Another Dog Question

Graueradler

Graueradler

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Graueradler
Not a dog person and don't expect to become one. My neighbors have an extremely friendly dog and handle it responsibly. They don't let it run loose. If they are out with it and see us out,they get it on a leash. If it cr*ps in the yard, they clean it up. So what is the problem?

I'd like the dog to regard me as a friendly and not a hostile but if I make any friendly overtures at all, it goes wild with excitement and wants to play - physically and a little roughly. Could I be inadvertently sending it some wrong message?

It is about two years old or a little less maybe, still very young, and a female wire haired Griffin retriever.

They had it with a trainer who described it as one of the most stubborn dogs that he had experienced.
 
Shock collar, definitely. Any time you feel yourself about to make a friendly overture to the dog, hit the shock button to train yourself not to do so. Depending on how stubborn you are it might take three shocks. Periodic retraining may be necessary.
 
Friendly, exuberant dogs love to play, especially at young ages. Your best bet is not to be overly friendly to her. Get her to realize that she's wasting her time with you. When she comes up to you tell her "No" in a stern voice. Don't pet her.
 
"No touch no talk no eye contact" actually works.

My dog occasionally greets people a bit too energetically. And when I've been gone for more than a few hours, really reaches level 10 on excitement. She is very friendly, but due to her shepherd dog size, her greeting behavior with occasional jumping can put people off.

But I've been working with the people who want to meet her to use No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact until she is calm and sitting down. And then when they do pet her, to not talk in high pitched tones that will just amp her up.

And she remains leashed and under my "calm submissive" control at all times. If she starts ramping up, she gets a verbal correction.

With repetition, this is working well. At the office, I now let her greet people on her own, and she does so calmly most of the time. But I'm watching her and will give a quick audible correction if she starts getting above excitement level 2.
 
Graueradler said:
I'd like the dog to regard me as a friendly and not a hostile but if I make any friendly overtures at all, it goes wild with excitement and wants to play - physically and a little roughly. Could I be inadvertently sending it some wrong message?
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Absolutely. I have a VERY rambunctious 1.5 year old puppy that goes bonkers around people he knows. HE wants to jump up and greet ya and lick ya in the face. Well, all the flailing of the arms and pushing away is just seen as playing in his world and amplifies the behavior. He would not be able to sit calmly or he would physically explode.

The key for him is "four on the floor". If he has four paws on the floor, he gets love and attention...if not...no interaction and corrected for jumping.

YOU set the boundaries of how you want to be interacted with. If they are super playful, you just have to let the dog know under what circumstances you will return the play behavior and what they will not get any attention for.
 
Clark1961 said:
Shock collar, definitely. Any time you feel yourself about to make a friendly overture to the dog, hit the shock button to train yourself not to do so. Depending on how stubborn you are it might take three shocks. Periodic retraining may be necessary.
Click to expand...

:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Shawn said:
Absolutely. I have a VERY rambunctious 1.5 year old puppy that goes bonkers around people he knows. HE wants to jump up and greet ya and lick ya in the face. Well, all the flailing of the arms and pushing away is just seen as playing in his world and amplifies the behavior. He would not be able to sit calmly or he would physically explode.
Click to expand...

Gee, I didn't know that you lived next door. Perfect description of the neighbor's dog.
 
I own a big, high energy, super-friendly, overly playful dog so I'm familiar with the problem.

One option is conditioning the dog by catching his front paws when he tries to jump and pinching the pads... he soon learns this hurts and quits doing it. I got this from a dog trainer... only problem is I'm the only one quick enough to do it and the result was he jumps on everyone else and not me.

You have to have a zero tolerance approach to jumping with all persons the dog has contact with for it to really work IMO. That's hard when some people(I'm guilty here) enjoy playing rough with the dog sometimes.

What ends up having to happen is you figure out if people coming into contact with the dog are "dog people" or not and warn them he may jump. If this is problem you restrain him, crate him, or otherwise physically prevent him from jumping. I can usually reign him in with verbal commands but sometimes he's just too darned excited and this is the only option.
 
If it's a big dog, a knee to the chest every time he jumps will soon get the message across, especially if delivered with a stern "no." The key is to speak sternly while raising your knee for the dog to jump into.

Once he calms down, you can visit and pet him. He'll learn in a few times, unless it's a dumb dog. BTDT.
 
Don't listen to these people.

So what you want to do is take the dog from behind and put your hands on his shoulders and as animal specialists say "Go to town".

Now you don't have to "finish" but you will probably want to and there is nothing wrong with that.

Basically you want to establish your dominance over the animal so it knows its place. Also there is going to be some jail time.

Now there is one thing of which to be aware. It very well could be that you are not the alpha in which case, the tables might turn and you will have paw prints on your shoulders. Let him do his thing and you may even want to roll over on your back so he knows you are submitting to him in a "50 shades of greyhound" sort of way.

I think going through this maybe 5-10 times and you will have no more issues with the animal in question.

Good luck.
 
I always thought that the function of dogs was to get excited and bark their heads off if a stranger got anywhere near your house. Sort of a hillbilly alarm system. So the dog is supposed to be excited, and yeah he's going to jump and go bonkers. That's just his natural state.

You are all saying that the dog should be calm when greeting strangers. This just seems antithetical the the natural state of a dog.
 
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