Multiple Dog Households Part 1: When You Come In The Door

One of my favorite things about pet parenthood is that no matter how my day goes or what I do, my dogs will always be excited when I come home. It makes my day better knowing that they’re waiting to greet me. What’s unfortunate is that I hear complaints about someone’s dog is that their dog acts like a psycho when they first get in the door. I hear that their dogs run around, knock things over, and even knock kids over. Obviously that is unacceptable and a lot of clients want this craziness to stop completely. What I try to convince them of is not to stop their dog’s exuberance. I push them towards ways of managing and redirecting that behavior. Here’s how we do it.

The first thing I do when I get home is get myself settled. I put my backpack down, get a drink of water, spend 5-10 minutes checking my phone/Facebook, then I let the dogs out of the kennel. See how I’m taking care of front door charging with the kennel? Once they’re out I say hi, tell them I love them, and relieve them.

Now let’s analyze how this routine works. I love having a routine with my dogs because they learn habits so quickly and it makes my life easier. So from the beginning I try to do the same thing each time I come home. The routine for them keeps them focused on what task is next and out of your face. As soon as I let Shimmer out of her crate she’s wagging her whole body on the way to the backdoor to be let out. Her excitement hasn’t been subdued as some of my clients ask for, it has just been redirected.

The reason why we chose redirection over correcting the behavior is because there is no need to stop this behavior. It is also the easiest path to travel. I am admittedly lazy and don’t want to do more work than is necessary. Taking the easy way out of something is not a bad thing. It’s just the more practically obvious choice. And when training a dog, keeping the client clam, patient, and overall sane is one of my goals. I’m not going to try to get a client to do something that I wouldn’t even want to do myself!

Another favorite redirect I have for multiple dog households is a simple ‘go lay down’ command. Eventually, given enough repetitions, whenever a dog gets excited, they will run to the mat expecting treats. This is awesome because you’ve diverted all the excitement into a learning experience. Your dog is problem solving and learning how to learn. All of this with treats and praise.

We’ve learned about what you need to do for your dog. Now the question is, what do you need to do for yourself? First thing is first, get yourself settled. If you have your dogs in crates, which I strongly suggest you do, then this part requires very little from you. If you don’t have your dogs in crates, then ignore them when you get home. They’ll jump a couple times and run a lap or two. Keep your arms folded and don’t make eye contact. Doing that will help you avoid giving any signs of play and keep you from putting more energy into the system.

All of this revolves around you being calm. Your nervous energy will trickle down into your dogs. Keep that in check and your excited dog won’t go further than you want.