[Day 14] Visiting - How to manage your dog's territorial behaviour
Basic obedience: Day 14 of 56
This video and training is part of the Grunge Obedience Concept, a structured programme to promote obedience and the bond between humans and dogs. The concept is carefully didactic and methodical to ensure that each exercise builds on the previous one for maximum effectiveness. It is crucial that you carry out the training in the intended order to achieve the best possible results for your dog.
Have you noticed that your dog gets nervous or excited when visitors arrive at the door? Don't worry, this is completely normal behaviour - dogs see their home as their territory and visitors often as potential intruders. But with the right preparation and clear management, you can teach your dog that visitors are not a threat and that he can relax.
In this blog, we'll show you how you can take simple measures to get your dog's territorial behaviour under control. Whether it's about securing resources, establishing clear rules of behaviour or specifically encouraging calm - we'll give you helpful tips to make the next visitor situation less stressful for you and your dog. Are you ready? Then let's get started!
Aim: To teach the dog through targeted management to perceive visitors as less threatening and to react more calmly. The focus is on controlling territorial behaviour and creating stress-free visitor situations.
Equipment: Dog Leash or house lead, Dog Bed or kennel, treats or food toy, child gate or partition, water bowl
Location: At home, relaxation room
Duration: practise regularly, implement if necessary
Territorial behaviour in dogs
You already know that dogs perceive the home as their territory. Visitors are primarily categorised as intruders and grouped according to two important criteria:
- Familiarity of the visit (known, unknown, friends, family, etc.)
- Perceived threat (threatening, neutral, friendly, etc.)
For example, some dogs react particularly strongly to anything that appears unfamiliar to them - this ranges from objects to people. The more contact a dog has with many different people, the less the dog judges people as unfamiliar, as it is familiar with the many different movements of people (young and old) or their stature and clothing.
The measures taken at home on day 08 and the organisation of your dog's sleeping and resting areas are the basis for creating visitor situations. For dogs with strong territorial defence, the front door in particular, but also the windows, are heavily guarded. This is one of the reasons why sleeping and resting areas should never be near the door (not even in the entrance area) and raised (viewing) areas should be avoided.
ℹ Info
Territorial behaviour develops quite late in a dog's behavioural development. It is possible that your dog will not give any signs to visitors for the first two years and that this behaviour will become more prominent as he gets older.
The measures taken at home on day 08 and the organisation of your dog's sleeping and resting areas are the basis for creating visitor situations. For dogs with strong territorial defence, the front door in particular, but also the windows, are heavily guarded. This is one of the reasons why sleeping and resting areas should never be near the door (not even in the entrance area) and raised (viewing) areas should be avoided.
In addition to territorial behaviour, fear can play a significant role in the way your dog reacts to visitors. Home is a supposedly safe place for your dog. For anxious dogs, visitors mean a change in their safe environment and therefore stress and insecurity arise from their sensitivity to stimuli. As a dog owner, it is important to convey a calm influence on the dog's behaviour so that the dog can react out of our mood. If you as a human are already excited about the visit, you cannot expect your dog to show no reaction at all. Every single change of mood on your part is transferred to your dog. A dog that learns that its human receives the visitor calmly and calmly will find it easier to react calmly and calmly too.
ℹ Info
Did you know that reporting intruders was one of the first forms of domesticated dog behaviour? This is a classic example of how behaviour has been painstakingly selected and trained by us humans over centuries in order to get rid of it in the end. This means that the breed also plays a significant role in how a dog reacts to visitors.
The 3 most important building blocks in connection with visitors and the associated territorial behaviour are:
- General measures(Day 08)
- Management (Day 14 - today)
- Training (day 26)
Visitor training is a separate training concept. The general measures and management form the largest part of a balanced visitor situation and lay the foundation for training.
You'll find the perfect equipment with us
Management
Management prevents unwanted behaviour and therefore unwanted learning. It does not count as training, but as guidance on your part. In concrete terms, this means that viewing areas should be made inaccessible by not allowing the dog to enter them or by blocking them off with a child gate (e.g. the sofa is partitioned off to prevent access to the window or the glass entrance door is blocked).
Good barking management and restless behaviour with visitors can be a problem:
- Preparation
- Split / Look up
- Reorientation
- Relaxation room
Preparation
If your dog is the kind of dog that reacts excitedly to visitors but is still friendly, it is possible to integrate the dog into the visitor situation. To keep your dog's state of excitement under control, you can prepare visitor situations by:
- All the dog's resources well stowed away (except water bowl)
- Instruct visitors to ignore the dog until you allow them to pay attention to the dog (only when the dog calms down)
- After the visitor and dog have met, calm your dog down with an activity (e.g. stuffed food toy or a sniffing game that the dog can do on its own)
Split/review
You go to the dog and stand in front of it. By looking at the trigger, you give your dog the message "Everything is OK!" and then move on to other things. Your dog will understand that you have taken his cue seriously and have everything under control. You can then guide your dog back to his place by saying "In your place!" so that he can come down.
Reorientation
Reorientation can be a different behaviour or a different object to which the dog should turn its attention. This can be done with a simple exercise such as "sit" or scattering food on the floor so that the dog initially shows a different behaviour. The reorientation should always take place in combination with general measures and the actual training, but initially offers a good approach to getting the dog out of an undesirable behaviour. Re-orientation is considered to be
- Your attention signal for diverting attention
- "Search" using scattered food
- "To your seat!"
If the dog does not react to any of this, then it is led away from the situation on the house lead and leashed to its place or led into its kennel.
Relaxation room
In the event of intense reactions, the dog is put on a lead or led into the kennel. As soon as the visitor has entered the flat and has been able to sit down, the dog may be brought in (provided it has been able to relax). In the event of aggressive behaviour, the dog should remain in its place on a lead during the visit. The quiet room is also another management area. The dog can stay in the quiet room (day 08) while the visitor is at home. This allows the dog to move around but not be overwhelmed by the stimulus of the visitor. Remember to provide your dog with water if the visitor stays longer.
Summary
When visitors come to the house, your dog can often react nervously or territorially, as he perceives the home as his territory. In this lesson, you will learn how to help your dog stay calm and experience stress-free visiting situations through targeted management measures. You will learn how to prepare the dog, carry out reorientations and provide him with a safe resting place. With a clear plan, you can reduce territorial behaviour and show your dog that visitors are not a threat.
This video and training is part of the Grunge Obedience Concept, a structured programme to promote obedience and the bond between humans and dogs. The concept is carefully didactic and methodical to ensure that each exercise builds on the previous one for maximum effectiveness. It is crucial that you carry out the training in the intended order to achieve the best possible results for your dog.
The authors: Paulina & Lui
Paulina and Lui are the heart and soul behind Vitomalia [Dogstraining & Store]. Her journey in dog training began with the adoption of her first list dog, Vito. This experience sparked her deep interest in teaching other dog owners about dog behaviour and training. Initially this was just a hobby, but with the adoption of the American Pitbull Amalia, who had been relinquished several times due to severe behavioural problems, her passion developed into a true vocation. Amalia's particular behavioural challenges intensified her interest in dog training and behavioural therapy. This turning point led Paulina and Lui to leave their original career paths, undergo intensive further training and dedicate themselves fully to the subject of dog training. Their work with human-dog teams also revealed a gap in the dog market: there was a lack of safe, high-quality dog accessories specifically for medium-sized and large breeds.
From this realisation, Vitomalia [Dogstraining & Store] was born, a combination of their commitment to professional dog training and the need for quality dog accessories. Paulina and Lui bring their personal experience, extensive knowledge and passion for dogs to every product to help human-dog teams live together.