# Polite Greetings



## emilycn (Jul 30, 2013)

Hi All,
I'm looking for advice on how to teach Lua (almost 11 months intact female) to politely greet visitors to the house -- specifically, people she doesn't recognize. 

Her current routine when someone unfamiliar to her comes in is to use her "big girl" bark as if she's alerting us that someone's there or like a "hold it right there, stranger" bark. She doesn't growl, she doesn't show teeth or bite, her hair's not up --- it doesn't seem like an aggressive behavior, but it reminds me almost of a herding dog keeping people in the entry way. Telling her to hush doesn't work (although, I haven't worked on formally teaching her that command, so why should it), having a hand or leash on her does nothing, and giving her commands that she knows (like "sit" or "place") don't work because she's too riled up to pay attention to a direction. Standing in front of her, between her and the people doesn't work -- she just barks at them from behind my leg. I've tried having her in her crate back in my bedroom also -- that doesn't work either. She hears people come in from there and barks from her crate. 

I don't have any experience with a somewhat protective dog, so I think the issue is that I don't know how to teach her I've got the "situation" under control, and I don't need her help. Have you guys experienced this? How did you handle it? What can I do to communicate to her (a) that these visitors are welcome in our house, and (b) that I don't want or need her "backup"?


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

I like the idea of using hand signals for dogs. As dogs age, they often lose some of their hearing, and hand signals solve that problem for them. 

http://www.dog-training-excellence.com/dog-training-hand-signals.html

Willie is protective, too, and when the doorbell rings, he runs to the front door and gives his low "woof". When I get there, I give him the hand signal for "down" and tell him "It's okay, Willie, I'll handle it." 

Even if your dog is young and can hear very well, it might be harder to hear you while he or she is in full bark mode. The hand signal is useful then. You wouldn't need to train a hand signal for every single command, just the ones you think would be most useful... "Down", "Stay", "Come"...

Anyway, it's something to consider. I think training hand signals is simple enough, because you just use the hand signal every time you give the command. Soon enough, your dog will make the connection. ;D

p.s. The hand signal for "Down" could even be life saving. Suppose you find yourself with a loose dog, and you're on opposite sides of a busy road! Traffic is loud. You can imagine, with horror, your dog running to you and getting hit by a car. You give the hand signal for "Down" and then "Stay". See what I mean? Life saving.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

One thing that helps if you teach a dog down, is they have to stay there until released. You only say the command once, and can add the hand signal to it.
If they move, you do not repeat the command. You just put them back in the original place. You start adding to the amount of time they stay on down, and then add distraction. Always praise for a job well done, and say nothing if they fail. It helps the dog if you use a mat at the start he/she is to stay down on. 
I don't know if you use the sit command, or not.
Some of us don't ever teach our pointers to sit. If you do, you can start teaching the pup to stay until released while on sit, and then transition to down. Its just easier for some dogs to learn to stay on sit first.
If you are ambitious, you can teach a dog to stay in whatever position you put them in, in the same way. 
Whoa is another useful command, that we hunters use.
It means stop, and don't move a foot until released.


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