My one year old labrador bitch is a gorgeous dog who is mostly obedient now - she generally comes when called (unless she is playing with a dog friend in which case she's more unreliable!), does a variety of tricks, drops things on command etc.  However she goes absolutely loopy when people come into the room.  She jumps up and just can't calm herself down.  She now doesn't jump up at myself of my husband and instead circles manically and picks up her toys when she's excited to see us.  However we just can't get her to calm down with guests or strangers on a walk. 

I suppose the most stressful is strangers on a walk - I hate to keep her on a lead on the off chance we might bump into someone (which happens fairly rarely where we walk).  Most people are totally fine with her excitement and are very understanding but one woman went mad at the last week and said my dog had bitten her - Poj really hadn't bitten this lady she was jumping with her mouth open, but the lady was right to be annoyed and I felt very ashamed as Poj had jumped up at her while she was walking.  Please help, I am now scared to take her on a walk where there might be people.  Will getting older help?  I want her to be one of those dogs who is entirely unconcerned when people go by!

Remember she's still very young - only just out of puppy classes at shows! Don't expect her to act like a mature adult any more than you'd expect a 14-year-old girl to behave like a sensible woman. ;) Just keep plugging on with the training and in time you'll get there. :)

I can sympathise as my Newfie (21 months old) is exactly the same :rolleyes:

With regard to having people round, we have put a baby gate on the living room door. That way, we can keep her out of there until the guests have settled although she can see them.  She is then allowed to come into the room on lead.  Guests are asked to ignore her until she settles down and then they may stroke her if they wish. The lead stays on her so that she can be quickly reigned in if she starts to get too excited again.  

On walks, we have to watch like a hawk for other people around.  Her recall is very good with all other distractions but when it comes to the slightest chance of a tummy rub off someone she goes stone deaf and I totally understand that 55kg of fur and teeth hurtling towards you at breakneck speed can be somewhat unsettling, even for dog lovers :rolleyes:  We have worked on getting her to be ball obsessed and we now only have to show her her ball and we have her undivided attention.  We keep her focused on the ball until the person passes and then she is rewarded with a game of fetch :) 

aaah..youth!  Tell me about it!

Wit dogs you get to meet some great people..but there are alos a decent number of grumps about.  If find if you put the dog on the lead people complain .. if you let the dog off eople complain. If your dog is naughty and you tell it off people complain but if you don't tell them off they complain! Some are just ike that..but most people are okay.  Most people would laugh and say oh you have a young dog and you'd say yes your tearing your hair out and they'd laugh and tell you not to worry they soon grow up... in 12 years or so!

I think you should remember that a 1 year old labrador is still very much a baby and it sounds like in all other areas of her training you are both doing so well.

I would do what has already been suggested and get everyone to ignore her until she is calm, if once she is calm and you start to make a fuss and she goes mad again withdraw the attention and keep trying she will get it eventually that if she goes mad the hands and attention get withdrawn.

I have labs here and had one exactly as you are describing, I really felt awful because I couldn't control him and at 7 months old he was the size of an adult and weighed in at 33kgs. I simply could not do anything with him. He used to chomp people as well, it was pure excitement BUT other people were not to know that. I sold him on to a family (FOR A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT REASON) and was very very honest as to what he was like. They'd had labradors before and apparently mine sounded like their last one. They couldn't wait to meet him and they fell in love. He is now 18 months old and goes to their office and greets all the customers, he behaves on walks and is a lovely boy. He just took a while longer than some to mature slightly.

Just be patient and carry on with what you are doing. Do what I do when the dogs are being naughty and it gets me down just convince yourself they have big personalities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know exactly what it's like, our 9 month old golden is exactly the same!  It is really stressful isn't it?  Like your dog, Jasper is quite good on recall, (except when pre occupied) and is great with us, but as soon as anyone comes to the house he will not stop jumping up, we also have a dog gate at the kitchen door, but he just stands on his hind legs and jumps up and down, which worries me because of his joints.  He does eventually calm down but it can take over an hour when people are visiting, and there have been occasions when we just leave him in the kitchen behind the gate as he is too hyper

We were travelling up to Scotland for the New Year and on one of our service stops, he almost pulled me over when he saw another dog he wanted to play with too  and as far as the halti collar goes, he rolls around and boxes it off so it's not posible to use that on walks either:rolleyes:

We have bought a pet corrector spray (hissing air) which has corrected his humping me so I think I'll get this out and try it out on his jumping up too - quite difficult to take on all his walks though, what with doggie bags, treats, mad dog and hissing can   

I do sympathise and just want to let you know you are not on your own :) :)
Maria

It sounds as if you are doing very well with your training and that Poj is a lovely girl.

However, and I may sound like one of the grumpies here, I don't actually want Labradors repeatedly jumping at me when I'm out walking, though I understand that they are not born trained and a youngster will make mistakes.

I would not use any kind of aversive to change this behaviour, as you do not want to destroy her natural friendliness towards people by making unpleasant associations with them.  Why not set up some training with friends acting as stooges, rewarding her for the time when she has all four feet on the floor and turning your backs to her and really really ignoring her when she does jump.  Is she clicker trained?  I was once a stooge for an absolutely appalling jumper upper - a GSD so it was quite something - but we got there in the end because the owner was so determined to change the dog's behaviour.

For the moment, meeting strangers out on walks is too much excitement.  I would recall my dog and put her on the lead - it doesn't mean that you have to keep her on the lead the whole time, just when you see someone approaching.  Reward her very well for coming back to you - you're going to have to work hard to make yourself more interesting than the approaching stranger!  If it is possible to talk to the person for a little while, so that she calms down, then I would allow her to approach them (if the person wants it!) but end the interaction if she jumps up.  Again it might be easier to practise this with friends.

It may all sound pie in the sky and impossible for a young, enthusiastic dog but greetings can be on your terms, if you decide that they will be. :-)

I think you've been given some good advice, I'll add a few extra thoughts :)

My dog used to go to strangers on walks and sometimes try to get them to play by grabbing at them with her paws.

I sorted this out with several things - trained her to a good standard of obedience (recall, leave, walk close,) and most important, an Emergency Sit. I did all this with the help of a special toy, in her case a kong on a rope. This is to be made "special" and kept for special rewards and games only - not left around the house for a dog to get bored with ;)

Also we practised management so, watched out for people like a hawk - in time, the behaviour has extinguished. Now she does go past people fine :) and always did ignore other dogs walkers as their dog was so much more interesting than the human.

So in a nutshell, I'd suggest management and training - it can all be reward based, but if you aren't sure how to train against distractions etc I'd suggest getting some one to one advice, see www.apdt.co.uk for some help near you (hopefully) :)

Lindsay
x

I don't have a great deal else to add - just that I know what you're going through. I have  a 14 month golden who honestly beleives that everyone in the world loves her as much we do... and anyone coming to the house wants her to sit in thier lap. :rolleyes: For the most part, our friends are doggie people, but I don't like it and sometimes we have to put her in a separate room to calm down. All our friends are well versed in the 'ignore unless all 4 feet are on the ground' ethos.

She's reasonable when meeting people - whilst she will approach people we taught her from day one to come a sit to the left of us when pointing the the gound to our left. So when she approaches people. this invariabley means that she does a very smart sit on peoples left foot, but doesn't jump up. Much.:rolleyes:

My next trick for the click training is to understand go left or right which I hope will add to my cache of control tricks - hopefully to avoid upcoming people. Maybe.

I had the same problem! Keeping mine on the lead or putting her on the lead at the sight of people had the oppersite result and she thought then there was something to fear! but thats just her shes a nervous wrek like that!

Its hard to hear, but she grew out of it in time. With jumping up at people in the house, have your dog on the lead, pre-empt just before she jumps and correct her with a sharp jolt of the lead. This should work if done correctly and if your dog jumps up at people while on the lead out on the walk do the same thing. But usually its not that easy! Mine was as good as gold on the lead, didnt bat an eye lid! In these cases if it is really bad you can get a collar which lets out a puff of air as the dog does the unwanted behavior. Again these should work, however you must be careful as they could have adverse affects making the dog scared of people.

However, id try and train the dog to hear a sound, maybe a whistle, and once he hears the sound he comes and gets a treat. therefore when he is running off to a person to jump up, whistle and he should come and get the treat instead! This must be completely implanted into their brain, the assosiation between treat and whistle before used!

In all, have a go, but i can bet u by the time you have tried these methods she would have matured and stopped jumping up! always the case!

Isn't it great that you can come on here and get good advice? It makes you feel that you aren't the only one with a nutcase :D

My dog used to jump up and I was told to teach him to come up on command. ;) He now goes up to people, tail wagging, and stares at them, waiting to be allowed up to eye level :) My young bitch will jump up, but at a distance of a few feet :) She just wants to say 'hi' but knows that it isn't allowed.

And isn't it infuriating when you are trying to train your youngster not to jump up, and the friendly doggy non-grumps encourage them!! I've got a young Cavalier (2 years old now) who resists all attempts to train her not to bounce at people, mainly because of the number of people who think it's cute in a small dog! :rolleyes:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.  I will try the thing with the hissing air as that worked with her jumping up at us, also love the baby gate idea so she can see the visitors and can only be 'released' once she's calm - also the whistle and good treat idea might distract her from going to the stranger in the first place.  You chaps are fantastic - thank you!  She's a big girl (35kg) and I don't want her knocking anyone over!