Dog visitor coming this weekend, advice & guidance needed UPDATED...

[Evadee]

Hoping for some tips and guidance....

A very good friend of ours is coming to stay this weekend and bringing his girlfriend (who we will meet for the first time) and her dog.  Girlfriend is a veterinary nurse and her dog is very well trained etc etc.  We have never had any dog visitors in the house, except for when Jake arrived 3 months ago  

I feel so stupid now and wish we had covered this when Tia (eldest cocker at 17 months) was a puppy, Jake our youngest cocker is just 5 months and very chilled.  We never thought to bring dogs into the house as part of socialisation    

I want to deal with it all as sensibly as possible and hope the weekend will go well but I realise I am expecting a lot from our dogs to just accept a visitor for 24 hours.

We normally crate our two when the doorbell goes and let them out a few minutes after human visitors have arrived when they are calmer (and the visitors have listened to our advice on ignoring the dogs!).

Thinking that would be a bad idea maybe when the other dog arrives and also thinking we might be better off introducing them out in the front garden and taking it step by step.  When we brought Jake home we ended up introducing them in the garage as we had torrential rain at the time, Tia was fine except for guarding the water bowls for a couple of days  

I realise accepting a pup is different maybe though to a fully grown Hungarian Vizsla (think that is what the dog is) and Tia may not be so excited!

Any tips and advice really appreciated  

[Sara750S]

A friend of mine had exactly this situation before christmas and they did 2 things.

1) asked visitor to send a small item that might smell of visiting dog (they sent a t shirt the visitors put in dogs bed for a day and night!). My friend then left this around the house for her dogs to pick up on.

2) they met in a park instead of their visitors coming straight to the house. Then on return to house they went to garden and left the back door open. Lol the humans were left in garden and her dogs and visiting dog went in and were playing in lounge 

Other more experienced folks will come along but hope the weekend goes well!

[black taz]

never had a problem with other dogs coming into our house - they seem to just accept it.

However, a couple of weeks ago we took our two to meet our SIL's puppy.  We met at the park, walked for a while then went back to their house, and to be honest i don't think she even noticed they were new dogs in her house, apart from guarding her water.

I would recommend meeting them on neutral terriority first.

[MaggieR]

Would agree - safest to meet on neutral territory and return home "together". Some dogs will deal with another coming into their house fine, but others can get rattled by it so neutral ground gives them a chance to get initial intro's out the way. 

[Evadee]

Thanks everyone. Think we will arrange to go for a short walk when they first arrive, we have a field/park at the end of the road and they can meet there.  OH thinks I'm fussing/worrying but just want weekend to go well.

[luckypenny]

If we had a dog coming I would arrange to meet at the park. Not because Penny would object to the visitor, but because she goes absolutely mental with excitement, which can be a bit intimidating to the visitor.If they meet at the park, then they come back with us, all the excitement has worn off and they get more of a "oh, I didn't realise you were coming in as well" look....which could of course develop into a legendary east of Scotland "you'll have had yer tea".

[KellyT]

it's a good question! 

Recently my dad and his g/f adopting a lurcher bitch (gorgeous little girl  ) prior to them having her they'd looked after M&J for 2 weeks, so their house smelt a lot of M&J (well probably to the lurcher anyway  )

We meet up for a couple of walks as well.

On Christmas eve they came to our house with Jodie - who of course 'knew' M&J as she had smelt them all over her house, Millie did her usual oh hello pleased to see you and promptly wanted to be curled on the sofa - Jennie however kept a watchful eye on the 'visitor' and did grumble a bit at her but overall was ok, and she will grumble at Millie on occasion!

good luck

[maddy74]

We sometimes have my friends male bichon frise over just for a few hours and Willow always wees indoors 

[Liz F]

My dd brings her Shiba Inu - Rosko who is now 7months old, for holidays when the schools are off as dd is a teacher in Liverpool.

Even though the dogs know each other we still meet on a walk before going into my house.  They all get on really well but Diesel & Olli get so excited when Rosko comes its best to meet outside means they can have a good run and go mental as they do    
 
I was concerned that things may change as Rosko got older as 3 males together can sometimes =  fight  ,  up till now everything has been fine. 3 little   although Olli is definately top dog

[Toni-UK]

We sometimes have my friends male bichon frise over just for a few hours and Willow always wees indoors 

Marking territory maybe 
Who knows what goes on in their little heads sometimes 

I agree with others and would meet on "neutral" territory like a park area,I'm not sure about your garden as thinking about it (and depending on what your dogs are like),with Ruby she goes ballistic if a squirrel so much as teeters along the boundary fence yet ignores them in the woods she is very terratorial over "her" garden.Another thought, before you do come into the house i think it would be worth having several water bowls dotted around and any resident dogs toys,chews blankets etc put away 

[LottieLu]

We always do neutral ground too. Even when my son comes to stay with his cocker (a fairly frequent visitor) we always meet and greet at the end of the road and walk the dogs back together. The time we didn't bother it definitely took Maisie longer to 'accommodate' her visiting cousin  It's so simple to do and seems to make such a difference.

[Evadee]

Weekend went really well.  We met them outside the house and walked up the road and back with them, both Tia and Jake were fine about Fen coming in and seemed to enjoy the company.  Fen is beautiful Hungarian Vizsla, extremely well trained.  She walks to heel off lead all the time, never moves or twitches when made to sit or wait out on a walk    her owner has clearly put a huge amount of work into training, one word and she does as she is told.  Made our cockers look a bit crazy but overall I was please with how ours behaved.

[Mudmagnets]

Weekend went really well.  We met them outside the house and walked up the road and back with them, both Tia and Jake were fine about Fen coming in and seemed to enjoy the company.  Fen is beautiful Hungarian Vizsla, extremely well trained.  She walks to heel off lead all the time, never moves or twitches when made to sit or wait out on a walk    her owner has clearly put a huge amount of work into training, one word and she does as she is told.  Made our cockers look a bit crazy but overall I was please with how ours behaved.

Glad it all went well - now you can feel more relaxed next time they are due to visit. 

[MaggieR]

Weekend went really well.  We met them outside the house and walked up the road and back with them, both Tia and Jake were fine about Fen coming in and seemed to enjoy the company.  Fen is beautiful Hungarian Vizsla, extremely well trained.  She walks to heel off lead all the time, never moves or twitches when made to sit or wait out on a walk    her owner has clearly put a huge amount of work into training, one word and she does as she is told.  Made our cockers look a bit crazy but overall I was please with how ours behaved.

Brilliant - have a huge soft spot for Vizsla's so very jealous you had one for the weekend