Dog and visitors

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Timpu wrote: »

Our dog loves people, especially making friends with children. We have friends coming over with their young child (2yr old). One of the parents is scared witless of dogs, in fact, any animal freaks them out. I sympathise, fear is irrational and difficult to control.

I'm worried about how to handle the visit. I'd love to hear from those of you who have pets that aren't appreciated by others.

DH and I have agreed that if it gets too much, the dog and I will head to the pub together. We will start the visit with our dog on lead too, perhaps have a game of fetch outside.

The friends have, I'm sorry to say, very little common sense and don't have an awareness of handling animals. For example, despite explaining at length, they don't understand that a crate is not a play thing for their child but a bolt hole for our dog. (I got the child away from the crate pretty fast, as you can imagine.) It therefore falls to me to make sure their child is safe and frankly, with DH being very easy going and their lack of knowledge, whilst I also play host...I find the whole thing exhausting and frustrating.

I'd tell them something urgent has come up and it will do so for the next 20 years.

Then I'd take OH and dog to the pub. :beer:


That'll solve all your problems.

Timpu

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I'd tell them something urgent has come up and it will do so for the next 20 years.

Then I'd take OH and dog to the pub. :beer:


That'll solve all your problems.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

If only life were so simple, believe me, I did have thoughts along those lines

The visit ran fairly smoothly with the parents listening this time round and we kept it short. One parent wanted to take less than keen kiddo over to our crated dog, which got a firm no from me. I'm pleased they listened.

(We have a baby goat at the stairs anyway, which our friends appreciate also.)

A huge thank you again to everyone

Anjek

If I were you, I would not invited them.

CassieKeith123

If I were in your shoes I would deal with the situation by either:
- Using a lead to keep my dog close to me
- Allowing the dog to stay in another room
- Exposing the parent to the dog (whilst on a lead) and that way the dog won't be anxious to get to the parent and the parent could slowly get comfortable with the situation.

Fear is irrational. I myself used to be terrified of dogs and never thought I'd get over that. It's probable that the prospect of the visit for the parent is terrifying. I would work myself up if I saw a dog walking on the opposite side of the road, never mind going to a house.

It took a little time and patient from my boyfriend to get me used to his dogs and now I love them.

I cannot believe I lived that long without dogs in my life.

As long as you make them aware that you will make sure they feel comfortable whilst they're there, the parent might feel reassured that you've already thought ahead about dealing with the situation. And that way you can hopefully avoid any tense moments.

I hope they have a successful at your house.

sheramber

CassieKeith123 wrote: »

If I were in your shoes I would deal with the situation by either:
- Using a lead to keep my dog close to me
- Allowing the dog to stay in another room
- Exposing the parent to the dog (whilst on a lead) and that way the dog won't be anxious to get to the parent and the parent could slowly get comfortable with the situation.

Fear is irrational. I myself used to be terrified of dogs and never thought I'd get over that. It's probable that the prospect of the visit for the parent is terrifying. I would work myself up if I saw a dog walking on the opposite side of the road, never mind going to a house.

It took a little time and patient from my boyfriend to get me used to his dogs and now I love them.

I cannot believe I lived that long without dogs in my life.

As long as you make them aware that you will make sure they feel comfortable whilst they're there, the parent might feel reassured that you've already thought ahead about dealing with the situation. And that way you can hopefully avoid any tense moments.

I hope they have a successful at your house.

If you had read post 23 you would know the visit hs happened.