I have a 1 and a half year old purebred golden retriever. (her name's Sadie) She is well trained, and listens to me most of the time, but her main problem is that when people come to our house she goes CRAZY! She doesn't bark, but she jumps on them, and she won't leave them alone. The other problem is that she doesn't stop for a long time. Also, she's fine meeting people when were out for a walk, she's only a little bit excited, and she doesn't jump. How do I stop this??

She needs to be ignored, completely. You and your guests are unconsciously rewarding her for jumping. If you are trying to shove her off and are telling her no, then you are rewarding her for it.

So to cure this, ignore it. Flat ignore it. Make sure your guests know to do this. Have them fold their arms or put their hands up near their neck. Don't acknowledge her at all. You can even turn your back on her. When she sits down (which she eventually will), then reward her and give her attention. So your ignoring the jumping, but paying attention to her when she sits, so she'll soon learn to sit. If she starts jumping again when you praise her for sitting, stop the praise and ignore it again.

You can also do this with a leash. Put her on the leash and let her go biserk when you let guests enter (this prevents her from actually jumping on them). So just hold the leash and hold her back. When she stops and sits, praise her and do exactly what I said above.

Also, another good idea in combination w/ training....If you know you are going to have guests over, take Sadie out for a run before they come. This way she's tired and a tired dog is a good dog. I do this with my hyper GSD puppy.

You also want to reward calm behaviors when she's in the house. If she approaches you or a guest in an excited manner, then ignore it. But if she approaches calmly and nicely, then give her praise. If she's quitely laying down at your feet or on the couch when you have guests over, then go over and pet her or give her a quick treat.

She usually calms down after a while, but there's also certain people that she won't leave alone. After she calms down she'll follow them everywhere and if they move she jumps or sometimes she even grabs their sleeves. We've tried putting her in the back room when she does this, but it only works part of the time. And she never seems to learn. We've been trying to teach her this for a year now. Anymore ideas??? Also, we dont try to shove her off, we usually keep her on her leash, and we pull her off, but as soon as she's off the leash it starts all over again.

Like I said, it has to be ignored. A reward to a dog isn't always "good dog" or a treat. A reward for jumping could be you pulling her off, telling her no, people screaming or shreiking...That all rewards the behavior.

Although this statement

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After she calms down she'll follow them everywhere and if they move she jumps or sometimes she even grabs their sleeves.

Makes me want to make absolute sure that this is an excited dog and not an aggressive one.

Thanks for the info, but she's definetaly NOT an agressive dog, she still acts a bit like a puppy, and when she wants to play she has to have something in her mouth, so she might grad a piece of clothing or something else close to her. Is telling her no really rewarding her? wow, I'll have to try getting them to completely ignore her.. Thanks!

Well, you have to understand that dog's don't know or understand the meaning of "no". At least not the way humans do. I actually don't use no at all because it can confuse the dog.

Humans have several meanings for no. It can mean "No, don't do that" or "No, I don't approve", "No, I disagree", "No, thats incorrect"....see what I mean? With dogs, you must be consistent. If you use "No" to get the dog to stop doing a behavior thats what it needs to be used for always. You can't say "No" in training if she accidently does something different as in "no, that's not exactly what I wanted" because she can't make that distinction between different meanings. So either "No" will have no meaning and it won't work to stop a behavior or "No" will have meaning to stop a behavior and you'll set back training. I usually use something like "ah ah ah" or a single "ah/at!". Sometimes even a "Shhh" sound like Cesar millan makes (even though I disprove of his methods, that noise does seem to get dog's attention). And this noise is only to get their attention not to express disproval of a behavior.

But a dog in an excited state of mind like that isn't going to care. If your shouting "No" and there's no meaning behind it (because honestly, the only way to get meaning behind it is to cause pain to the dog so she learns to associate No with pain and she'll stop when she hears no because she doesn't want to get hurt, NOT a good training method) it could actually just feed her excitement.

Acknowledging her in any way, shape or form is rewarding it and reinforcing it.

Just be sure to reward her when she sits. If she jumps on you when you first come home, just stand there, don't look at her, talk to her or touch her. Eventually she'll sit down. When she does, reward it. Doing this will teach her to sit when you enter because sitting gets her attention faster, which is what she wants. Eventually you will be able to walk in, she'll be sitting and you can pat her on the head and say hi right when you get home. Same thing with guests. Just have a volunteer come over and explain to them exactly what you want them to do and why. When they come in, just start a conversation with them and be sure to face each other. Pay no attention to the dog until she sits. You'll get the same result. Just vary it with different guests and you won't have a problem.

Also, be warned that once the behavior becomes extinct or disappears, it may suddenly come back. This sudden reoccurance of a previously extinct behavior is called a spontaneous recovery. She's basically testing to make sure it's still not going to get any results. Just ignore it as usual and reinforce when she sits, be sure not to reinforce it or awknowledge it in any way. The behavior will go away again and stay away longer.

If people who get new puppies would just stop and think before they act, they could nip this unwanted behavior in the bud before it even begins.

Puppies are so cute, cuddly, soft and friendly that the first thing we all do is make a fuss over them.

When they wake up or approach us, we talk to them in a high pitched simpering voice;
(dog language for "lets play").

When they're doing something they shouldn't; we speak to them in a louder than usual and excited voice, getting them all fired up again.

The biggest mistake we often make is fussing over them when leaving them alone and making an even bigger fuss when we return as if they were human infants.

If we could remind ourselves at all times to remain calm and speak in a normal tone of voice around the pup, except during playtimes; they'd grow up as calm, well behaved dogs who seldom ever needed corrections for jumping, barking and displays of unwanted excitability! They'd seldom suffer from seperation anxiety either!

Ok, I'll have to try that next time, thanks! By the way, when I ask Sadie to come to me when were out somewhere she won't do it consistently unless I have treats. But when my dad calls her she always comes. How do I get her to come without the treats? Thanx again!

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Originally posted by b-lynn:
Ok, I'll have to try that next time, thanks! By the way, when I ask Sadie to come to me when were out somewhere she won't do it consistently unless I have treats. But when my dad calls her she always comes. How do I get her to come without the treats? Thanx again!

She should be 100 percent reliable on leash before attempting to call her off leash. You must be consistent!!!! Never, ever give a command you can't enforce. If you do, you're setting her up for failure and setting your training back by weeks or even months.

Well, I've been taking her to a fenced area, and I've been working on it with her. She's starting to come to me, but I've been using snowballs as a reward, (I'll throw one for her everytime she comes) and it's been working (I watched a video on teaching your dog to come, so I've based what I'm doing on that). I've been hoping to get her to respond to all of her commands no matter what the situation so I can try to get her into agility training. Do you know how old a dog should be before doing this? I've heard that you shouldn't go jogging with a puppy until it is over a year old, is it the same with agility? This is my first puppy, so I haven't got a clue about this sort of thing! lol, my old dog was older then me! Thanks for all the information, it's really helping a lot!