Holiday Help with Training Your Dog

Question: “I’m taking my dog to my friend’s house for the holiday. There will be new and familiar people, other dogs, and food. What are some tips to keep up my dog’s training?”

I travel to friends and family regularly with my dog and the holidays are an especially intense, hectic, and challenging time to do that. It takes a lot of management to bring your dog into a house with people, food, and possibly other dogs. If you’re not up to the task, consider leaving your dog at home instead. If you do decide to bring your dog to friends or family, keep your wits about you by planning ahead and incorporating these tips. 

Manage Your Dog

Managing your dog in a different household is key to your training success and keeping your dog comfortable. Even if your dog is great at home or great at your friend’s house just the two of you, maintaining control of your dog will ensure everyone’s safety.

• Crating your dog is the safest and easiest option. Bring one with you and set it up in a quiet spot. 
• When your dog isn’t crated, keep the leash on and in your hand. Even if you are using an e-collar, the leash is important in a bustling room of people. This way you can manage your dog meeting new people, ensuring he’s not getting into anything, or not being let out the door accidentally. 
• Bring a mat or dog bed for your dog to lie on Place. This is a big test of the training you’ve been doing at home! People, food, kids, maybe other animals–those are big distractions.

Begging and Feeding

People, especially parents and grandparents, may want to feed your dog special things. What your dog eats is entirely up to you. Here the leash comes into play because your dog isn’t in the kitchen alone with grandpa while he’s carving the turkey and feeding your dog the scraps.

If you do decide to let your dog have some festive turkey meat, bring their dog dish and add it to the normal dog food meal. Feed your dog in the crate, the car, or at least away from other pets. Hand feeding multiple dogs at the same time can escalate quickly, even for a dog that hasn’t displayed food aggression before. 

Not everyone will remember there’s a dog that could get into the trash, counter surf, or eat off their plate. Again, by being leashed, you can monitor your dog easily.

Unsolicited Advice

Guests may have questions about the training tools or techniques you use. They may genuinely be curious! Your dog is most likely better behaved than a lot of other dogs and that piques peoples’ interest. There also could be people who don’t understand or disagree with your use of training tools and techniques. That’s ok–they don’t have to understand and you don’t have to explain your methods unless you want to.

Back to Basics

Commands that seemed solid at home like Place or even Sit and Come may not be as solid in a new place. You’ve introduced huge distractions in a new situation so continue to train your dog’s behavior. That takes time and effort!

If you’ve previously been to this house or party with your dog before, it may take time to teach your dog your higher expectations on this visit. You may have let your dog roam your parent’s or friend’s house, play outside with other dogs, and clean everyone’s plate. That’s a big switch to keeping the leash in your hand and managing your dog’s every move! 

• If you’re staying overnight, bring your crate. If that’s not possible, have your dog sleep in your room with the door closed–no wandering the house at night.
• Know what rules you’re okay breaking. You may not let your dog on the sofa at home, but maybe that’s ok with grandma. A little sofa time shouldn’t be a training setback. 
• Take time to breathe and care for your nervous system–and your dogs. Usually that looks like getting in a good walk or even just getting outside by yourself. It can be a nice excuse to step out and give your dog a bathroom break.

It’s important to manage your dog and keep your sights on your dog training goals. It can be a challenge to manage friends’ and relatives’ questions, judgment, and pressure, but it is your dog! If you think this might be a big ask (it is) consider leaving your dog at home to enjoy the party on your own. 

After visiting the same relatives multiple times, Nel (pictured) no longer stays leashed. She’s e-collar trained and the remote stays within my reach. During busy moments, she sits on Place and stays out of trouble. Managing your dog during busy holidays takes a lot of work, but it pays off.

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