Home for the holidays
A guide to help keep your dogs safe and
happy through the holiday season!
Know your emergency vet contact information! The holiday season is a very busy time for emergency vet clinics as many pets ingest things they shouldn't or sneak out through left open doors. In the US, The ASPCA animal poison control # is good to keep handy! ASPCA poison control website 1-888-426-4435. They do charge for a consultation, but having used it when one of our dogs had eaten an entire container of hot chocolate, I can say it was well worth the cost! Many emergency clinics these days are hitting capacity on holidays so be sure to know ALL your options, including surrounding areas.
While on the subject of Veterinarians, be sure to remember them in your holiday gift giving! Remember positive reinforcement goes a long way to helping a very high stress occupation to feel more appreciated.
Proactive, Prepared, Prevention!!!
Do you know how many clients I see who’s dog’s stranger danger anxieties were triggered during holiday visits??? Too many to count is how many.
The classic set up is a young or adolescent dog, overwhelmed and over stimulated by it’s suddenly very busy home, and someone thinks it’s hysterical that the dog freaks out over something and continues to scare the dog for laughs. All you need to is see all the TikTok videos of dogs being traumatized in the name of fun. What these videos don’t show you, is the long term damage done by those events and how long it can take to get a dog over something that stressful. So be ready to tackle Uncle John when he starts chasing your puppy around in his Santa hat ;) No matter how awkward it is to stand up to your in-laws who think you are overreacting, do it! Trust me on this one, that is a lot less stressful than a lifetime with a dog now terrified of strangers.
To prepare for these things ahead of time think about:
Where can I create a safe quiet place for my dog to rest away from the commotion if they are struggling? A bedroom, a crate, a baby gated off room, maybe in the car if the conditions allow?
How do I keep my dog from stealing or being given food? Many visitors don’t think it’s a big deal to feed your dog some of their food, but not everyone is aware of what is dangerous for dogs, and even things not dangerous can still cause issues. Rich fatty foods keep vet offices filled with dogs with pancreatitis after the holidays.
For a list of foods to avoid giving pets again you can check out the
ASPCA poison control website: List of foods to avoid feeding dogs
Especially check snack foods for xylitol!!! Many foods can surprise you that have it, mints, candies, baked goods, so when you bring them into a home with dogs during the holidays when dogs are more apt to score something be sure you keep these well away!!! and let your guests know that it’s extremely toxic to dogs so don’t let them give any snacks to them. Ideally just don’t let this stuff into your house.
Even if your dog is usually very good about leaving food and trash alone, be safe and keep your trash away from where dogs can get into it, and keep your dogs away from the food areas while people are eating.
If you want people to be able to share goodies with your dog have a container of treats or kibbles available for people to give rather than sharing off their plates.
Prepare and stock up with frozen stuffed kongs, chews, food puzzles and enrichment games for your dog so you have ways to keep them entertained.
Take a walk before the festivities! Starting with a dog that’s been for a walk makes a big difference!!! Plus it’s a fantastic way to introduce your dog to new people in a much lower pressure way.
Supervise or keep separate small children and/or visiting dogs. Even if it seems like everything is going well, at the times you can’t keep an eye on how they are doing, just put your dogs up in a safe space. The classic line is “everything was going so well, I don’t know what happened but out of nowhere….” dogs can squabble over food, toys, beds when not used to sharing with each other. They can get tired and trigger stacked and snap at children. Be safe and supervise or separate!!!
When in doubt, no. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.
If your dogs seem overwhelmed easily leave them home if that’s an option. When I visit family as much as I love spending time with them and they offer us to stay with them, we get our own hotel or airbnb whenever possible so the dogs have down time. If that’s not affordable, fix up a nice quiet space for them in another room with a crate, some nice music on, and take some breaks with them in that space if they are not able to rest alone.
Dogs need a lot of rest and on normal days they sleep a lot, during holidays when you have guests this often ends up meaning your dog doesn’t rest adequately. Which can result in the same sorts of issues you see with overtired children. So make sure you provide your dog with opportunities to rest and quiet safe spaces to do so.
Christmas trees & Decorations
Plan on where to put your tree if you put one up, thinking about your dog’s normal traffic patterns. Is their tail gonna clear the bottom of the tree when they run by tails wagging to greet people at the door? Considerations:
For very young puppies, maybe getting a small tree up can put up on a table
Can you put an exercise pen around the tree when you can’t supervise
Use a baby gate to keep them out of the room with the tree unless you can supervise
Be sure to put only non-breakable safe ornaments at the bottom of the tree
Consider not using easily breakable glass ornaments
Don’t use easily edible dangerous items like tinsel (especially if you also have cats)
Expect gifts put under the tree might be considered enrichment games for the dogs, so keep easily damaged things up high until you are ready to open them
Regularly check the cords for the lights, incase someone has chewed on them
Activities
It’s really fun to turn present opening into an enrichment game for your dogs! I save the used paper each year to use for the dog’s presents the next year. Honestly I generally just take toys they already have and wrap them up in the old used paper, with a few treats under the paper and let them have that fun. Limit how much tape you use, and supervise them while opening. If you scatter some treats between the toys and the paper that can help focus the dogs off the paper that like to eat paper.
Again, when in doubt, no. But it can be so much fun taking your dog along for family festivities! But if you can’t properly supervise them and be ready to sit things out that overwhelm them, then it’s best to leave them home.
Parades, festivals, tree lightings, etc these all sound like awesome things to bring a dog along to, but more often than not the dogs are not having any fun and are stressed. Do them a favor and take them along for the fun outdoor things like hiking, snowshoeing, walking, playing in the snow, then leave them home to rest while you go to those busy events.
Fun easy games to play with dogs!
Monkey in the middle: give everyone a handful of treats, spread out into a circle and call the pup back and forth and feed treats one at a time. Have people drop the treats on the ground in front of them as the pup arrives to discourage any jumping up. stop if the pup is getting too over excited. (limit to 5-6 calls)
Hide and seek: either with a toy or a person. One person holds the dog while the other person hides their toy or hides with their toy. (make rules about what places are off limits so you don’t encourage the dog looking in places you don’t want them).
Introducing visiting dogs
For most dogs they are going to have an easier time meeting a new dog on more neutral territory with an activity. So I suggest introducing new dogs on a parallel walk, depending on the dogs, if I have dogs that are worried or I am not sure how they are with other dogs I will start with the dogs on opposite sides of the street and we walk together in the same direction until you see them start to pay more attention to their surroundings than on each other. Then I gradually decrease the space between them until we can walk side by side. Then we all walk into the house together as a group. (*Not all dogs do well with this, a dog that has a lot of leash frustration reactivity can have a hard time walking next to another dog and can get more frustrated.)
If that’s not an option than introducing in a safe fenced in space outside, and I keep leashes on, but drop them so if we need to separate we have an easy way to do so.
If that’s not an option, having a baby gate up so they can meet through a safety barrier as you see how they respond to each other.
***If a family member is bringing a dog that your dog has not met yet, first greet each other without the dogs!!! Put your dog inside and come say hi without them so when you bring the dogs into the scene the people have all said their hellos and now you can focus on the dogs.
*Trust your gut! If it feels tense between the dogs use gates and crates to manage them.
Advocating and protecting your dog with stranger danger fears
**All of these are based on the idea your dog is just anxious/fearful and not aggressive. If you think your dog maybe aggressive towards visitors, just keep them safely put away from guests using crates and secure kennels. Then work with a veterinary behaviorist and/or a professional reward based trainer to work on their issues with people rather than risking it with your guests.
Have a plan! (If you are in the academy look up the “making friends with a scared dog” pdf in the Reactivity module. You can print this out to hand to your guests!)
Let your guests know ahead of time how to act around your dog, and do not assume they will remember all of this! Make a little sign for the door, be prepared to coach them. *Use positive training for your visitors too ;)
If that person is staying overnight, do know that dogs often freak out again after getting used to someone and then that person goes to bed and then moves around the house in the night or morning. Expect your dog might bark at them if they are surprised by them in the night, I suggest using a baby gate or closing them in the room with you at night.
The general suggestions that help most stranger danger dogs that you can tell your visitors:
Don’t sustain eye contact, it is ok to glance normally at the dog, but if they look in your eyes, look away.
Don’t try to touch them at all until I give you the go ahead. Sometimes dogs will approach to investigate and smell you when they are not actually coming to say hi, so I’ll let you know when he’s ready to be touched.
If I tell you it’s ok to say hi, don’t reach for them, let them come to you, if you have to move to touch them, they don’t want to be touched, so only do so if they put themselves close enough to touch.
Worried dogs make friends with people who play hard to get and don’t pressure them faster than they do with people actively trying to make friends, so just play it cool.
If my dog approaching you makes you uncomfortable let me know and I can call them away so you don’t have to tell them to move.
Try not to make sudden movements without preparing the dog: you can do this a few different ways, you can tell me so I can help my dog as you move, you can take a few treats and toss them away from where you plan on moving.
If my dog barks at you, stand still, I will come get them, they don’t want to hurt you, they are telling you to stop moving or telling you to stay still.
Triangle fetch or triangle training games for making friends.
If you have someone who is comfortable and you see your dog is wanting to maybe warm up to them, but is still unsure, triangle games can help a lot.
You stand next to the person, if your dog loves to play, hand that person the dogs favorite toy and have them throw it for the dog. The person stands still and stays quiet as the dog gets the toy, when the dog returns you get the toy from the dog and hand it back to the person for them to throw again.
After a few tosses have the person start speaking as they play “go get it” “yay good dog” and low pressure things like that, NOT -” bring it to me” or “come” or anything that puts the dog in conflict.
If your dog doesn’t play with toys you can play training games. Again you start standing next to the person.
You give all the treats to the person, they stand still and stay quiet.
You ask the dog to sit.
When the dog sits, the person tosses a treat to or behind the dog (tosses, not hands)
After a few reps if you start to see the dog looking expectantly at the person after you give the sit cue, have them start adding in some low pressure talk “yes, good dog”.
This is all about associations not interaction or contact. The goal for stranger danger dogs is not contact, the goal is comfort in proximity to strangers and feeling safe.
Advocate for your dogs and just totally
own that crazy helicopter dog mom status.
Yes, I am over the top about my dogs and happy to be up here thank you very much, now step away from my dog before I tackle you. 😂
You can ask my sister last year at Christmas I told her “I will put you in time out if you do that” as I saw her about to feed Leo from her plate during dinner.
Her: "You are so controlling”
Me: “Yes, I know, now be a good girl and step away from my puppy and put down that pie crust”