Any tips on calming over friendly labs please.?????????????

  They just love anyone and I can,t seem to stop them going and being friendly!!!!!!!!!!!!!LOL

I need to stop the jumping up and the going round in circles and the need to kiss everone.

I know they are Labs but help??????????LOL

My vocabulary seems to extend to one word that is SORRY to these people!!!!!

We have a GR not a Lab but they are exactly the same when they meet people.

We have taught ours to wait until the human was ready to say hello before the dog could say hello. We did this by making sure visitors to the house ignored Honey until she sat down and the visitor was ready to say hello.

You need to get some "tame" :D visitors to come and do this and if the dog jumps get the visitor to turn their back on the dog and talk to you.  Tell the dog to sit and when it does, the visitor can turn round and say hello, if the dog jumps just turn back and ignore it again.

We found that once she'd learnt this with visitors to the house she was ok with people outside.  She still gets v excited when people come round (the tail thumps the radiator by our front door) but she sits and waits for them.

Steve

Are the labs doing this in the house, with friends and visitors, or on walks to strangers? I get the impression it's the latter? :)

My 9 mth black lab does exactly the same, my friend came round to meet her last week, & she was mad for atleast the first 30-60 mins after she arrived.  She's also the same in the park when she sees other dogs.  I started taking her to training last week, as I want to be able to control her more when we go to the park.

I love the fact that she has so much personality though, our last dog although we loved him to bits aswell, he was so shy with everyone and everything.  So it's lovely to have a dog who is so different with so much confidence and personality.

I agree with teaching the dog to 'sit' when meeting and greeting.  Unfortunatly, believe it or not, not all people like dogs, and those who feel geniunely scared by your dog COULD bring a prosection under the DDA

I know this and this is why I need to tame them!!!!!!!!!

They do it all the time even when people come into the house. I tell them to turn their back but as soon as they turn back they behave in the same way. Even when I have changed clothes and in something different and they think I am someone different.

I suppose perserverance is the key word here.:rolleyes:

Are they both jueveniles?  It is obviously going to be very much harder if one is competing for attention against the other.

With the visitors as much as anyone! :-D

Edited to say: In response to "I suppose perseverance is the key."

How old are the labs? I find they usually settle down with maturity - about 6 or 7 years sees them calming down a bit. :)

Yes they are juvenilles one is 9 months and she is the better behaved than the 16 month one!!!
I think that the older one is a bit of a hot head as I have never had any trouble of this kind with all my other Labs, and I have had 14 of them!!!!

The younger one is much more of a steady and sensible lab than the older one.  The older one likes to do everything at full tilt even eating but the younger one seems much more laid back and sensible and serene about everything.

The younger one does not do this if the older one is not around, therefore they are exercised on their own for training purposes.

More suggestions and help would be appreciated please.

have you tried having them on leads and just standing on the leads so that they can't move to say hello, the leads need to be fairly short so they stay almost in one spot.
they will EVENTUALLY ( :) ) sit down and this is when the meeting can take place. if they get up again just ask the person to step away and ignore your dog until they are sitting again. they will probably attempt to get up every time the person comes near but just persevere. the time when you let them say hello in an over inthusiastic way will take their training all the way back to the beginning so be persistant.

remember they have learnt that by being friendly they have got what they want - attention (even if it is being told off) so now you have to work doubly as hard to train it out of them

good luck

At what distance from the person do they go off to begin the greeting?  You'll need to get them on the lead before the person gets that near, and put the above into practice.  Doing this you will also prevent them from indulging in the jumping behaviour ever again, which I think must be self-rewarding!

Also, you'll need to prevent people who don't know what you're trying to teach them from giving them attention when they are excited and thus rewarding the behaviour you don't want.  This is difficult (hence my comment earlier) because you are having to control the behaviour of your friends and/or strangers as well as your dogs.  Turning their backs requires a consistency that the average person finds difficult - if you take that approach, they need to turn their backs EVERY time the dogs begin to jump and keep on turning their backs, otherwise the dogs will learn that persistence pays off.  If you have more than one dog, one does tend to wind the other up.  You could prevent it by shutting the dogs out when visitors first arrive at the house and then introducing them on leads - it depends how much of a problem you are having and how far you want to go to resolve it.

Might be better to arrange greetings both inside and outside the house with stooges.

please remember to only put one foot on the lead.  My staff likes to pull toys on ropes etc and despite me telling people to only use one foot they often try to 'outsmart' the dog by putting both feet on the rope.  they don't appear to understand that I know (from painful bruised bum experience ) that if you have both feet on a rope/lead and the dog is strong enough both  your feet will be pulled out from under you recreating a spectacular fall with legs in the air and a sore bum from heading quickly southwards.  This coupled with the shame of a park full of people watching you fly through the air ensures this is not repeated.  It's funny to watch other people doing it but highly embarrassing to have it happen to yourself.

I have of course the same problem with my six month old springer.  The hardest is to make people understand, that I really would like them to ignore the puppy.  Visitors are as bad as dogs, if not worse. 

"please remember to only put one foot on the lead"

very very very good point - never thought about that i just have always used just one foot :)

Hi anna, i wasn't having a go at you, it just made me laugh thinking about myself being a total muppet and looking like an idiot in the park because I thought 2 feet would be better, not realising that I would need my other foot to balance myself.  it brought back loads of happy puppy memories so thanks for that.

never thought you were i was also laughing about being pulled over and i did actually think that it was a very good point to put into the post.

i did not for one second think you were having a go.

Hi,

Thank god its not just me who spends most of our walk saying sorry.  I can understand exactly how you feel.   I have a 10 month old chocolate Lab who does exactly the same.  I have tried all sorts to stop him but nothing seems to work.  Unfortunately he manages to spot people/dogs from miles away and then thats it... hes gone!!  It takes the pleasure out of walking him as im always having to scan ahead to spot things before he does.  I find even trying to stop him jumping up when on his lead is an impossible mission as he is so strong!  Muddy paws on strangers clothes is not good! I cant imagine taking two for a walk at the same time!!
If you find any solutions then i'd love to hear them (i keep telling myself he will grow out of it)

The younger one is so good I am so blessed with her she is perfection on her own but does not jump up half as much as the older one.  I am thinking of setting up my own laundering business to wash the peoples clothes while they wait LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Roll on summer where there will be no muddy paws!!!

She seems to spot people like radar and then just homes in on them, my god I wish they had Lab racing instead of greyhound racing because I would bet on her!!!!!

What makes me cross is that on the whole her recall is brilliant( as I have trained her on the pick up) but on these occassions she chooses to be deaf and I know damn well she can hear me as when she comes back to me (or I catch up with her) she looks at me as if to say I am realy sorry but I can't help it!!!
I am fortunate to have our own farm so I can walk her around there where I do not meet many people but there are so many nice places to go and see and I want her to enjoy them with me.

Is it me?? have I failed in her training?? or have I just a hot headed Lab. It is beginning to get me down and not want to take her out

Why is the younger one a joy to take anywhere and she is a much quieter Lab altogether (except when they have a roustabout!!!!).

Dog agility springs to mind to exhaust some of this energy.

Sorry to hear that it's getting you down, Bella.

"Is it me??  have I failed in her training??"

No, absolutely not!  If her recall is good generally then you've done well!  It just sounds as if there's one issue that you're stuck on and thinking about a lot and that's casting a shadow over all the positive things.  Whilst I don't think you should be talking about failure at all, what I did wonder is, if you live on a farm and have lovely walks round you, then maybe you didn't have the opportunity to meet many people on walks when she was very young and couldn't walk so far, to get her used to it?

It doesn't sound as if it's lack of exercise that makes your lab a "hot head."  When you say "I have trained her on the pick up" do you mean that she is a working dog and picking up or have I misunderstood?

It sounds to me more like she needs to learn to focus, concentrate and be calm rather than just expend energy.

How would you tackle training for more focus and being calm? Have managed to get calm and focus indoors now Gabi is 2 years old but outdoors forget it.

As a puppy she came everywhere with me as I do alot of showing and she came to all the big county shows from 12 weeks of age.  She has met people from all different kinds of walks, she has been hunting on the lead(as in going to the meets,not actually hunting) game fairs, shopping etc and as a puppy she was not too bad as I would never alow her to jump up at people and always made them come down to her level.

  She is good n the pick up as in gun dog terms but I can,t take her shooting as she want to go and see every gun!!!!!!! and dog etc. she is just too friendly.
  So the ground work has all been done and is is not as though she has got like this since I have had the other one. I make a rule of taking them out on their own and together so they don't get into each others ways but as I said the younger one is a much calmer type of dog. It is just the attitude of "if it moves I have to get it" birds, rabbits, but she dosn't touch my chickens!!! never has shown any tendencies to.

What I need is to be able to get ther calm and focussed and need some ideas on how to do it.

She has so much to give and so much love, would not hurt a fly.

you say that as a pup you made everyone come down to her level so that she didn't jump up. could it be that now she is older and not a puppy people don't come down to her level to say hello and therrefore she decides to get  their attention she will jump up to say hello. just a thought. not sure how to help yet but will continue to think about it.

Apart from the methods already suggested for dealing with the excitable greetings, my only additional suggestion would be that if she already knows obedience commands, you start gradually increasing the level of distraction that you are working against.  So yes, presumably she will sit, lie down, stay, wait, recall and retrieve in an empty field.  Will she still do all of those things with a person at 100 yards?  50 yards?

Can you spread the concentration that you have already taught her in easier situations to the more difficult situations?

Yes, I've got a terrier that chases rabbits but doesn't bother the poultry even when they run across her head whilst its down a hole (dug by her, oh dear :rolleyes:)

Congratulations on having a dog with so much to give, so much love and that would not hurt a fly - that is really, really valuable.

P.S. I don't know much about it but is a change of diet worth considering?

Moose my eldest Lab is just the same :rolleyes: She is getting better as the years go on (4yrs). I have been working so much on her recall over the last few years but when she sees something that is of interest she is like a whippet and is gone :Rolleyes: She is however getting a lot better and as you say perseverance is the word. Some days she can be so good but other days it is like she has never had an ounce of training :rolleyes:

A comment last week from somebody was 'gosh what a disobedient dog you have' :( This was after me recalling her which took about 30 seconds to sink in that she had to come back and she sat at my feet wagging her tail. I call that not bad going considering what she has been like :) It also helps to get to know people and explain what she is like. I ask them to ignore her and wait until she is back with me sitting to then come and say hello :)

Carry food? A toy? Will they play with toys on walks and focus on that?

In the house they need to sit etc before greeting - but badly trained visitors don't help when they say "oh it doesn't matter" etc etc ....

There's also the meerkat walk - scan for people and recall before they get too close - although its simply friendliness you only have to meet the wrong person and it can become an issue.
I have a Lab - she doesn't do it anymore - she's nearly ten LOL.

I just recall all mine in when we see someone we don't know as although none of the current dogs are jumpers except to family LOL even a smile and wag seems to scare some people these days!!!

I always carry food as treats and a toy is a 2 min. wonder. Other people and dogs far more interesting.

do you take such food as sausages or cheese?
what you could do is work recall where noone is and give huge jackpot when she recalls straight away and jjust one piece if she doesn't so quickly. she will soon work out that a recall fast gets her the best and not so fast gets not so much or a less good treat (ie her normal kibble)
once this is coming to a very speedy recall every time add in some stooge people with dogs (friends that don't mind spending 30mins helping you)
ask them to just ignore her when she runs up by turning their backs and this will give you a chance to start a recall.
if she comes back straight away give her the huge jackpot and if she comes back slower then a smaller treat.
try and use lots of people so she gets used to it being done anywhere.

if it does not work i would reccommend a long line and then repeat the above. if she does not come back then you can reel her in and give her a treat.

never get angry or she will def not want ot come back
HTH
anna

Surely this is a back to basics issue!  Dont mean to play devils advocate here but apart from the odd good recall - those who have dogs (be it labs or otherwise) who dont come back when called and worse jump over everyone and everything,  simply dont have complete control and therefore IMO need to improve their training.  It is quite simply a lack of control/unreliable recall...Regardless of the breed!  Although I must admit most of the dogs that feel the need to jump on me and my dogs whether friendly or not are usually labs.  So much so that my bitch has become worried of labs and I find it frustrating that the owners of such 'bouncy' dogs think it ok to use their breed as an excuse.
It is dangerous to allow a dog to jump on people and other dogs - it doesn't matter if they are dog lovers or not, they could be elderly, infirm, very young or just dont want it.
That said my personal approach to this problem would be to go back to basic recall training adding distractions as the training progresses.  I'm a massive fan of clicker training and reward for attention on you in everyday situations as a start point but I'm sure that you could research many ways of recall training
Sarah (who also knows some very nice labs to ;)

Yep have worked on the back to basic issue and food seems to be the distraction at them moment,  she will sit with people around and stay but she shivers now with excitement !!!!!!!!!!!
At least she is sitting downLOL

:D - I had a problem when my bitch was a puppy - She went gooey everytime she saw her friend Sue (human) and William (her irish setter)  My bitch is very aloof and I found it strange that she took such a liking to this human!  I knew it had to be nipped in the bud before she became full grown anyway!!!  I basically clicker trained my bitch (who is also very food orientated) and she was rewarded for having all four feet on the ground (watch for the very small things going on ;)) with the help of a long line and other changes around the home I made myself more interesting to her - By other changes I mean picking all toys up off the floor and allowing access when I decided, working for dinner, sleeping downstairs and general reawrd for interest and eye contact...In a bid to make ME more valuable and interesting - this can really help with the basic stuff.  Another very good idea (particularly with labs!) is to develop an obsession with a toy/item.  Get the dog really, really wound up and excited and then expose a toy that the dog doesn't normally have access to, get them really excited and have a few seconds play, then put it away.  This is the very early stages of developing an obsession with a small toy which can then become a VERY valuable piece of kit when teaching recalls - especially around distractions.
Sarah
PS It helps if it squeeks! :D