Visitors

We don't have that many so it's not been a huge priority for us, but that also means we haven't had too much opportunity to work on it.

He's good with the few close friends that he knows. After initial alert barking, once he sees who it is, the barking quickly turns into high pitched squeals of excitement.

He also seems to be better with people he doesn't see regularly but met as a puppy.

If it is a new person or a person he doesn't know very well, he is pretty reactive. He will bark at the person and run forward and retreat. He will bark and growl if they move too quickly, laugh or speak too loudly. Visitors are asked to ignore him and remain seated.

Ideally, I would have him in another room with a calming chew but he has separation anxiety and panics. He would have to be shut away upstairs which he is not comfortable with at the moment. Unfortunately he's not comfortable being confined in the crate.

I do use the garden as a space for him to calm down and will sit out there with a licki-mat while the visitor comes in and sits down.

I keep the door to the garden open so he has an escape route and try to keep him calm with lots of treats, licki-mats and snuffle mats. I keep him on a lead if necessary. He also has access to his crate if he chooses to use it as usual.

As long as visitors don't move around, once he's calmed a little, he then does relatively OK.

If I'm having any work done in the house, I will arrange it on a day when he is in daycare so he doesn't have to deal with it.

But I'd like him to be more comfortable with more friends visiting. It's something we need to work on in future to help him feel calm.