# Overly Excited with Guests



## swaye (Mar 28, 2013)

I need help in helping Sofie become more calm around guests. She is 8 1/2 months and becomes overexcited and unresponsive to commands when guests come over. She jumps constantly, mouths their hands and will not let them alone. She jumps on them when they sit in family room on the furniture. She does not listen to commands and short time outs are ineffective for calming her. As soon as she is let out, she is at them again. Not only is this embarrassing, we can not visit and I am afraid she is going to hurt my elderly MIL. She is not being mean, but just ill mannered and a bit rough. I have asked everyone who comes to ignore her and the jumping. Human compliance is about as bad as puppy compliance. Please tell me that as she matures some of this excitability will dissipate. We have had medium to large dogs and none were as "naughty" around guest as Sofie. We have company coming Saturday and I am dreading it. I know I will be putting her in her xpen and she will complain. I would like to do some sort of training, but it would have to be something I could do on my own.


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## azcolaw (Jul 19, 2013)

I feel like I could have written this about Ginny. She is better now, but still not perfect with guests.  She is such a mild-mannered sweet girl until someone comes over! Barking, whining, jumping, running...you name it. Our trainer told me to leave her in the ex pen and give a verbal command like "uh-uh" and to gently tap her with a couple of fingers in the chest area. (It really was extremely gentle and not very effective, actually...) And, yes, it is key if the visitors will ignore them until they settle down! If that method isn't working, I will put her in her crate, which is in another room. If she still whines in the crate, I go in and give an "uh-uh." When in another room and away from the action, she calms pretty quickly (but she's almost 1 1/2 now). As soon as she obeys, I let her out to enjoy the company and she remains pretty well-mannered. (BTW, she loves her crate and only sleeps in it at night. This occasional confinement to the crate does not seem to diminish her love of the crate at all). I am no training expert, so I hope others will jump in and answer you and correct any misconceptions I have!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

swaye said:


> I need help in helping Sofie become more calm around guests. She is 8 1/2 months and becomes overexcited and unresponsive to commands when guests come over. She jumps constantly, mouths their hands and will not let them alone. She jumps on them when they sit in family room on the furniture. She does not listen to commands and short time outs are ineffective for calming her. As soon as she is let out, she is at them again. Not only is this embarrassing, we can not visit and I am afraid she is going to hurt my elderly MIL. She is not being mean, but just ill mannered and a bit rough. I have asked everyone who comes to ignore her and the jumping. Human compliance is about as bad as puppy compliance. Please tell me that as she matures some of this excitability will dissipate. We have had medium to large dogs and none were as "naughty" around guest as Sofie. We have company coming Saturday and I am dreading it. I know I will be putting her in her xpen and she will complain. I would like to do some sort of training, but it would have to be something I could do on my own.


As we've seen all along, Sophie is about as high-maintenence as a Hav gets.  I think she's actually a JRT in disguise!:laugh:

She WILL calm down more with age, but in the mean time, you need to manage the situation. Short time-outs don't work because she is in such a high state of arousal. When dogs are in that state, their brains are completely off-line to learning... they can't even really hear you! So for now, I'd put her in another room and/or crate when company comes. You can TRY letting her out for a visit once everyone is in and settled, but if she ramps up, back she goes into the other room. (or crate) Not for a short time-out, but for a long enough time that she actually calms down, and the flood of adrenalin rushing through her little body has abated.

When she is able to stay relatively calm in another room with guests in the house, go though the same thing with her in an ex-pen. Here, you've GOT to get your guests to agree to completely ignore her. If they can't or won't, leave her in the other room. Click/treat calm behavior, but don't let her out of the ex-pen. When she can consistently stay calm in the ex-pen with other people around, you can start letting her out, but AFTER the people have come in and gotten settled. I'd start her out on leash and only if she is calm, let her loose. If she starts to get wild again, back into solitary. Visiting with company is a a privilege, not a right.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

azcolaw said:


> I feel like I could have written this about Ginny. She is better now, but still not perfect with guests.  She is such a mild-mannered sweet girl until someone comes over! Barking, whining, jumping, running...you name it. Our trainer told me to leave her in the ex pen and give a verbal command like "uh-uh" and to gently tap her with a couple of fingers in the chest area. (It really was extremely gentle and not very effective, actually...) And, yes, it is key if the visitors will ignore them until they settle down! If that method isn't working, I will put her in her crate, which is in another room. If she still whines in the crate, I go in and give an "uh-uh." When in another room and away from the action, she calms pretty quickly (but she's almost 1 1/2 now). As soon as she obeys, I let her out to enjoy the company and she remains pretty well-mannered. (BTW, she loves her crate and only sleeps in it at night. This occasional confinement to the crate does not seem to diminish her love of the crate at all). I am no training expert, so I hope others will jump in and answer you and correct any misconceptions I have!


That's the problem with positive punishment. (things like saying "uh uh" or tapping the dog's chest) if it is done gently, the dog will probably ignore it, often making the owner ramp up the severity of the correction. In your case it's clearly not working.

Going into the other room to say "uh, uh" is giving her exactly what she wants... attention. She'd settle faster if you DIDN'T go in at all, and completely ignored her. If she won't settle in the crate in a reasonable length of time, I'd go in and put a sheet over the crate so she can't see out. That gets most dogs to settle faster.

It's great that once she's calmed down, you can let her out and she will interact appropriately with the company. That's exactly the result you want. And you are completely right that using the crate as confinement in a situation like this (assuming that they have already been taught to value their crate) will NOT make them dislike the crate. You are using it as a calming tool, not as a punishment.


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## swaye (Mar 28, 2013)

Azcolaw thank you for responding. And Karen, thank you for your experience and wisdom. She sure has been my challenge pup! But when she is calm and that is for the majority of a normal day, she is so endearing. I feel a more hopeful with a plan when she does this. The fact that she was not confined, probably made it difficult for guests to ignore her. I did try the leash, but unfortunately after she was already ramped up and it did nothing but agitate her. Timing is everything as had been mentioned seversl times on the forum. I am glad for directions to help her to be a good dog.


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## RoutineAvocado (Feb 6, 2013)

It's funny how it's sometimes harder to train guests than the dog. Zelda will do this, too, if people let her. She's a perfect angel if the guest ignores her and only interacts when all 4 paws are on the floor. That might be an easy rule you could give people who are having a hard time drawing boundaries with her. 4 paws touching the floor = attention.


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## Sammi's Mama (Jul 19, 2012)

Sammi does this too! She attacks ears with kisses for some reason. She got so excited with my sister inlaw the other day she jumped straight from the ground to my sister inlaw's head(she was seated on the couch). I give her a timeout in the crate in another room and when I bring her out she is usually calmer. Unless some gets her going again- which my nieces like to do.

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## narci (Sep 6, 2011)

Oreo was like that when he was younger.

Not sure if this is correct but it worked for us...

First, when people ring the door bell, Oreo will go barking to the door. It take time but I wont open the door until he is sitting on the rug which is about 8 feet from the door.

When I open the door, I do it slowly and if he moves, I close the door. Move him back to his spot and proceed again.

This takes a lot of patience from friends and family outside but they understand what i'm trying to do.

As to jumping on people...he will get excited and want to jump on people. What I did was i would make sure he's sitting and holding onto his collar. I wont let go and let him greet guests till he calms down.

Again, this worked for me and not sure if this is the 'proper' way of doing it.


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## azcolaw (Jul 19, 2013)

krandall said:


> That's the problem with positive punishment. (things like saying "uh uh" or tapping the dog's chest) if it is done gently, the dog will probably ignore it, often making the owner ramp up the severity of the correction. In your case it's clearly not working.
> 
> Going into the other room to say "uh, uh" is giving her exactly what she wants... attention. She'd settle faster if you DIDN'T go in at all, and completely ignored her. If she won't settle in the crate in a reasonable length of time, I'd go in and put a sheet over the crate so she can't see out. That gets most dogs to settle faster.
> 
> It's great that once she's calmed down, you can let her out and she will interact appropriately with the company. That's exactly the result you want. And you are completely right that using the crate as confinement in a situation like this (assuming that they have already been taught to value their crate) will NOT make them dislike the crate. You are using it as a calming tool, not as a punishment.


Thank you, Karen. Great points!!


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

bit of work ,but Jolanta has the best article on this. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/pets/dog-behavior/how-get-your-dog-stop-barking-guests?page=all


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## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

And then you have the idiot guest who will ruin all your hard work. 

I have numerous ones. They are my hubby's family. You put the dog in a quiet room for its mental health and they HUNT it down and work it up into a frenzy. You tell them not to do certain things, they do it because they think it is cute. 

That is when you need one of those zapping collars -for the guests. Don't let Jack jump on you. zap! Don't feed Jack people food. zap! Don't run from the herding dog! zap! Stop stare-challenging! zap-zap! (My B-i-L's vice) Stop kissing Jack. He eats poop. zap!

Strangely enough, even the mention of poop-eating doesn't curb the guests from allowing Jack to lick their faces. I don't let him lick mine. That is gross.

I have no suggestions for the bad guests.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

good idea Pam .


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## Atticus (May 17, 2011)

I'm still working with Atticus on this. It depends who is coming but my guests are often welcomed /hugged by me then I get Atticus with a leash and treats and have him sit to be petted. At that point the focus is on him not my guests. He does well with this system and when everyone is sitting and I know the greeting frenzy is over he is unleashed. It would be nice to move past training and have him just know,or be able to only voice my command as I can with MANY other things (w/out a leash or food). However he is not there yet the overexcitement is tooo great AND I don't get to practice every day,only when company comes so, for now that's still it and he's 2 1/2. The excitement is like teaching a dog something with a huge distraction i.e. a stay while you are bouncing/throwing a ball. It's an advanced behavior to have them deal with a behavior sit/stay that goes against their strong desire to chase or greet/jump up.Takes time and lots of patience. Good Luck! ps he also still pees when greeting IF he is standing up,so be glad if you don't have that additional pleasure!


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## Sumirra (Jun 23, 2013)

To curb jumping up on guests (without the biting issue) we taught our dog to spin instead. It was a way for her to show some excitement while still being polite. It was funny to watch her whirl around when I got home or when guests arrived. (I miss this and I look forward to teaching the puppies this trick ) I meet many dogs and humans behaving badly as I have worked for the visiting nurses for more than 20 years. It has always made me work harder to make my dogs polite members of our family. I appreciate the advice from experienced owners here!


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## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

How do you do that? Substitute spinning for jumping?


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## swaye (Mar 28, 2013)

morriscsps said:


> How do you do that? Substitute spinning for jumping?


Good question...


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## Sumirra (Jun 23, 2013)

...the trick is easy to teach... then we just cued it when anyone visited and when I came home. A twirl of the finger and off she went. She learned so fast and loved spinning around to show her excitement when anyone came in. . I can't remember how long it took but it seemed like it was a snap. I wish I had a video...


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## dwurms (Apr 17, 2013)

Would love to know how to teach the spinning...can you describe how you did it?


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## Sumirra (Jun 23, 2013)

this is just how I did it... refining the cue to a small twirl of my finger and "spin" command.


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