I am posting this question I received earlier in the week regarding proper greetings when people come into your house!
As with pretty much everything, there are a million ways to train for this. The advice I give via email, social media or even on the phone is not always exactly the same as what I would teach you to do in person, reason being, the potential for human error. The advice I give in this column is pretty fool-proof, as in there really isn't any damage you can cause following it, even if you screw it up! :) That being said, read on!
Q. When someone's in the hall outside my apartment, my dog goes crazy at the door and runs up to me barking and jumping up. She doesn't do it to me so much anymore, but people when people come in, she's jumping up wild and in their lap, kissing them and trying to pin them down. Any suggestions?
A. First thing, the more physical exercise she gets, the better... It is very hard when we have our dogs behind walls all day to expect them to keep their composure once they get some interaction! I am in love with the dog back pack... I have some links on my page for it: http://www.hexdogs.com/cassies-favorites.html
I used to have Patches where his weighted backpack in the house, which helped him calm down and made it physically more challenging to act up. I would also suggest you keep your dog on a leash in the house when people are coming around; if she's all "up on someone's sh*t," pull her OFF. Don't let her accost people.. You know what I mean? If she goes right back to do it again, repeat.. Let her greet when she has calmed down. Greeting is the reinforcement of the behavior. Don't let her jump up on you without an invitation, if you choose to let her jump at all.
Also, don't let her out of the crate (if she's in one) when she's flipping out. Wait for her to calm down, even if it takes ten minutes when you get home. Walk around, put your things away, grab a beer, whatever... If you go to open the door and she starts up again, wait it out. You are training her brain to calm down.
Sometimes, it helps having a few - and I mean like, two - toys around. When people come in or she gets all excited, try to direct her to the toy. This STILL works with my dog, Spark Plug. When he gets really excited, he goes and grabs a toy to show you :). You can start teaching her to get a toy on cue, by throwing the toy when she's into it and tell her "GIT' IT! GIT' IT!" when she's going for it. Eventually, you have her sit and wait WHILE you throw the toy and THEN tell her "GIT' IT!" When you practice this little exercise without people around, she learns "GIT' IT!" means go grab the toy. Do it when you get home yourself. I used to get in the door, and Spark would start running over, and I'd bend down and say "GIT' IT! Where's yo' tooyyyy?" And he'd get it and prance around with it all proud. SUPER cute, and way more desirable than tackling me! :)
There are a million ways to handle this scenario, but you can't really do any damage with the advice that I'm giving you here... When we meet in the spring, we will fine tune everything, but for now, try these things, stay committed to it, and the biggest thing.. Don't ALLOW her to practice the behavior if you don't like it. Put a leash on her, use physical barriers like crates & gates to your advantage (stating the obvious right here: none of that is an excuse not to train by just crating her all the time.. I know that's not you, though).
ANNNNNNNNNNNNND I would get her into a sport. Get your feet wet - try agility, try obedience, try flyball - see what's around and try it out. That dog needs to WORK, boy :) and that's why I LOVE 'er!
Let me know if this helps!!
Cassie
As with pretty much everything, there are a million ways to train for this. The advice I give via email, social media or even on the phone is not always exactly the same as what I would teach you to do in person, reason being, the potential for human error. The advice I give in this column is pretty fool-proof, as in there really isn't any damage you can cause following it, even if you screw it up! :) That being said, read on!
Q. When someone's in the hall outside my apartment, my dog goes crazy at the door and runs up to me barking and jumping up. She doesn't do it to me so much anymore, but people when people come in, she's jumping up wild and in their lap, kissing them and trying to pin them down. Any suggestions?
A. First thing, the more physical exercise she gets, the better... It is very hard when we have our dogs behind walls all day to expect them to keep their composure once they get some interaction! I am in love with the dog back pack... I have some links on my page for it: http://www.hexdogs.com/cassies-favorites.html
I used to have Patches where his weighted backpack in the house, which helped him calm down and made it physically more challenging to act up. I would also suggest you keep your dog on a leash in the house when people are coming around; if she's all "up on someone's sh*t," pull her OFF. Don't let her accost people.. You know what I mean? If she goes right back to do it again, repeat.. Let her greet when she has calmed down. Greeting is the reinforcement of the behavior. Don't let her jump up on you without an invitation, if you choose to let her jump at all.
Also, don't let her out of the crate (if she's in one) when she's flipping out. Wait for her to calm down, even if it takes ten minutes when you get home. Walk around, put your things away, grab a beer, whatever... If you go to open the door and she starts up again, wait it out. You are training her brain to calm down.
Sometimes, it helps having a few - and I mean like, two - toys around. When people come in or she gets all excited, try to direct her to the toy. This STILL works with my dog, Spark Plug. When he gets really excited, he goes and grabs a toy to show you :). You can start teaching her to get a toy on cue, by throwing the toy when she's into it and tell her "GIT' IT! GIT' IT!" when she's going for it. Eventually, you have her sit and wait WHILE you throw the toy and THEN tell her "GIT' IT!" When you practice this little exercise without people around, she learns "GIT' IT!" means go grab the toy. Do it when you get home yourself. I used to get in the door, and Spark would start running over, and I'd bend down and say "GIT' IT! Where's yo' tooyyyy?" And he'd get it and prance around with it all proud. SUPER cute, and way more desirable than tackling me! :)
There are a million ways to handle this scenario, but you can't really do any damage with the advice that I'm giving you here... When we meet in the spring, we will fine tune everything, but for now, try these things, stay committed to it, and the biggest thing.. Don't ALLOW her to practice the behavior if you don't like it. Put a leash on her, use physical barriers like crates & gates to your advantage (stating the obvious right here: none of that is an excuse not to train by just crating her all the time.. I know that's not you, though).
ANNNNNNNNNNNNND I would get her into a sport. Get your feet wet - try agility, try obedience, try flyball - see what's around and try it out. That dog needs to WORK, boy :) and that's why I LOVE 'er!
Let me know if this helps!!
Cassie
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