Dog gets crazy over excited when people come over

[Anonymous]

We have a 2 year old puggle. She is generally pretty chill, but when people come over she becomes a lunatic, jumping all over them, chasing kids around the yard, that sort of thing. She is not aggressive, she is just sooooo friendly we don't know what to do. We have tried to train her not to jump and she doesn't jump on us, just strangers. Currently we keep her on a leash when people are in the house. But short of that, any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Just lock the dog up. It is so obnoxious when other people's dogs start jumping all over my kids and scaring the hell out of them.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. My inlaws dogs do this and it drives me insane. I have dogs and in my opinion a dog should come to the door, wag his tail and not jump up or go near the person. After major training, my inlaws have commands for their dogs and they're supposed to stay back. SILs dogs though can't manage it. I think they should be put in another room when there's company.

[Anonymous]

God, I hate that.

[Anonymous]

This are all extremely unhelpful comments. I recognize it’s a problem and am asking for suggestions, not to be told how terrible the behavior is. I’m not defending the behavior.

[Anonymous]

You need people to come over who will help you train her.

They knock/ring bell.
You open door and visitor steps in, facing you and dog.
You close the door.
Dog goes crazy.
Visitor needs to turn their back to the dog (facing the front door) and cross their arms, so the dog can't nudge or lick their hands.
You say, "Dogname, Sit!" Wait a beat or two for the dog to listen before you say it again.
When dog sits, praise.
Visitor turns around to face you and dog.
Dog gets up, and you immediately say "Dogname Sit!"
If dog doesn't sit, visitor turns around again, back to dog, arms crossed.
Lather, rinse repeat.

This may take MANY repetitions - and the dog may learn at first "Oh, when JANE comes over I have to be calm, but when ANYONE ELSE comes by, all bets are off," unless you do this with several people. Train the dog that the people say hello to people first, THEN dog.

[Anonymous]

Get a friend or two to come over and help you regularly. Once a week, have them come over and enter the house the way a guest would (knocking, ringing doorbell, etc.). Don’t make any extra commotion (e.g., don’t squeal and say who’s at the door?), just try to act very relaxed. Have the person come in and calmly acknowledge the dog. If the dog stays calm, pet it and say good dog. If the dog flips out, have the person continue into the house and ignore the dog. Sit down, continue to ignore dog, wait for dog to calm down slightly. Then carefully acknowledge the dog, but with a level, calm voice and specifically trying not to excite the dog. If the dog loses it again, ignore the dog until it calms down again. If not, again pet it and praise it. Have the humans carry on a normal conversation at normal tones. Don’t give treats or feed the dog at any point during this, as you’re trying not to make the dog more excited. Hopefully you’ll start to see small improvements within a few weeks.

If you have a lot of trouble, you might take them for a nice long walk about an hour or two before the guest comes. This will wear them out but they will have time to calm down before the guest arrives. If it takes them longer than that to calm down after a walk, add more time to the cool down period.

If you don’t do this, you may never be able to let your dog out when company comes.

Oh and make sure your friends get something nice out of each visit (cook them dinner or serve them a nice drink).

[Anonymous]

We have a 6 month old sled dog, and he jumps all the time. It's embarrassing, because we've tried to train him not to do it. Those dogs who love people and really need human interaction are the hardest to train out of jumping.

I don't know how large your dog is, or how strong, but you could use a pen. We have a foldable pen, and put him in there if he gets too rambunctious. Even though he could easily barge his way out of it, he's only done it once, and I think it was an accident!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need people to come over who will help you train her.

They knock/ring bell.
You open door and visitor steps in, facing you and dog.
You close the door.
Dog goes crazy.
Visitor needs to turn their back to the dog (facing the front door) and cross their arms, so the dog can't nudge or lick their hands.
You say, "Dogname, Sit!" Wait a beat or two for the dog to listen before you say it again.
When dog sits, praise.
Visitor turns around to face you and dog.
Dog gets up, and you immediately say "Dogname Sit!"
If dog doesn't sit, visitor turns around again, back to dog, arms crossed.
Lather, rinse repeat.

This may take MANY repetitions - and the dog may learn at first "Oh, when JANE comes over I have to be calm, but when ANYONE ELSE comes by, all bets are off," unless you do this with several people. Train the dog that the people say hello to people first, THEN dog.

Yep, this. Have a trainer come to your house and work with you on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need people to come over who will help you train her.

They knock/ring bell.
You open door and visitor steps in, facing you and dog.
You close the door.
Dog goes crazy.
Visitor needs to turn their back to the dog (facing the front door) and cross their arms, so the dog can't nudge or lick their hands.
You say, "Dogname, Sit!" Wait a beat or two for the dog to listen before you say it again.
When dog sits, praise.
Visitor turns around to face you and dog.
Dog gets up, and you immediately say "Dogname Sit!"
If dog doesn't sit, visitor turns around again, back to dog, arms crossed.
Lather, rinse repeat.

This may take MANY repetitions - and the dog may learn at first "Oh, when JANE comes over I have to be calm, but when ANYONE ELSE comes by, all bets are off," unless you do this with several people. Train the dog that the people say hello to people first, THEN dog.

My parents did this with their dog. They've spent thousands on dog trainers. Dog obeys the sit now. Except the second you release her, she jumps and licks and attacks the new person with kisses. It's so awful. i think the dog just needs to go to the basement permanently when there's company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This are all extremely unhelpful comments. I recognize it’s a problem and am asking for suggestions, not to be told how terrible the behavior is. I’m not defending the behavior.

You could crate the dog when you are expecting company. If you have a few particularly helpful friends, you can use them to train your dog to sit politely for attention from guests, but, that will take some time.

[Anonymous]

There's a device you can get that automatically releases a treat in another room of the house when the doorbell rings. So instead of rushing for the door/new person, the dog rushes for the treat elsewhere. I think this is also a matter of knowing your audience - dogs are pretty much always going to get excited about new people, even if their feet technically remain of the floor. When you know (or even suspect) your guests won't appreciate that, keep your dog contained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a device you can get that automatically releases a treat in another room of the house when the doorbell rings. So instead of rushing for the door/new person, the dog rushes for the treat elsewhere. I think this is also a matter of knowing your audience - dogs are pretty much always going to get excited about new people, even if their feet technically remain of the floor. When you know (or even suspect) your guests won't appreciate that, keep your dog contained.

PP with the sled dog. It's hard when your dog values licking people's faces more than any treat.

[Anonymous]

I would keep her in a separate room or back yard. (or, keep inside if kids are outside)

[Anonymous]

It actually gets worse if you don't work on training the dog. My inlaws was HUGE into people and they worked on guests ignoring the dog. Then the dog got progressively worse and worse (because she wanted attention) and started biting clothes and trying to get attention that way. She's knocked children down and hurt elderly people with jumping.