Most of you know that Mia is a super shy and timid pup. We adopted her in October of 2021 and haven’t had any house guests other than our next door neighbors & occasionally my brother (who Mia was not a fan of) up until March of this year. Mia loves our neighbors so that’s never been an issue for her.
We recently had my mother-in-laws birthday as well as my brother’s birthday celebration at our house. Needless to say, the first time Mia saw random people (to her) walk into our home, she was way less enthusiastic as any of us were to celebrate.
I have used the training that I have learned from working at BlueDog and going to classes with Mia to help her settle down around ‘strangers’. I have used the Open & Close Bar as well as clicking training everytime she looked up at them sitting at the table; associating our family with good things happen (lots of treats).
It took Mia about 10-12 mins to finally relax and stop barking at them. Once she stopped barking we gave her a station cue and followed it up with a tasty bone. She was pretty content eating the bone in the same room on her station and we were able to enjoy the celebration without a barking dog🤗🐾👏 The BEST part of this for my family and I was that after meeting my brother for at least 4 different times, she was FINALLY comfortable enough (with a TON of positive interactions & reinforcements) to go up to him, kiss him and play fetch with him💖It absolutely warmed my heart to see how far she has come!!
This is ALL thanks to the guidance and support from the amazing trainers at Blue Dog