Nervous around certain guests

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james79
Posts: 64
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 8:36 am

Nervous around certain guests

Post by james79 »

Hi,

We're making great progress with our rescue border collie cross, Murphy, but I have something I could use help with. The other night our friend came over & when he came in Murphy started barking at him. We had him ignore the dog & just sit quietly on the couch. Murphy was clearly a little nervous about him (he does a puffing of his cheeks when he's uncomfortable) but settled down after a few minutes. Murphy went over to him to investigate & accepted a treat from him. We thought he'd settled down (we've had other guests over without any issue) but when our friend got up to go to the bathroom Murphy started barking & jumping up at him again. Our friend is admittedly a little nervous around dogs so I think Murphy could sense that. What's the best way to show Murphy that guests are ok & he doesn't need to protect us from guests? Maybe having him go to his bed & lay down when people come in?
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