# "hyper-greeting" advice please!



## Anne Streeter (Apr 14, 2009)

Our Luci - now almost 5 months old, absolutely adores greeting people and dogs with hysterical enthusiasm. If I hold her, she frantically paddles. If she is on the ground, she leaps, jumps on, climbs on, licks, chases in a frenzy. As I write this, I have a long scratch on my arm from holding her when a neighborhood child came to the door. Yesterday a sweet year old Havanese came to visit and Luci absolutely terrorized her.

We are a retired couple and home with her most of the time. When we do go out, she frantically greets us when we come home. 

Otherwise, she is delightful. She has learned sit, down, stay (for her food dish). She is doing quite well with "no". I have checked out a pile of books on dog training, but this problem has me baffled. We have made no progress at all. Help please, I am desperate to help her become a polite little lady!


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## Lynn (Jan 2, 2007)

Hi Anne,

I have this same probably with my Missy girl and what worked for us was to put a leash on her when company came over and that restricted her some what for being all crazy. I just used the same leash I use when I take her for walks and I have treats ( which she loves) to get her to do what I want.

If the dogs go outside to play, I let them run and be crazy...but in the house so they don't jump all over people I will put the leash on them.

My Missy loves other people and dogs, so she is not trying to be mean, she just wants to love them to death....now my other havanese Casper wants to bite them and growl, so it is a challenge with two of them, but we put them both on leashes when company comes over and they are getting alot better.


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## Redorr (Feb 2, 2008)

Ah, Anne, your Luci is a typical Hav puppy. You could wait for this to calm down somewhat with age, but if you want to control it you need to train out of it. The core issue is not rewarding the frantic behavior. The basics involve not returning the greeting, for you and strangers. I have found that for me, not returning my Lola's greetings is easy. You turn your back to her, DON"T have any eye contact, just completely ignore her behavior until she is calm and lying down. Then you reward the calm behavior. The rambunctious greetings may never completely subside, but they will calm down considerably. You need to do this every time you come home. 

However, this is nearly impossible to achieve with others. The only way is to have some friends and neighbors in on the training plan. Have them come over to visit and leave Luci on the floor. Have your friends do the same thing - ignore her, turn their backs, etc. no eye contact. Which is tough when she is leaping up on their legs. And then do the same with people outside the house. If you can find anyone who can resist the pull of that adorable pup!

And the other key training is on the command "off". At nearly 2 years old, my Lola is good with "Off" when she is calm. You can try reward training for "Off" on the street with friends and strangers. Beware that getting the humans to cooperate is tough! Work on "off" for the furniture. Then when Luci jumps up on a guest who is sitting on the sofa, you can ask her to get "off" and she will eventually get it. 

Good luck. Luci is a doll. More pictures!


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

I bought the Pet-Agree that someone mentioned in another thread. It has worked for barking. I'm going to use it for excitable greetings next. I don't want to desensitize them, so one issue at a time.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Dexter does this too! He is so excited, I feel like he is going to have a heart attack if he doesn't calm down. 

I am going to train Dexter to stay calm if it kills me! It is soooooooooo hard to ignore these beautiful cute dogs! But, I am going to do it! I will try ignoring Dexter until he is calm when I come home in the morning....I have tried this a few times and he just gets excited all over again. 

I guess I just have to ignore Dexter again when he is going crazy! And, only reward calm behavior.


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

This has been the main area of training for Tori since my summer students have started coming. Tori goes "through the roof" w/excitement and barking whenever anyone comes in the house. Well, she used to do that :biggrin1: She is much, much better now.

Since I have anywhere from 2-10 people (students and their parents) coming daily, M-F, I had to do something w/Tori's "overly friendly" greetings. I had considered trying the Pet Agree but, I was concerned she may have a bad reaction to it because she is so extremely sensitive. Besides, I wanted to try a positive approach first since that's what's worked so well to train her, so far.

What I've done is place a high value treat (homemade jerky) in a container outside, next to the door. Every person who comes knows to take a piece of jerky, knock, and enter. Then as soon as they encounter Tori and her wildness they are to tell her "Quiet! That's enough", then as soon as she settles they reward her w/the jerky. This has been so effective w/her that she's almost (I said _almost_ ) a polite greeter now. :welcome:

I know I'm fortunate to have so many opportunities for her to practice. But, it literally took only 2 days to see a huge improvement in her behavior. She's a smart cookie and really wants to please me. However, she's not too worried about pleasing others, so the challenge was to figure out how to make her want to act appropriately when others told her to. I'm certain the jerky was the key to that.

Maybe you could try something similar w/Luci. Luci is quite a bit younger than Tori, who's almost 2, but all Havs are smart and I bet w/treats involved, she'll figure it out in no time.

Good luck!


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## Jane (Jun 2, 2007)

We have the same issue here. I have tried different things with varying success. If I know people are coming, I put the dogs in the front bedroom behind a baby gate, which is 3' from the entry. They can still see people coming in, get petted, etc. but not jump up on them. Usually after 10 min, they have calmed down, I release them, and they greet the visitors, but they are calmer at that point.

If we have unexpected visitors, Scout barks like crazy, which makes Lincoln want to bark too. If I pick up Scout, he stops barking, so at least it *sounds* calmer! 

It is really hard to ignore an enthusiastic Hav greeting. I have to admit I love their lively greeting, so I haven't worked on this as much as I should have. I think I would like to teach them "off", as Lola's mom suggested. That would make it easier to allow them to greet those who are more dog friendly while behaving more politely towards those who aren't so much....


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

I have no advice in this area cause all 3 of mine are nuts. I try to not encourage it but even if I leave for 15 minutes, they are crazy and howling and jumping. 

I would take Leslie's advice cause Tori does very well when she leaves and comes home and has guest.


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

ama0722 said:


> I have no advice in this area cause all 3 of mine are nuts. I try to not encourage it but even if I leave for 15 minutes, they are crazy and howling and jumping.
> 
> *I would take Leslie's advice cause Tori does very well when she leaves and comes home and has guest.*


That is, unless the guest is Amanda ound:


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Leslie said:


> This has been the main area of training for Tori since my summer students have started coming. Tori goes "through the roof" w/excitement and barking whenever anyone comes in the house. Well, she used to do that :biggrin1: She is much, much better now.
> 
> Since I have anywhere from 2-10 people (students and their parents) coming daily, M-F, I had to do something w/Tori's "overly friendly" greetings. I had considered trying the Pet Agree but, I was concerned she may have a bad reaction to it because she is so extremely sensitive. Besides, I wanted to try a positive approach first since that's what's worked so well to train her, so far.
> 
> ...


This is wonderful advice....I need to try this one!

I tried the ignoring this morning....I couldn't do it, Dexter was whimpering.
The treat might work, since Dexter is so treat motivated.


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## RikiDaisyDixie (Apr 15, 2008)

*Ignore them...*

No one acknowledges them until they calm down. If they sit to be pet, they can have a treat.

I also say a firm off.
Sometimes it works, but if we haven't had company in a while...it doesn't.


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## Sissygirl (Aug 8, 2007)

Sissy is better now that she is older but she loves guests.

When I had her in training they suggested to put a mat close to the door.
Then practice have someone ring your bell and take her to the mat and use the
stay command - open the door - then treat if she stays. She said it had to be practiced over and over again.

It also has to be a high demand treat - like cooked chicken or something she really LOVES.


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