A sitter learns your dog's visitor behaviour the hard way unless you write it down first, because the dog who is relaxed with you at the door is a different animal when a stranger lets himself in with a key. Your notes should describe what actually happens, what the sitter should do about it, and where the limits sit — not an idealised version of the dog you wish you had.
Describe the Greeting Honestly
Start with the first sixty seconds of a visit. Does he bark at the doorbell and keep barking after the door opens? Does he jump up at guests, mouth sleeves, spin, and scrabble, purely from excitement? Or is his style watchful — standing off, barking at men in hats, following visitors from room to room? Note guarding behaviour specifically: a dog who settles over a chew, a toy, or his bed and stiffens when a guest approaches needs that written in plain words, with the instruction that visitors leave him and his things alone. Add door behaviour too — whether he rushes the opening door, squeezes past legs, or can be trusted to wait behind a line — because arrivals and departures are when sitters lose dogs.
The Introduction Routine That Works in Your House
Explain the sequence you expect, step by step. A workable version runs like this: the sitter puts him on a lead or behind the baby gate before the door is opened; visitors come in, put bags down, and ignore him completely — no eye contact, no reaching hands, no excited voices — until four feet are on the floor and his body has loosened; the sitter, not the guest, gives any treats, dropped on the floor rather than offered from fingers. State your rules on furniture, feeding from plates, and children, and say how long the management stays in place: for some dogs the lead comes off after five calm minutes, while others stay behind the gate for the whole visit, and both are respectable answers when they are written down.
Management Tools and the Separation Line
List the physical arrangements that keep visits easy: which room he can be settled in with a bed, water, and something safe to chew; where the gate is fitted; where his lead and treats live. Then draw the separation line explicitly. Situations that commonly belong on it are deliveries and tradespeople going in and out, parties or several guests at once, visiting children who are not used to dogs, and any guest who is frightened of dogs or unsteady on their feet. Give the sitter permission, in writing, to use the separate room early and without guilt, and leave a note of the settling signals that mean the arrangement is working.
All of it sits neatly inside KinsLe, where a Care Pass shares the visitor notes, the gate-and-room routine, and the separation rules with your sitter for the dates of the stay only.