Hello everybody

I am just wondering what I should do with my only twelve week old springer puppy.  She is a sweet adorable puppy and every visitor we get in the house finds her cute jumping up at them.  I don't want to be unreasonable and except my puppy to behave perfect like an eight year old dog, but I feel I rather would like to do something about it rather earlier than later.  Especially bearing in  mind, that she is a springer spaniel and they are extra bad for jumping up.   Everybody wants to say 'hello' to her and when I ask people to ignore her after a while, than they will not do it, telling me in the same time, she is only a puppy.  I find it quite stressful and don't like having visitors anymore, which is unrealistic.  What shall I do?  Just let her jump up at visitors when they sit on the sofa or come in the house?  I also ask people to crouch down to my puppy, so she doesn't feel the need to jump up.  But all seems so hopeless and I think my visitors think I'm strange and far to fussy.

Thanks for advise and regards from Bagpipe

That is because they won't be livign with the consequences of her learning these bad habits (which I have to admit my dogs have to a certain extent to this very day, as my kids are now teens so there wasn't so much incentive to ensure otherwise).

I would put pup on alead so you can control things when visitors call, and gently keep him with foru feet on the ground by placing one hand on his shoulders.

To add to what Brainless has said, I'd keep the puppy in another room until the visitors have sat down, then bring her out on the lead :)

Daisy

Thanks for your advise.  I can try the thing with the lead, but I'm sure when I take the lead off, she will jump at them all the time.  Should I distract her with a new toy?  Should I just put her in the crate, which is in the living room and so she could still be part of us.  I did that before because the little puppy was panting away and couldn't put an end to it, she fell asleep shortly after I put her in their.  But when I take her out, it is just the same.   She goes through a transformation when the visitors are gone...suddenly she remembers her chew toys and takes them to play with.  This little rascal knows, that she can get away with her behaviour with visitors :)

Bagpipe

Don't take the lead off - keep it on all the time that the visitors are there. Try to get her to lie quietly by you and give her lots of quiet praise when she is doing this :)

Daisy

Yes I understand.  But unfortunately I have a particular couple which is very interested in the dog and they come round to see us, only to be with the dog.  They visited us on Friday for three hours and I was so cross after that.  I resolved already, that I won't have them in the house anymore for quite a while.
The other visitors stay sometimes over night at weekends (elders from the church). 

Well I will see how I get on...

Bagpipe

Hi Bagpipe,

If you can get people to do what you say, then it's good if people stand up and turn away from the dog as soon as it jumps.  You and your family can do that.

This is a hard one for other people though, because I've even had other dog owners say to me "oh it's ok if he jumps up" - you'd think other dog owners would know better.  But I think it is deeply engrained into us that it is rude to just stand up and turn away from someone and their dog, especially if the other person hasn't had the chance to ask you to do that.

Why don't you put the pup in her crate, then you have all the time in the world to explain to people that they must stand up and turn away if the puppy jumps.  Tell them that they might not mind it, but you do, and you have to live with this pup for the rest of its life.  Tell them that they might not mind it now, but when the pup is a full grown dog and has wet paws, they would be v angry if it jumped up at them.  And that you really need their help with this.  Give them a little lecture and make it look as though you need their help - people often like to help and if they're enlisted like this, it's usually better.  Then let the pup out of the crate.

If you don't have time to explain it to them, then put a lead on the pup.  This one is also good if you're out in the street with the lead on.  Rather than holding the pup down, it's very easy to just stand on the lead close to the pup.  So every time the pup tries to jump, it can't.  If you do this every time you see someone, the pup will soon stop jumping.

Hello Onetwothree

I was hoping for an answer from you!  Thanks for your reply.  The visitors last Friday are previous dog owners, and they drove me nuts!!!  I explained that it would be unpleasant when the 6 kg puppy is fully grown to a 25 kg dog and it's unacceptable that she would jump up at people.  But this stubborn woman still knew better...that's why I resolved to put them off, when they invite themselves next time....not having it anymore.  The man has also very bad knees and is overweight...he never stands up in a hurry, he always struggles out of the chair with painful knees.   But I asked him, to please ignore her, no looking, speaking etc.  Which works for a few seconds and than they start to giggle again.

I must confess, that I let her jump up at people when I take her out for socialisation.  But in future I will follow the advise and stand on the lead.

Regards Bagpipe

If you feed dry food, throw handfuls on the ground when your visitors enter.  If the dog has her head down and looking for food, she cannot jump up.

Eventually the dog will stick its head down looking for the food as soon as it hears the doorbell.......

Hello Thome

Thanks for your reply.  I actually feed her dry food, but my springer spaniel is not a good eater what so ever, I think visitors are far more exicting than the boring food.   But I still give it a try.

Hope to switch to Natures Diet (ordered it today at our pet shop, but it takes a week to get there), than I won't have dry food anymore.  Feed her on Eukanuba at present.  Didn't know that it was bad staff, till I read on different forums about it.  I thought I do her something good when I bought Eukanuba, but ...

Regards Bagpipe