Preparing Your Dog for the Holiday Season

The holiday season is something I look forward to all year, but for many dogs it can be a significant disruption to their normal routine. Guests come and go, schedules shift, environments become noisier, and expectations change quickly. For dogs who thrive on predictability, this can feel overwhelming.

Preparation ahead of time can make a meaningful difference. The goal is not to create a perfectly behaved dog for every holiday scenario, but to set up both you and your dog for a more manageable, realistic experience.

Start with the Environment

Holidays tend to bring more stimulation into the home than usual. Decorations, food, luggage, and unfamiliar people can all change how a space feels to a dog. Rather than expecting your dog to simply tolerate this, consider how you can create a consistent, safe area where they can decompress.

This might look like a quiet room, a crate, or a designated resting space with familiar bedding and enrichment. Giving your dog an opt out is one of the most effective ways to prevent stress from escalating.

Practice Before You Need It

Many of the behaviors we hope for during the holidays are skills that require practice in lower stakes environments. Greeting people calmly, settling on a mat, or disengaging from food on counters are not behaviors that reliably appear under pressure.

Start incorporating these into your daily routine now. Short, consistent sessions are more effective than occasional long ones. Focus on reinforcing calm behavior and building clarity around what you are asking. I am a big fan of exposure therapy in training, so why not break out those suitcases and get your dog used to the noise, or have a few friends over for game night to get them used to groups of people coming over?

The Power of Routine

Even when life becomes busier, maintaining elements of your dog’s normal routine can have a stabilizing effect. Regular walks, feeding times, and opportunities for movement and enrichment help regulate your dog’s nervous system.

These routines do not need to be elaborate. A consistent morning walk or a few minutes of training each day can provide a sense of predictability that carries into more chaotic moments.

Manage Guest Interactions

Not every dog enjoys socializing with new people, and the holidays often place dogs in situations that exceed their comfort level. It is your responsibility to advocate for your dog in these moments.

Set clear expectations with guests ahead of time. This may include asking people not to approach your dog, not to feed them, or to ignore them entirely. In some cases, the most appropriate choice is to keep your dog separated from guests altogether.

Plan for Support

You do not have to navigate the holiday season alone. Support can look like scheduling a dog walker on busy days, arranging daycare, or asking a trusted friend or family member to help. I'll let you in on my own personal life here: I always have my own dog stay with a sitter when I host large parties. Both because I know this will stress him out and because I know I will need to be focused on food prep and hosting. I recognize that managing that plus him will be too much for me, and that is ok.

If your dog has specific behavioral challenges, working with a trainer ahead of the holidays can help you develop a plan that feels realistic and supportive.

Be Realistic About Expectations

The holidays are not the time to test the limits of your dog’s training. Progress is not linear, and increased stimulation often means that previously learned behaviors may become less reliable.

Adjust your expectations accordingly. Success might look like your dog resting in another room while guests visit, rather than actively participating. Meeting your dog where they are will reduce frustration on both ends of the leash.

Watch for Subtle Signs of Stress

Stress in dogs does not always look dramatic. It can show up as pacing, panting, avoidance, excessive sleeping, or changes in appetite. Paying attention to these early signals allows you to intervene before your dog becomes overwhelmed.

Providing breaks, reducing exposure to triggers, and offering calming activities can help your dog recover more quickly.

A More Sustainable Approach

Preparing your dog for the holiday season is less about achieving perfect behavior and more about creating an environment where your dog can feel safe and supported. When you prioritize management, realistic expectations, and consistency, you reduce pressure on both yourself and your dog.

The holidays will still be busy. But with thoughtful preparation, they can also be more manageable, for everyone involved.

Dog Training Is a Transformative Meditative Practice

"It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will." - the Queen of Octobers, Anne of Green Gables

In my experience, dog training has become more of a meditative practice for me than simply a learning experience for my dogs.

I have taken on many challenging training projects over the years. Some of my toughest teachers were my own foster dogs, the dogs I brought into my home to give a second chance at life. Some had never lived in a house before, while others came from truly horrific conditions. Even with compassion and purpose at the forefront of my mind, there were days, or let's be honest, sometimes months, when these dogs pushed me to my limits. They ate furniture, nervously nibbled on my clothes, and had countless indoor accidents. They tested my patience in ways I had never experienced before. Yet through those challenges, I felt my heart grow.

It's easy to focus on what our dogs aren't doing and get down on ourselves for our perceived training failures. But when we choose to notice and reward the small wins, we begin to see progress everywhere. Training becomes less about perfection, and we become more grounded in the beauty of real life.

Dogs live in the present, and positive reinforcement invites us to do the same. Instead of dwelling on mistakes, we celebrate small successes and create opportunities for more. Every reward builds confidence, not just in our dogs, but in ourselves.

There will always be challenging days. That's part of learning. But when we approach each training session with curiosity, patience, and the intention to enjoy the process, we build something far more valuable than reliable behaviors.

Anne Shirley had it right. When we choose to focus on partnership, kindness, and celebrating progress, dog training becomes a practice of mindfulness, gratitude, and joy.

Preparing Our Dog for the Arrival of Our New Baby

As we get closer to welcoming our new baby, preparing our dog is just as important as preparing the nursery. He's a huge part of our family, and this new chapter will be a big adjustment for him too.

Our dog is independent, incredibly food motivated, and has shown some fear around children in the past. Because of that, we've started preparing well before the baby arrives. My goal isn't simply for him to accept the baby. I want him to feel confident, safe, and successful as our family grows.

One of the biggest changes we've made is where he sleeps. For years, he slept in our bed. As much as we loved the cuddles, we knew that bringing home a newborn would change our nighttime routine. Rather than waiting until the baby arrived, we transitioned him to sleeping in his crate.

We took it slowly, making the crate a place he genuinely enjoys. We added comfortable bedding, gave him special treats and chews that he only gets in the crate, and rewarded him for choosing to go inside on his own. Now, his crate is a safe space instead of a punishment, and that gives us one less major change for him to process once the baby is here.

We've also been brushing up on everyday training. We're practicing place, stay, leave it, and settling quietly while there are distractions around him. These skills may seem simple, but they'll make a big difference when I'm feeding the baby, changing diapers, or trying to calm a crying newborn.

Since he's so food motivated, we're leaning heavily on positive reinforcement. Every calm choice earns praise or a treat. Every successful training session helps build confidence. Keeping sessions short and fun has made training something we both enjoy instead of another item on the to do list.

We're also introducing him to baby gear before it's actually in use. The stroller has become part of our walks. The baby swing, bassinet, and play mat have been set up around the house so they aren't strange new objects overnight. The goal is for these things to simply become part of his environment.

Another part of our preparation has been exposing him to baby sounds at a low volume. We've played recordings of crying, cooing, and other infant noises while rewarding calm behavior. Over time, we've gradually increased the volume so the sounds become familiar instead of startling.

Because he's been fearful around children before, we're being especially thoughtful about management. We're not trying to force interactions or prove that he "likes" kids. Instead, we're focusing on helping him stay relaxed and giving him choices. He'll always have a quiet place to retreat if he needs a break, and we'll be careful to respect those boundaries.

We're also working on making our routine a little less predictable. Walks, meals, and playtime won't always happen at the exact same minute every day once we have a newborn, so introducing some flexibility now feels like a small way to help him adjust later.

I know there will be an adjustment period. There will be moments where everything clicks and moments where we need to slow down and reassess. That's okay. Progress matters more than perfection.

At the end of the day, he's still our boy. Many of my clients with kids call their dog their firstborn :) He still deserves walks, enrichment, training, affection, and time with us. Soon our family will be growing by one tiny human, and with patience, preparation, and plenty of treats, he'll learn that this new little person is simply another member of his pack.