General Question Overly excited... working on it!

[AubreysMom]

Aubie gets really excited around people (although not the seniors at my work... it's like she can sense she shouldn't??) and other dogs. If you pet another dog around her, she gets jealous and pushes her way inbetween, bullying and even trying to play with them. We've done well teaching her not to jump, so this is our next obstacle since we love to take her places and have her interact with other dogs.

Right now we are trying to find the best way to grab her attention when she starts to get excited and its inappropriate. From what I've read, you can either use clicker training or a word that is their cue to stop, sit, and look you in the eyes. We've tested it a few times today and it does work to calm her down. I took her out with my dad's dogs, started petting them, and when she started bullying, I said her name and motioned for her to sit and look at me for her reward. It worked great and even had her calmer after that without command when I was petting them. It even helped with her barking. See, the best way to Aubie is through her stomach and she learns REALLY fast when it involves food. Sometimes she's even too smart for her own good...

A couple questions...

Has anyone used this technique to calm excitement? Do you have a command you use? We are using her name because we want her to stop, turn, and look whenever we say her name as she does have the habit of ignoring us when she's being bully stubborn. I actually think it's helped because she already knows we want her attention when we say her name. Should we change that or is that ok?

Does anyone have any other techniques that have worked?

 

[2BullyMama]

A good technique is to find a word you do not use much in the house or with her...along with a VERY high valued treat. We did it with Nitschke and it worked really well..... his high value treat was fresh cooked chicken and the word was 'touch'. We would say it,,, he would stop and come right back to us. Banks... never worked with her, she is harder to get to refocus

 

[AubreysMom]

A good technique is to find a word you do not use much in the house or with her...along with a VERY high valued treat. We did it with Nitschke and it worked really well..... his high value treat was fresh cooked chicken and the word was 'touch'. We would say it,,, he would stop and come right back to us. Banks... never worked with her, she is harder to get to refocus

Thanks, Christine! I decided to settle on the word 'touch' also and it seems to be working. She's still learning, of course, but she's starting to understand what I want.

 

[Bullyproof]

A friend of mine has a 180lb. St Bernard, named Tonka. Lol he is a mini truck who used to love to claim space. Once he matured it got a bit out of hand so he trained him to understand the command, "space". It helped immensely!

I would most certainly listen to 2bullymama, she is so wise You might want to think about space as well as touch. It helps alot when people are in your home or other dogs for this matter There are youtube videos and lots of sites that talk about it.

I wouldnt stop there either. Work in all your commands and start some other new ones. It sounds like your dog is very interested in the world and a fast learner. Check out Dr Ian Dunbars, "Sirius" dog training. Lots of videos on youtube as well.

Good luck

 

[Vicaroo1000]

Bo is horrible like this. HORRIBLE.
And I have created this monster myself....!

Thank goodness he's food motivated. Ugh.

 

[samnie]

i also have the same problem with samnie. she gets too excited around other people. we go to my parent/sibling's house and she just dashes out of the car. we go to the pet store, puppy class, puppy playtime and same thing. i can't make her stop and she will just pull harder when i try to pull her back. even when we are out for a short walk, she sees a human and pulls me towards her/him. i bring treats but it doesn't always work.

some say it's a puppy thing...she's 6 months now and it hasn't changed!! is it really just a puppy thing?

 

[Rural mystic]

Same here with Ace. Wants to jump up on guests, usually family members, is all excited and competes with the maltese for attention. Meanwhile the maltese is yapping up a storm which gets them all even more excited. Have been working on obedience with Ace and he gets it pretty quick. Will start incorporating some of the advice given here for this issue as well. Thanks

 

[Vicaroo1000]

i also have the same problem with samnie. she gets too excited around other people. we go to my parent/sibling's house and she just dashes out of the car. we go to the pet store, puppy class, puppy playtime and same thing. i can't make her stop and she will just pull harder when i try to pull her back. even when we are out for a short walk, she sees a human and pulls me towards her/him. i bring treats but it doesn't always work.

some say it's a puppy thing...she's 6 months now and it hasn't changed!! is it really just a puppy thing?

Get a grip on it now. Bo weighs 80.4 pounds. If he didn't take direction from me, I'd be screwed. Still, the reason he does it with certain folks (neighbor lady, Jonathan the Maintenance kid) is because they ENCOURAGE IT -- and I don't stop it. (my fault) Because Bo can jump and lick and act crazy with these two folks, he will try to reapply that behavior to others -- which I must disagree with and do. It's probably confusing for him -- and I have created this monster myself. It's NOT HIS FAULT. So now I must deal with dealing with a behavior I could have completely prevented when he was a pup.

Fix it now, my friend! Seriously. It will only get worse.

 

[Rural mystic]

This seems to me to be a good method to train not to jump up on folks.
I just watched it yesterday and I think I will incorporate it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFscKdfpQWA&list=PLdHAoh-6bZ-iNfiyGtfJVv_JpF7cHbPc2&index=2

 

[samnie]

Get a grip on it now. Bo weighs 80.4 pounds. If he didn't take direction from me, I'd be screwed. Still, the reason he does it with certain folks (neighbor lady, Jonathan the Maintenance kid) is because they ENCOURAGE IT -- and I don't stop it. (my fault) Because Bo can jump and lick and act crazy with these two folks, he will try to reapply that behavior to others -- which I must disagree with and do. It's probably confusing for him -- and I have created this monster myself. It's NOT HIS FAULT. So now I must deal with dealing with a behavior I could have completely prevented when he was a pup.

Fix it now, my friend! Seriously. It will only get worse.

yes, i am really working on it. thanks for sharing this. but it is true - how other people encourage and it's hard to stop them. my parents, when they see my car they open their front door even before samnie gets out of the car and calls her, so yes of course, she comes running. i've told them over and over she needs to sit by door and wait, they tell me - no it's ok, she can just come in. grrrrr! and they enjoy it very much when she jumps on them, i say no it's not ok please don't encourage, they don't listen. grrrr! but yeah, this is what we're working on now.

 

[MeekosMummy]

Im so glad that im not the only one struggling with the over excited-ness. Meekos is when people come into the house or if he sees another dog. My problem is that he is really not interested in food when we are out or if people come over. He tries to outsmart u by pretendin to be calm and then the second u turn ur back hes up and running around again.
I have no idea how to help change his ways im strugglin so much

 

[TUZOtheBULLDOG]

Great info here - thanks to all!