We have a 21 month old kbt who, although wilful, is generally controllable except whenever someone tries to leave the house.  If anyone is alone with him and has to go out that is fine he is perfectly well behaved however as soon as there is more than one person in the house, it doesn't matter who, it can be OH or my mother or whoever and someone tries to leave he goes absolutely berserk - jumping, barking, spinning round, throwing himself against the door etc.  This culminated in my getting a nasty nip to my wrist whilst trying to get hold of him to separate him so my mother could leave the house yesterday.  I don't think the nip was intentional just had my arm in the wrong place as he was uncontrollably jumping and barking.  There is no other time when he behaves like this and as I already said if he's being left alone then he is fine just eats his biscuit whilst you walk out.  Can anyone help with this please?

why not put him in the kitchen  or another room, well before someone starts to leave,   If he is not there , he cant react to them leaving.  

It might be worth having a house line on him - a soft rope attached to his collar, so you can handle him without getting nipped when he's upset. It sounds like he's trying to keep everyone together, and he needs to learn everyone can come and go as they please (though I'm sure you knew that anyway :)). I'm sure someone will be along to give you some advice on the best way of doing it - I tend not to express what I mean clearly enough, but if no-one else has posted by this evening I'll have a go :D Though I would say as well that if he's getting that upset it might be wise to get someone experienced in to assess him and help with the training, as they will be able to see exactly what he's doing, whereas we can't :)

thanks for that - am going to try the line whilst visitors are in we already do try to segregate him when people are leaving but unfortunately he seems to sense they're getting ready to go before they even know they are!  Think you're right about him keeping everyone together so will look forward to your post later - any and all advice is very much appreciated.

You could try keeping a lead/line on him indoors when people call that way you wil have more control of him

thanks - will definitely try the lead indoors

Does your dog just get upset when you/people are actually leaving, or is he still upset after you've left?
Apart from putting him in another room, I can think of two possible ways of helping him. One is teaching him an alternative behaviour, eg having a comfy bed for him, and rewarding him for sitting in it with treats, then  teaching him the word "bed" means go and sit in your bed and again reward him for doing that with a treat, then once you have got him so he understands "bed" you can try using it when people go, and reward with praise and treats once he does what you ask. But if he gets very upset he may be too emotional to listen. Alternatively you can get him used to people coming and going by having people coming in, settling down then getting up and leaving, over and over again until he gets thoroughly sick of it (I believe it's called desensitisation). Obviously when you're doing that you use the house line gently so he can't stop people coming and going, but without talking to him, as it's a question of him calming down and getting used to comings and goings happening without his involvement. Because there's more than one way of handling things, and it depends on why he's doing it (eg anxiety) and his personality what he'll respond to best, that's why I thought you might be better with a trainer/ behaviourist if it's a big problem or not settling quickly :) Not very well put, as I said it wouldn't be ;), but hope it's some help.

thanks for that - he's fine once the person/people have left and as I say if you're the only person there and you have to leave him home alone there's no problem whatsoever.  Over the weekend we've tried giving him a lot less attention and have been making him stay whenever you leave a room and this seems to be calming him down to some extent in fact by last night I could leave the room without him automatically following me.  Also used a house line to discourage any bad behaviour which again seems to have had some impact but I will try it without saying anything as you've advised.  Will also try the bed scenario but probably combined with the house line initially.  Thanks again for your help.

We had a Kerry that used to do this all the time- but only with strangers. If the visitors were given a biscuit to give him as they went he usually became distracted from his task !

Ours also used to "tell"them when he thought it was time for them to go- usually by sitting in front and staring them out....

Grand dogs, aint they !!

thanks - have tried the biscuit but it's pretty hard to distract him once he sets his mind to something as I'm sure you can appreciate!  Persevering with the house line (has already chewed through it once) as this seems to have some impact if only giving us some level of control.

Can be an angel when he wants to be but I'm not always convinced they're actually dogs!!  Wouldn't swap him for anything though!!

I quite agree about their identity- exceptionally clever and a bit cunning. Our current Kerry isnt aggressive toward people at all, but not reliable with other dogs who want to play.

Like you, I wouldn't swop him- except perhaps occasionally !!!

Yep that just about sums him up - I've read some of your earlier posts about your Kerry with envy esp with regard to him being trained to be a PAT dog (unimaginable for us).  Finn isn't aggressive with people either (except when they try to make an exit) but isn't that good at all with other dogs although it does seem to depend on the breed, size, colour, position of the moon! He's very good with another Kerry that we meet occasionally (perhaps they recognise they've both met their match!!).  Challenging characters though!