I have a black lab who is 18 months old.  I took him to training classes when he was a pup and generally he is now very well behaved except when I have visitors to the house.  He is a very friendly dog and loves seeing people but he is a bit over the top when people come to the house.  He doesn't jump up but I cannot get him to settle.  He runs around people, wanting their attention for as long as they are here.  How can I get him to settle down?  I have tried giving him bones, kongs, toys etc but obviously people are for more exciting for him!  A friend suggested shutting him another room but I dont really want to do this as he enjoys seeing different people.  I just want him to have the initial burst of excitement and greet people and then settle down, then if they want to fuss him its on their terms not his.  Any tips?

No, sorry, I've got one who's just the same! Only I've got his mum as well, who also adores visitors.....;-)

can you not put a baby gate up at the door so he is still able to see you all but you can pop him out there when he gets a bit much?

Get the visitors to ignore him whatever he does (and he may well get worse before he gets better - you must ensure they are consistant)

At the same time, you need to teach him a 'settle' command, or teach him to go to his bed on command.

HTH

If all Digger's advice fails :) put him on a lead and after 'greeting' them nicely, make him lie next to you with plenty of praise when he is lying quietly :)

Daisy

As long as he's not jumping and getting in the way to the point where u trip all over her then i think it's just fine that she is so good and happy around people!

I think possibly get another breed of dog next time!  (:-) only joking!) The Labs I have had adored visitors, none of them jumped up but were incredibly excited when anyone came in, just the way you describe.  I now only have the terrier who isn't really interested - yet she was raised in the same household.

With the most excitable dog, I used to shut her out until I knew who it was.  (Before that, I had tried asking visitors to ignore her but they just couldn't do it - not many people understand what ignoring really means and some of them turned to her and said, "I'm not going to pay you any attention until you're quiet."  So I abandoned that idea.)  If the person wasn't used to dogs, the dog stayed out.  If it was a dog friendly person, I would let her in when she had quietened down but send her to fetch one of her toys, which seemed like a good outlet for her energy and she'd take it to the person and sit in front of them with it (a very Labrador idea.)

I do understand the whole "settle" concept and I'm sure you will get there if you persevere but this compromise solution was as far as we ever got!  Which doesn't really help with your dog's wanting attention the whole time the visitors are there but for us, the initial burst of excitement was the worst and having dealt with that, the dogs just wandered off back to their beds.

Hi,
Just a suggestion I was given by a trainer years ago.  He advised that we train our pooch to go to a spot in the room which would be his quite place.  We called it the 'Corner' (although it wasn't atually a corner and was never used as a punishment).  We trained him to go and settle down there whenever we said 'corner'.
At first we weren't keen on the idea but as the trainer explained, it was either let the dog be in the room and able to see what is going on, or if he is way over the top, he would probably be put out of the room. This meant that the dog was in the room but not getting in the way of visitors etc.  It took a little while but he got the hang of it and was fine after that.  Obviously you would need to do a lot of training with him Before trying it when visitors were there.
Hope this helps.
Pauline

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I have tried asking people to ignore him but it does seem to be that people tell him they are ignoring him which does defeat the exercise!  Unfortunately the child gate idea has been tried but it didnt fit the doorway.  I will try to teach him a settle command.  Also I spoke to the trainer who we went to puppy classes with and she was really helpful.  We will be going back to classes next week so I hope that having things to teach him will help.  I just want a happy medium, I love the fact he is so loving and friendly and dont want to change that but as I said before some visitors find him too much and it will be nice to calm him down a bit.  I suppose alot of it will happen as he gets older as Im aware he still is very much in the puppy mindframe!!!

I have a 10 month old bitch that I have to put into her crate when she gets a bit much for my visitors. She can still see what is going on, but calms down very quickly. Could you not consider that? She is then let out after she has calmed down and isn't quite so bad. ;)

clarabelle, the flat I live in at the moment is quite old and has narrow doors so I was struggling to get a stair gate to fit but got an extending one and shrunk it but I couldn't find one that did not require to be screwed into the wall unfortunately

The other problem I found, Clarabelle, was that I actually had to talk to the visitors!  I know you teach the whole 'settle' thing beforehand but at some point you have to be trying it while you sign for parcels, fetch the thing that the person has come to borrow, comfort sobbing neighbour etc.  I couldn't see how I could actively train Annie and deal with the visitor if no-one else was around.  Hence the compromise.

Also, as there was a lot of energy going through her at the time, it just seemed easier for me to channel it into an activity like searching for a suitable gift for the visitor (one of our other Labs always chose tea towels.  Oh and one day, one of my bras) rather than trying to get her to keep still, which she did perfectly well in other situations, like when sheep were running past her - not in the house you understand!