Accidently reinforcing bad behaviors

A lot of times I see people trying to calm a dog who is clearly stressing by petting and loving on a dog. This has even happened in my own house. Dog barks, you acknowledge the dog and let him in; dog jumps when you walk in the door, you pet him and say, "Oh! You've missed me"; or, a dog growls when scared and you reach down placing your hand on his head muttering that the dog is okay. So, let's break it down and look at what you're doing when you do those things.

By petting or trying to reassure Fido when he's doing something bad, you are feeding him the attention he wants. You're showing him, "Okay, nip at me so I pet you." Or, "Okay, jump all over the place when someone walks in the door".

So what do we do instead?  I always ask for a sit. Some dogs are not comfortable sitting, so go with your dogs most comfortable position. When I walk in the door, I ask "Sit" and until I receive a solid sit, I turn away and ignore. I even avoid eye contact as some dogs can be intimidated if you stare at them and even watching them is contact at the basest form. So, I turn away and face my door. I watch carefully up in the reflection of the glass. Once Fido sits and has calmed, then I acknowledge him. If he starts to get up and move again to jump around, I turn away again.

Now, say I'm having company over? I start off by filling a Kong with a mix of what I call half and half of love. It's Greyson's favorite Kong treat. It's half peanut butter and half ground pure pumpkin. Grey loves it. So, I give him a fully filled Kong right before the first guest walks in. Now here's the hard part. Everyone who walks in my house has already been given instructions. It's the no contact rule. If you can't ignore the dog until he calms, well I probably won't have you over again.
Reinforcing proper behavior isn't as easy as it sounds. A lot of times it may feel like a battle of wills, but between management and ignoring and moving away until you can reinforce the good behavior, you'll be setting your dog up for success and not trying to correct failing behavior.

The picture is Greyson waiting calmly while we have company over.