Preparing Your Dog for the Holidays: How to Encourage Calm Greetings With House Guests

The holiday season is just around the corner- meaning your home will likely be bustling with house guests. For your dog, this might feel like the best day ever! But while most people adore a friendly canine greeting, some guests may prefer to keep their clothes clean this season.

You’ve got one month to help your dog master polite greetings; can you do it? Absolutely! With these three simple tips, you’ll be well on your way to teaching your dog how to greet guests politely.

1. Management Is Key

Practice makes perfect, but when it comes to jumping, too much practice actually reinforces bad habits. If your dog keeps jumping on guests, no amount of training will stick. The goal is to limit your dog’s free access to people so they can’t jump at will.

Use tools like crates, baby gates, or leashes to manage your dog’s interactions. When guests arrive, consider crating your dog or putting them behind a baby gate while you get everyone settled. Once your guest is comfortable, use a leash to keep your dog close but controlled. This way, your dog can be part of the action without overwhelming your guests.

When your dog is calm and making good choices, you can remove the leash- but keep it nearby. It’s your safety net for those moments when your dog might get a little too excited.

2. Reinforce the Behaviors You Want to See

Dogs are always learning from the feedback they get. If your dog receives attention when they jump, even if it’s negative, they’ll likely keep doing it.

Instead, reward the behaviors you want your dog to repeat. Give attention, praise, treats, or toys when your dog keeps all four paws on the floor. Using a leash can help keep guests out of reach while reinforcing this polite behavior.

You, as the owner, can use treats or toys to reward your dog’s calm, grounded behavior. This can help shift your dog’s excitement away from your guests and onto you, making greetings more manageable for everyone.

3. Training Tips to Boost Your Reinforcement Strategy

Here are a couple of training tricks to help your dog stay calm during greetings:

• Treat on the ground: Avoid holding treats up high, which encourages jumping. Instead, place treats near the floor. This encourages your dog to keep their head down, reducing the urge to jump up when guests arrive.
• Teach a nose target: Train your dog to gently bump a hand with their nose. This simple trick gives your dog something positive to focus on during greetings. If your dog learns to touch your guest’s hand for a reward, they’re less likely to jump up to get to the person’s face.

This nose target also helps break your dog’s focus, keeping their excitement levels lower and making polite greetings easier to maintain.

Beware of Self-Sabotage

Sometimes, well-meaning owners accidentally reinforce jumping. Pushing your dog off or telling them to "get down" might seem helpful, but it still gives your dog attention after the behavior occurred. The goal to speeding your training up is to be proactive, prevent the behavior so they don’t get good at it and reinforce the behavior you want to see.

Ignoring jumping can be tricky, too. If you have a tenacious dog, ignoring their initial jumps may frustrate them, causing them to become even jumpier or add in other behaviors like nipping or barking.

That’s why management is so important. These tips will speed up training, but depending on your dog’s age and history of reinforcement for the behavior, consistent management and training might take some time before you see real progress.

By combining management, positive reinforcement, and some fun training techniques, you’ll be well on your way to teaching your dog polite greetings this holiday season. Stay consistent- every chance your dog gets to jump on guests will only slow your progress. With patience and practice, your dog will be the perfect host in no time!

For even more tips, check out the YouTube channel Kikopup, which offers excellent step-by-step videos on teaching polite greetings and other dog training basics.

About the Author's Experience