Keeping Your Pet Calm When Guests Come to Visit

Teach your pet not to react to a knock on the door or when the doorbell rings

I know what you may be saying…well, how do I do that? Not to worry, all it takes is some practice- trust me!

Here are the steps:

1. Start with knocking on a table quietly.
2. See how your pet responds. If they start barking, rush the door or your cat jumps up and hides, then knock more quietly. The main goal here is for your pet to stay calm when they hear a noise.
3. Then increase volume and frequency. You’ll do this until your dog or cat starts to ignore the loud knocks. Gradually increase the volume and frequency – do this until your dog is ignoring reasonably loud knocks.
4. Now that you have got the knock down, introduce a doorbell sound. Repeat steps 1-3 with the doorbell.

Tip: you can even try using the doorbell sound on your phone so your pet gets used to it.

Move on to the actual door:

1. Once you and your pet have mastered the steps above, you can move on to knocking on an actual door.
2. Then start introducing other people “Guests” to this practice. Ask someone to go outside (while you stay with your dog), approach and knock on the front door once. See how your pet responds. If they remain calm, reward them for being so good.
3. Then, while your pet is enjoying their treat, knock again- very quietly to begin with. Then gradually increase the number and volume of knocks. You can repeat this same process with the doorbell.

The noise will eventually become meaningless to your pet and when they hear it - the hope is they will no longer react to it. This takes practice and repetition, so don’t give up if you don’t see immediate results.

Teach your pet how to greet guests properly while teaching your guests how to greet your pet too!

Sometimes it takes participation from everybody to help train your pet to greet guests properly. (This next part is mainly for dogs.)

1. Ask a family member, friend, or neighbor to help you
2. Have some good treats ready to go in your pocket
3. Get prepared and hang your dog’s leash over the doorknob or have it somewhere close to the door
4. Ask your helper to ring the doorbell or knock on your door
5. Follow your dog to the door and call out to your helper, “Hold on, please, while I leash the dog!”
6. Then leash your dog, ask them to sit, and then open the door. If your dog breaks the sit, ask your helper to close the door and start the process again

When your pooch can sit there while your helper steps into the house, praise them calmly, pet them, and give them a yummy treat.

Other things you can try:

There is also the bed command that you can teach your pooch. Tell them to go to their “bed” when there’s a knock at the door or the doorbell rings. As long as they stay in their bed, they get a treat.

You can practice this with family members and friends as well. When the time comes for them to greet the guests, come up with a command that tells them it’s alright to leave their bed, like “OK.”

And if all else fails...

This may be your go to if you have a cat that's scared of guests. Sometimes it will just be easier and less stressful for your fur baby to be put in a safe haven while guests come over until you really have the time to train them.

This safe place can be a bedroom, a laundry room, or if they love the safety of their crate, it can be that too. Just make sure if it’s for a longer period of time, to put them in a place that has plenty of space, water, food, blankets and toys. That way, they can just enjoy their time alone and come out stress free when everyone is gone.

Here are some different items in the shop that will help train, keep calm and occupy your pet when the time comes to invite those guests over.