Visitor Excitability

[Doodlemom]

Hi there, my Labradoodle is 2.5 years old and whenever we have any company, he cries, whines, and wants to jump all over them.  We telll people to ignore him, but he makes it difficult because he jumps up hard on them.  He's super friendly and loves everyone, but sometimes it is crazy.  We tell him to sit and he will, but his excitement takes over and he can't resist.  Any ideas on how to break him of this?

Doodlemom

[Judy, Meg & Polly Wolly Doodle]

I think this is a doodle trait, I never had a dog that I couldn't quickly break of this before but it was a challenge with Meg and now we are having to work with Polly on the same thing. They are so people friendly and just want to get close.  Having said that I don't want people to come to my house and have to stand like statues trying to ignore one of my dogs jumping on them until they settle down and I would tire quickly of going to someone else's home and having to tolerate it no matter how sweet the dog. 

Put a leash on your dog before you open the door and put him in a sit/stay and then open the door, if he moves he goes firmly back into a sit/stay, if he is doing well the company can give him a quick pet and speak to him (no baby voices please, just speak normal), once they pet, if they are so inclined they walk away, take a seat, whatever and your visit continues.  If your dog is behaving let him off leash, if he starts back up he goes back on the leash.  If you keep him beside you for these exercises he will learn that he sits or lays at your feet after calmly greeting guests.  He will be happier and your guests will be impressed with your well behaved dog.  If you have frequent company your dog will probable learn this quickly, at our house guests are infrequent so we do most of our training for this type of thing on walks.  If we walk a public path and some one approaches from the other direction my girls have to move to the side of the path and sit while the others go by, we get tons of compliments on those manners, especially from the person going the other direction with their dog dragging them.

Ever since we got our first doodle all I hear from other people is horror stories about their neighbor or friends doodle that is un trainable and a pain to be around.  My mission with my two is to show those people that doodles are highly trainable.  Good luck, I know you can show people a trainable doodle as well.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amen, Judy. You get out of a dog what you put in. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I agree with this.  I use a down/stay and don't let my guys greet the guest unless they show that they're calm.  If there are multiple people arriving at the same time and I'm not going to be able to enforce the down/stay, I gate them in another room during the greetings, then I let them out and heel them to where the guests are seated. 

[Robin Fritz]

I agree with Judy.  I used to have to hold Fozzie by the collar in a sit position until he would settle.  It took quite awhile but it worked. And he is an 85 lb doodle, so it was exhausting!    Patience!

 

[Sally Huff]

This was an issue for us too, but now is much better.  I try to have someone else answer the door while I'm in the kitchen with Gracie.  She is sitting in front of me and I give her a handful of treats.  Once everyone is in the house I will give her a frozen stuffed kong.  By the time she's done with that 15-20 minutes have gone by and the house is settled.  Now when ever any one comes, Gracie comes to me and sits waiting for her treats.  But I am going to try what Judy suggested when I'm home alone.  Good luck, you'll get it.

[Bonnie and Kona]

So well stated, Judy! Leash the dog and train, train, train.

Cute story about Owen though. He was in a down stay when we had a five year old visitor. He was doing well, albeit extremely excited. When I released him, he crawled on his belly to her knowing he would be reprimanded if he was too wild. Our doodles LOVE kids! Owen's bestest friend in the whole world is our granddaughter. So this little visitor was right up his alley. 

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

Judy's advice is spot on.  It takes consistency and patience, but all of you will be happier! 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Training the basics is the way to stop this. It starts with teaching "off". A dog should be taught that jumping on people is just not acceptable, ever. That means never encouraging it in play, either. 

A reliable "sit". (That means, when you tell him to sit, he sits and doesn't get up until you release him). A reliable "down-stay" (Ditto). A reliable "go to your place", which can be an open crate, a dog bed, a rug, whatever. Then when visitors come, you send the dog to his place and put him in a down-stay before you open the door. If it sounds like this will take a ton of time and practice, you're right. You must work on it and practice every single day. Judy has given you some good tips. Keeping a leash on him is mandatory right now. 

Here are some videos that Sophie & Annabelle's mom Sheri posted of her "doorbell training" with Sophie and her sister Lucy. The progress between the first and last videos is pretty impressive.

http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/we-need-to-work-on-our

http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/doorbell-etiquette

http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/door-bell-training

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

We are working on this well. I leash Enzo. And put her into a sit-stay. She does stay ( most times) but I swear you could slide a phone book under her. She is primed and ready to go! Even harder to do when friends want to hug and play and get down on the floor with her!
No doubt...always a work in process!

[Jennifer & Truffle]

I've started to work with Truffle on this (he's almost 25 weeks).  He does quite well with a sit/stay at his special "place" as long as it's my 8 yo or me practicing the ringing doorbell with him.  But all bets are still off when it's a real visitor.  When I know someone is coming, I put him in his harness and on a leash.  The other day we had a small breakthrough when one of my daughter's friends came.  Truffle loves her and gets extremely excited when he sees her (he's come close to knocking her over with enthusiasm).  But I had him on his leash and had a couple of bits of kosher hot dog (his high value treat) at the ready, and he stayed put until she got her coat off and I told her she could come over and pet him.  It felt like a minor miracle!  I anticipate that this bit of training is going to take much patience and time, but I'm determined because the jumping drives me batty!

I found the following video online by Victoria Stilwell that I thought was quite useful (especially for the initial piece of the training, i.e., getting Truffle used to the idea of having his special "place"):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDarHoeN4eo

Good luck!  

[Wendy and Myla]

I too am working on this - Myla gets so excited, especially if it's kids!!!  Myla does a sit/stay very well unless it's visitors and then she's all over them - she doesn't jump up but she is just a bundle of energy and all over them!  I should have started way earlier (Myla will be two in March) but mistakenly figured it was puppy exuberance - now we are going to start with a leash as Judy suggested every time someone comes!

[Leslie J]

I think Judy's advice is the best, but sometimes it's hard for me- we have frequent guests, often families with kids who are spread all over my house. I let Cocoa try the leash and if she's calming down I release her. If I'm busy with the guests and/or kids and she isn't calming down I put her in her crate for about 10 minutes. I find that she is normally calm then and seems to act like her usual calm self.