Over excited puppy, what should I do?

[aleto]

Our 10 week old lab puppy gets very excited when he meets new people. My MIL came to tea today and he was so excited when she first arrived that he leapt onto her lap while she sat on the sofa and tried to nip her. I immediately took him off and took him into the kitchen to calm down. He did keep returning to her and was still quite nippy although he didn't jump on her again. I feel a bit of a failure, it's our first dog and I have no idea of how to keep him calm when he meets new people. He can sit on command but not when he is at this level of excitement. Help!!

[taxi4ballet]

My neighbour's dogs are middle-aged and still like this! The neighbour asks us to completely ignore them until they calm down.

It's easier doing this if you don't sit down (!) and it can take a fair while before they stop the hysterical wriggling, barking, jumping up, nipping etc - sometimes up to half an hour.

Definitely attention-seeking behaviour.

[moosemama]

I would actually recommend getting a dog/baby gate and putting him behind that before letting visitors in. You can give him a treat/chew/kong or something to work on while they are arriving and sitting down etc, then allow him into the room once they are settled and he is calm. In this way you are setting him up for success and make sure he is never reinforced with attention/fuss for getting it wrong and jumping up and/or nipping.

In the meantime, work on getting him to sit automatically whenever anyone comes through a door by making sure no-one gives him attention on entering the room until his bum is firmly planted on the floor. This is actually easier with pups, as they have a tendency to sit down when puzzled and the second that waggy little rear hits the ground you can reward them with your attention. A few practises, where he will get up once rewarded then has to work out he needs to sit again to get more interaction or another treat (however you're working) and the penny will soon drop. Clicker training is a great way to mark the exact moment he's doing what you want ie sitting, as he will probably get up the moment you turn/lean towards him, which can lead to reinforcing the wrong behaviour if you're not careful.

I do this with all my pups and actually don't use a cue/command in this situation, as I want them to learn to greet politely without being told to sit every single time someone comes through the door. If you are ok using the cue word though, you can improve his response by 'proofing' which is basically slowly upping the ante in terms of distractions while you are training him and getting him to 'sit' in as many different situations and circumstances as possible, only moving on to greater distractions once he's mastered the previous level, iyswim.

An alternative would be to teach him an alternative to greeting visitors, buy teaching him to go to his bed or a specific place and lie down whenever someone comes to the door. Both Victoria Stillwell and Kikopup have videos on YouTube on how to teach that.

... and don't feel like a failure. It's a common problem with young, excitable pups, but thankfully one that generally improves with maturity.