• 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Secondly, our dogs lose their minds barking when my wife comes home from work

    What do you do when she comes home? What does she do when she comes in the door as far as greeting you and the dog?

    when we have expected company

    How do you greet your company? What do you do with the dog from the moment the bell rings?

    Practice with expected company. You and your family stay seated in the room and ask a friend knock on the door.say, “come in its open.” Stay seated, let your friend come in and take a seat. Everyone ignore the dog. If the dog is not calm throughout after one or two tries at this, I will eat my hat.

    when we come back from running errands,

    When you get home from errands, what is your dog’s experience? Is it a bunch of excitement and greetings? Lots of attention for the dog? Immediate play, petting, or food? Do you start arguing when you get in the door?

    when our neighbor comes home from work and slams his car door etc. etc. etc.

    Do you watch the neighbor come home and gripe about the loud noises? When you hear a loud noise outside, do you run to the window? Go outside to see what it is? Talk about it? Pay attention to it?

    Regardless of breed, your dogs are going to pay attention to what you pay attention to, and their emotions are going to mimic their human’s, with very little exception. If you hear noise and then look out the window, obviously your dog is going to get excited about that noise and want to look for it, too.