Visiting a house with a badly behaved dog, what would you do?

I went over to my cousin's house. They had this adorable chunky Min Pin who was not very friendly. She was barking from the instant I walked in the door and was jumping all over the place in a stiff stance. Her owners were not impressed with her but obviously she's done it before because they were not shocked. I asked if she would be ok if I came further in the house. They said she'd be fine. I went into the living room followed by Ms Yappypants and just ignored her until she stopped barking (which took about 5 hours. She was removed from the room because she wouldn't stop barking and was disturbing the conversation). Her owners kept yelling at her to shutup which the dog just ignored and barked louder. I said it was fine and that I didn't mind. I grew up with a Sheltie after all!

So the 5 hours passed and she finally stopped barking. She came over slowly and sniffed my leg. Her body relaxed and I scratched her under the chin. I wouldn't ever correct someone else's dog in that sort of situation. I was just wondering from an educated dog person's stand point could I have done anything differently to have the dog become more comfortable? She seemed to timid and the only thing I thought I could of done was just ignore her until she felt calm enough to approach me. I didn't want to make such an edgy dog any more nervous then she already was.

I honestly have no idea.... it's such an awkward situation.

One of my friends has an 8 month-old BC/ACD mix, and she is almost unbearable to be around, especially when you're visiting their house. She is constantly harassing you with squeaky toys, jumping 5 feet in the air and slamming against you (and she weighs 50 lbs!), painfully biting at your hands, whining, barking at nothing at all, and she screamsss if she's put in her crate.

I kind of want to kill myself, every time. And it takes a lot for a dog to completely annoy me. I have to do everything I can not to correct her myself... and I try to gently give her owner advice... but, I doubt that anything will really be done to train the poor pup.

It is insanely awkward. If my dogs are misbehaving when company is over they get corrected, then rewarded right away when they are good. So far I haven't had much of an issue with that for having three young dogs.

Spanky use to jump up a lot. He has bee taught the command OFF because there are a select few people *cough*mymother*cough* who encourage him to give them "hugs". So if I see them getting him all riled up in that super high pitched baby voice I can just say OFF! and his butt hits the floor before the full word is out of my mouth. That's more of a safety command though. Just in case someone is taking advantage of his over excitability and his happy-go-lucky nature.

I just really wish I knew what I was suppose to of done. She warmed up eventually. Actually hungout on the couch beside me letting me rub her head by the end of the night but I don't know. I did not enjoy seeing her like that at all.

It depends on my relationship with the people. If they are just casual friends, I ignore it. Its their dog, and their right to raise it as they wish. If there's an opening to make a polite suggestion, I might do so. But I've been to a lot of houses with badly behaved dogs where . . . well, that's how they dog acts and they don't really care. Heck, if the problem is the dog jumping all over me, I usually laugh and go with it. I really don't care if dogs jump on me . . . Sarama is not allowed to do it becuse its rude to do it to other people and I'll not have her doing that. But she's MY dog, and my responsibility to train her. ts not my place to say anything more than its my place to say that someone's children are brats. If I'm asked, that's different.

If its family, or good friends, I say something, especially if they are having a problem and its obvious that they don't know what to do. I spent several hours trying to help my grandmother in law work with my sister in law's dog. The poor thing had just sort of been dumped with grandma, because no one knew what to do with her. But I was family there. So it depends. I guess I think of it as . . . would I feel comfortable making a comment about their housekeeping or their children?

Milo kind of goes nuts when we have guests.

But, i have a bit of common sense and put him in his crate or distract him or make him do some tricks or something to calm himself down.

In this case I would have asked if they had something very very yummy......I wouldn't have never made eye contact, and I would have tossed the dog a treat and then walked or turned away. If the dog stopped barking the rewards would have came faster.
I agree with everyone else it depends on whether the owners are willing to try some methods to help the dog.

Lynn

Ollie's a pain in the @$$ when someone comes . Thinks that he's a lap dog . I encourage them to disapline him , as he sure doesn't listen to me if I do and they say it's OK and keeps loving on him .

My sisters boyfriends dog is the exact same way. He is a Lab Dachshund mix, he gets stiff and barks, kinda hops towards you in a bark/growel. If I were you I would have told them the dog makes you uncomfortable and is an annoyance to you, and politely asked them to remove the dog from the room and place it somewhere else. (bathroom, a bedroom maybe?)

Paige, I think you handled it quite well. You didn't embarrass your hosts, and you didn't instigate any additional fear in their dog. By letting the dog come to you, you helped her learn that you were not a threat, and it probably helped a lot. The only thing that might have been better would be if you had come in the door with treats on you, that you could have tossed onto the floor any time the dog was quiet. (Ignore the bad, reward the good.)
Too bad the owners don't know about classical conditioning;-))