are moving around setting them selves at the table, leaving the table etc, everything that has gone on over the past how ever long, you could expect some happy tail and some wanting to socialize from your dog since this would be considered normal, as he is usually a social wacko. You should stay open minded about how he goes about interacting with your guests, not assuming he will be crazy which reinforces your positive mindset as he follows, you should notice him to be more tolerable and not as obsessive or crazy. This should be rewarded in some way or another. Inviting him into the group allowing him more intimate access to the surrounding but correcting any sign of his energy level escalating or if he is getting too antsy or anxious. An obvious sign of this will be him putting his face in someone else/him forcing himself into someone’s personal space or you will see him pacing quickly back and forth pausing in front of people. Make a quick sound and call him to you. Using another (or the same) bone to redirect him.
If at anytime you see him flip flopping from manageable to excited over a short period of time(every couple of minutes), you can resort to retiring him in his kennel or letting him outside ONLY if you do this while he is in the “calmer†portion of his cycle.
I hope that this helps those of you that may be faced with a similar situation this Easter. This is a good practice for any occasion you plan to have people over. Please, leave me some feed back if you are presented with this situation!
And remember, if you are located in Minnesota and you are dealing with this type of behavior or any unwanted or negative behavior, The Dog Whisperer of MN would love to guide and teach you through one of our Dog Behavior Training programs, making you  how that role model and leader for your dog and to mold your dog into a balanced, calm and obedient pet!
Contact The Dog Whisperer of MN today!
