My 1year old GSD is so friendly and exitable that it causes problems for visitors to the house. We have a baby gate half way up the hall with her crate just inside.

Monday to Friday we get no visitors as they are all at work and my OH works away from home during the week. Come the weekend when husband comes home and visitors descend she goes wild. All commands are ignored as she gets herself sooo wound up as they enter. I have tried restraining her untill the visitors can get sat down but this  is increasingly becoming difficult with her size and seems to wind her up even more. On letting go of her collar she still dives for them and will not settle untill she has had a good jump on them and they have said Hello.

I have trained my OH to ignore her on coming in and she has now started not jumping up at the gate and will lie in the doorway to the dinning room untill he is this side of he gate for a few moments but as soon as he is within striking distance she resumes jumping up and gently mouthing him to initiate play.  

Any ideas please?

You could try training your dog to 'say hello' by sitting and offering a paw and be persistent and consistent in its use so that she will respond to the command in ANY situation.  You can show a dog the behaviour you want and get them to perform it on cue in calm situations but no dog can be considered trained until it responds to your command no matter what is happening around it.  Don't be tempted to give up too soon.

Also, holding onto her collar will psych her up to be even more excited than if not restrained.  It will help if you don't do it.

I am totally ignored when visitors arrive. She is soo exited that she seems oblivious to any commands.Visitors are advised not to speak or stroke untill she sits but with very little success ie bum on the floor for just a second before jumping up and dancing around in circles. Is this something I and my guests have to learn to live with untill she gets older. I am fortunate that all but one of my regular guests are dog lovers. The one that isn't is scared of big dogs and my pup does nothing towards helping her with this fear.

Ignoring your dog until she is calmer will help but ignoring means absolutely no acknowledgement of her existence!  No eye contact, not a word spoken, also folding their arms infront of themselves and then turning away from her should deter her from jumping up.

How is her general self control?  Excitable dogs don't usually have a lot and it is up to you to teach them.  Once you've asked for a sit make sure you get one by applying a bit of pressure on her back just infront of where it runs into the tail.  If she gets up after a second, re-command and re-place her in the 'sit'.  You may have to do this several times but it should pay-off in the end.  Make it quite clear to her that you mean what you say and be firm but fair. If your friends are real friends they will wait patiently while you work with your dog.  Calm, steady dogs are easy to train but you have to persevere longer and try harder with the excitable kind!!  Another tip that may help is to keep your hands off the dog as much as possible (other than placing her in the position you've asked for) when training a behaviour as too much touching works as stimulation to the excitable types.

You could also try teaching the 'off' command.  Do this on a lead at first and just give a tug on the lead with the 'off' command as she jumps up at people.  You should be able to progress to having her off-lead and commanding 'off' when people arrive but before she jumps up.

I've heard of people who jerk their knee up into the chest of a dog that jumps up but it's not something I would do.  We wouldn't smack a continental in the face for offering the 'two cheek kiss' as a form of greeting so IMO we shouldn't knee our dogs for their cultural method either! 

A way that might work, but it is very time consuming, is to allocate a whole weekend, or more, to just having visitors calling. If you have them coming in, ignoring her, and then walking out of the house without saying anything all weekend then hopefully she'll get bored with this 'new game'. It's a bit of overkill, but I have seen it work.

That sounds like a very good idea, Lindylou. The best way to cure over-excitement at a novel situation is to make it boring, humdrum and routine.
:)

Or you could try training her without the distractions of these visitors. Teach her the sit/stay command until she can do it in her sleep. She must stay until you give her a release. Then introduce one friend. Try the sit/stay while one friend comes in. If she gets up, tell her "no. sit...stay." Put her back in it. And then don't forget to praise her well and with treats when she does a good job. If your dog is as food motivated as mine, she'll decide it's worth it to get the treat. You can also beef up your obedience training in general, also without distractions at first. Don't give her anything for free. She has to earn anything good. But do lavish her with praise and treats when she does well. Use good timing so she knows just what it was she was doing that you liked. This will help her look up to you more and respect you. When she ignores your command, that's a sure sign that she doesn't have enough respect for you as her leader.

I used childgates and put my dog behind one in the living room, and ignored her totally whilst greeting visitors who were then taken to the kitchen for drinks and chat.

After about 20 minutes to half an hour, we would all calmly go into the living room (visitors asked to please not acknowledge her) and she had by this time calmed down just a bit. I kept a food pot with very favourite food in , and she would lie down and watch this and be periodically rewarded, it worked a treat. Some dogs mayrespond to having a stuffed kong but make sure they are hungry first.

If necessary the dog can be restrained with a lead etc by the owner or even tied up and given something to chew, after a time they get used to what is expected of them :)

Lindsay
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Thanks for replies. Suzieque - Her self control is practicaly zero. I have always been  able in the past to control my dogs with my normal soft spoken voice but find with Gabi that a louder and deeper tone is required. She knows most commands. I know this because she will obey when not exited. We have been trying for 10months to get a decent down/stay which she has just started doing (don't know why now, just maturing I dare say) she will do this for 20mins and eventually fall asleep when we have no distractions or when the visitors have all been pounced on and she has tired herself out. We also already use the off command as jumping up to work surfaces when cooking or preparing her dinner became a problem also used for getting her Off the baby gate so that guests can enter. She will get Off for 2 mins but then she is up again. She does try to comply but the exitement is just too great. 
Lindsay - Suzieque says that restraint would make her worse or am I misunderstanding? Would it be ok to restrain with the lead but not by holding on to her collar. Putting her in the dinning room sounds like it might work but I'm always scared that she will get so exited that she may try and jump the gate and hurt herself in the process. The most success I have had has been when I know guests are coming, as they ring the door bell, I produce a bone and toss it in the back yard. The bone is more exiting than the guests and she will stay having a good munch untill she has finished. She then asks to come in. By this time she has forgotten that the door bell has rang and comes in quite calm. She will dash around everyone sat at the table to say hello. At this point I can call her to me and now we have a good down/stay, she will do this. Of course this means that instead of enjoying dinner table conversation, I have to keep an eye on her to make sure that she complies. Unfortunateley I don't always know when someone is going to pay us a visit and do not always have a bone at hand. I do realise however that this is not teaching her not to jump up. Has anyone out there also had an exitable GSD, do they calm down eventually or will she always be this way, a lot of hard work?            

Gaby

Holding your back by the collar when people arrive will almost certainly make matters worse.  Handlers working dogs in protection work do this when the dog first meets 'helpers' wearing the sleeve.  The dog is held back while the 'helper' approaches and this only ensures that the dog wants to get at the 'intruder' but can't so when the dog is finally let go it goes to the 'helper' like a rocket.   It works on the same principle as dogs who are aggressive towards other dogs while on the lead but who would not be off the lead.  The motivating emotions are different but the effect is the same.