How do you handle the situation? We usually put the dog in the back yard or take him to my MIL's house. I prefer to take him to MIL's because he just barks the entire time if he knows we are inside the house....
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When we have little guests over that aren't used to dogs we put her in our bedroom. She will settle down and sleep after barking for a bit.
She is 70 lbs + of muscle (and fat!) but thanks she'd a lap dog. So we don't want to risk her unintentionally knocking over someone else's children!!
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She goes in the basement if its hot outside or outside if its cool.
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Back yard or their cages (left open) in our laundry room
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I'm following! We have 2 big dogs, and my niece and nephews are deathly afraid of dogs/haven't been around dogs so they don't know how to act
We haven't figured out what to do yet....
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Been there! My dog is big and protective of the house, so a lot of people get intimidated by her. We just put her in another room - usually our bedroom - because she'll lie down and go to sleep. We've tried to put her outside but she just jumps against the door and barks, which I'm sure our neighbours wouldn't appreciate.
She really does settle down nicely in 15 minutes or so and becomes a giant suck who likes to lie with / on top of our guests, but if people aren't ok with it, upstairs she goes
Longer-term guests would have to get used to her or stay somewhere else, because it's her house, not theirs.
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We put them out back or in our bedroom.
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We put them in on our bedroom with the door open and a baby gate across. If we shut the door they whine an scratch but with the gate up they just sleep.
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@MrsBrewer: will they be around often or just for quick visits? Our dog are my niece and nephews first experience with dogs. And she's a powerful dog. The first time they met her we kept her on a leash and DH or I held on to her. We would let her be around them for a bit at a time then put her in the bedroom to give her free time. Then we would bring her back down. We let the kids decide when they wanted to pet her. By the second day we would let our dog off leash but keep a close eye on her just because of how strong she is.
Now they love her and are always asking about her. It's sweet because they will let her snuggle up to them on the couch. Haha but not for long because she weighs more than they do!
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We will put him on a leash and keep him close to us until the guests come in and are settled and he is settled. But I can't kennel my dog just because someone doesn't like dogs. He's part of our family and I guess someone just wouldn't come visit if they were scared of dogs.
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@T.H.O.U.: This is exactly how I feel. I don't mind putting her away (in our room) for a few hours, but ultimately it is her house, not theirs.
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It depends on the person, sometimes we just send the dog to his bed and give him something to occupy himself like a Kong. If the person is really intimidated though we crate him. Thankfully he isn't that intimidating of a dog and if he can come say hi to the guest he will then leave them alone in favor of staying by my husband or myself- well unless the person keeps interacting with him but at that point they either want to or are afraid which brings us back to the crate.
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@T.H.O.U.: I very much agree with this- the only time I can think of where we crated the dog instead of just sending him to chill on his bed or to stay by us is when we had to have people come in to do work on the house and even then he gets let out very quickly.
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We haven't had anyone come over who was scared (but we just tell him to sit).
but my husband does have a client who claims he's not scared of dogs, he just hates them and "can you tell IT to get away from me?"
Which makes me want to say "attack!". (even though our dog doesn't know what that means).
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@PermaStudent: @T.H.O.U.: when it's just adults we leave her out and give them fair warning that our dog is big but loving. But when kids are involved I am much more cautious and try not to endanger or frighten the kids. It's a different story if we had a small dog!
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I've never had anyone scared of my dog, but I think I'd just put him up in our bedroom to chill while they were over.
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@locavore_mama: Yes, we have a really big 80lb dog who is a big lover and unfortunately that means he often gets very close. With kids, we too will do as you described as keep him close to us or on a leash so that he doesn't get in their faces.
Our other problem is that our dog isn't allowed in the kitchen or the bedrooms, so there isn't really much of a place in our house to send him off to when people are around.
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@locavore_mama: Oh for sure! Our dog is 80 pounds and has no sense of personal space, so I understand where you are coming from. We don't have many friends or family with young kids at this point, so we haven't had to adjust for that yet.
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Chiming in from the other side: L is deathly terrified of dogs (much to my dismay), and I would never expect, ask or even hope that someone would put their dog away! If it means that she's extra clingy and a little scared, so be it. I actually prefer to help her work on her anxiety with the dogs than to just shut them away.
Although, I did go somewhere as an adult where their dog was TERRIFYING me! It was a young-ish dog and was just sooo hyper and nipping everyone's heels. I almost asked them to put the puppy away, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I just clung to DH and he ran interference... haha.
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@locavore_mama: Well they live in town, but we go over to their house 99% of the time. I think the thing is though is that my dogs are young, (1.5 yrs and 7 months) and my older one is very very skiddish, and just nervous in general with sudden movements. He's a 90lb lab, so I'm sure he can look pretty intimidating to a child!
We had them over once, and we had both of our dogs on leashes, and the kids really wanted to pet them, so we told them to hold their hand out and walk slowly towards the dogs to let them sniff you, well it went horrible....they would walk closely, then as soon as our dog's nose touched their hand, they pulled back really fast, and screamed bloody murder, which in turn scared our dog, so he jumped and ran behind DH, and started barking at the kids, then the kids all started crying.....it was pure chaos
I have no idea if we will try and initiate contact again..
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We haven't had anyone be afraid of our dog, but it does get very tiring intercepting curious baby hands and a grumpy dog. So far, I just keep moving them apart but I think a baby gate would be a good solution to keep him near us but safe from curious grabby hands. He would freak out if I locked him in the bedroom, which would end up scaring babies even more.
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@MrsBrewer: Awww that's so hard. I think a lot of it comes from how much the parent teaches the child about interacting with dogs / animals in general. I have had kids in the street come tearing up to my dog squealing and lunging to pet her, and the parents laugh and say "oh, it's ok, she loves dogs".... UH, NO. How do you know my dog tolerates screaming kids? Back off.
It sounds like you could be a really positive influence in this case and help teach the kiddos how to interact with dogs! I'm sure it will take time though, and be a little nerve-racking for you.
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@MrsBrewer: what about exposing them to the none skiddish one first? Sounds like the older one is a little scared of kids!
My brothers teach their kids to to stay away from dogs because they bite. *rolleyes* shockingly none of them are are scared of of dogs any more due to their interactions with our dog. Which is only a few times a year. But we do have to teach them that not all dogs are friendly like ours. they shouldn't just run up to strange dogs!
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We have a largish (50 lb) energetic dog who enjoys sitting really close to new people and occasionally sneak a lick on their feet, hands, inside the mouth.
Everyone knows we have a dog and I don't know anyone who is afraid of dogs, but a few who are less comfortable. Because we are having a lot more visitors now, we've really worked out a good strategy to keep him calm when visitors come. We put him in the backyard before they arrive, then let the visitor in. (Avoiding the front door excitement is key.) When he comes in I have treats ready and ask him to sit and shake for treats. That helps distract him past the initial excitement. Our dog is allowed on the couch, so I usually have visitors sit in one of the living room chairs where he can't get right up next to them. It usually takes 10 min to get him relaxed and then he forgets we have visitors. If he's still anxious or the guest is really uncomfortable with dogs, I'll keep him on a short leash so he stays with me and can't get to close. We try to avoid exiling him to the backyard because he'll just bark and scratch at the door. But we would do that if we really had to. Generally if people are afraid of dogs they just don't come to our house.
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@PermaStudent: I agree, I really hope to be a good positive influence with our dogs! Our 2 dogs are the sweetest things ever! I really think it is with the kids not being instructed/taught how to act around dogs, or how to approach them. Maybe slowly but surely we can work on it.
@locavore_mama: You know, I think my older one is a little bit afraid of kids, but I think it stems deeper truthfully. He's always been just timid and jumpy, even around adults. If you startle him, or do something unexpected, he gets scared! My husband wanted him to be a hunting dog, but he's sooooo gun shy, and any loud noise scares him completely. I think we just have a big baby on our hands!
But them my younger dog is just a little ham. She's smaller too, (about 50 lbs) and LOVES children, and just licks them to death. The kids actually did really well with her and they loved her. Maybe we will just have to try and have more positive interactions with our younger dog and the children, and let them get used to her first?
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@swurlygurl: Thanks! I think too that part of it is that we are constantly getting compliments on how well behaved our dog is.
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@MrsBrewer: Plus, your older dog can have some time to get used to the kids while your younger dog is keeping them occupied. Win win!
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@twodoghouse: So does that work for you, to let the dog in after you let the visitors in? For me it works the opposite way! If we have the visitors come in, our dogs just get soooooo excited/worked up because they see a new person inside our home.
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We have had people sit in their car in our driveway because of our big dog. If we are expecting guests who we know will be scared of him, we tie him up in the yard. If it's unexpected guests, good luck to them getting to our house! He would never bite, but just very intimidating.
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@PermaStudent: It totally is a win win!!!
This was SUCH a great thread!!! Thanks for starting this @autumnlove: !!!!
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@MrsBrewer: my in laws used to have a collie that was like that. She is generally a very sweet dog but she is VERY skittish and was on Prozac! She has separation issues amongst others. So when we would go to leave she would go crazy. The one time she bit me in the butt when went to hug my MIL. She drew blood!
Truth be told if she was still alive I would never allow my kids over there unless that dog was always in a separate room. She is is too unpredictable. -
@locavore_mama: OMG!! Drew blood?! I wouldn't let children around that dog either!! I think there are just some dogs, that aren't meant to be around children!
My older dog gets scared, but would never bite! He's completely opposite, when he gets scared, he tucks his tail under right away and hides, either behind myself or DH, or just in another room in general!
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We crate them but keep them in the same room as us. That way the dogs don't bark knowing they are in a room separate from us but the person or child that is uncomfortable or scared of them can see them without the fear of them getting out or reaching them.
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Another person here with the other side perspective! My LO LOVES dogs but is also still learning how to be gentle. She will unintentionally pull fur, tails and ears in her glee. When a dog is around there is no redirecting her and she gravitates towards the dog no matter what we do. As much as it is nice to see her love animals it's terrifying to me as a parent who doesn't intimately know another persons dog and how they would react to a child and their attention. I really appreciate when friends with dogs will have their dogs in a safe place for the day to keep the dogs out of my toddlers harmful way and maybe prevent a situation of a dog reacting out of defense.
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We don't have dogs, but we do have a cat that can be aggressive and unpredictable when there are a lot of people around, so we just put him in the spare bedroom. We let the other cat roam around, but she usually hides so it's not an issue.
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We don’t have a dog, but our cat can be quite aggressive (especially if people try to touch her or mess with her, or mess/touch LO) and unpredictable so we put her up in our master suite when anyone but our parents are over. Honestly, it’s also better for our cat to do this – she gets so stressed out if she is downstairs with people whereas she just goes to sleep upstairs in our bedroom or looks out the window and plays.
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I put our little dogs in our room and our bigger Golden outside. The Golden loves people but she's so strong and hyper that she could easily knock over a little kid.
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@MrsBrewer: It works for us because people coming through the front door is just SO exciting for him. It's not as exciting when he comes from outside and someone is just sitting down already. Maybe our dog is just a weirdo but it works really well for us!
We haven't figured out what to do yet....
Longer-term guests would have to get used to her or stay somewhere else, because it's her house, not theirs.
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