Help me with a too friendly Labrador

[rudolphdrops]

We have, through very sad circumstances, took on my brothers two year old Labrador. We already have an older Lab and they get on brilliantly and he is a total sweety and on a whole very well behaved. He is still full of the bouncy enthusiasm and I do realise that will be with us for a good few years yet.

However, when anyone visits he becomes so hyper excited and charges in a red mist of loving. Obviously the times when someone has knocked first I do put him in another room and introduce him at a distance until he is slightly calmer (or just keep him in another room for non dog people, I'm aware he is too much for them) Just to reiterate, this isn't a friendly canter then pushy tail wagging, it is a thundering gallop followed by jumping tail tucked, white eyed mist.

Out walking he is fab on the lead. Off lead great at recall with no one in sight but if he sees another dog or person, he again would charge.

I do have a trailing lead on him all the time to stop this. And after introduction to other dogs he plays lovely with them.

So it's been 4 months of this now and although I am controlling the situation it isn't getting any better.

Is there anything I can do to get him to listen when he is in this red mist. I guess I'm just not exciting enough compared to new shiny people coming into his world.

You need to set up the situation as a training opportunity. So start with a couple of friends who can help you out. Pop the dog on the lead and walk him up to the friend. If he jumps up the friend should fold her arms and turn her back to the dog. You walk away and approach again. If the dog jumps up repeat as often as necessary. If the dog keeps all four feet on the ground the friend should give him a treat (if the dog gets too excited again the friend should go back to folding her arms and turning around). Try this with as many friends as possible over a few weeks.

Then repeat similar with the door. The friend should be told to come to the door, knock, you keep the dog on a lead, open the door. If the dog jumps up the friend should turn around and walk away. If the dog keeps all four feet on the ground the friend should walk in and treat the dog. Repeat with as many people as possible.

Alternatively teach the dog to go to his bed and ask him to stay there while people come through the door. You will need one person to deal with training the dog while another opens the door.

That turning round and ignoring, and treating for not jumping up works. It's boring and takes a bit of time but it works.
The hardest bit is reinforcing it with friends/family
no! Don't stroke him til he is sitting nicely!
My collie was the same but great now. Will take the piss if give the opportunity though.

Thanks, everyone that comes regularly does totally ignore him but it has made no difference, it is quite bizzare how frenzied he becomes. He is very food orientated (no surprise there) but even after he has calmed down to a point that he will listen to me he is too wound up to even acknowledge the treat. I will try him on the lead and it's probably a great time to train him as we will be having a higher than normal number of visitors being Christmas.

Is there any tricks to getting his attention back while he is in this state of frenzy, nothing vocal or food seems to work. He is completely absorbed in the person he is trying to get to.

rudolph I have a Goldie that's exactly the same! So no advice but lots of sympathy.

What types of treats are you using? Store bought are pretty useless to be honest. Try upping the stakes and use little bits of chicken, smoked sausage, ham etc.

A bit of store bought and meat treats, a friend suggested cutting up some cooked liver pieces as they have quite a pungent wiff that might catch his attention. I think I will have to ask my DM to do that, I'm a bit squeamish.

HelgatheHairy I actually feel quite sad for him as he doesn't come across well with visitors and he is such a lovely soft cuddly dog.

Roughly where do you live? I know of a perfect, half day training course which would help you a lot.

North East Daisy

England that is

Rudolph exact same as mine! He LOVES people and rubs and is the softest thing imaginable with 4 month old DD - it's just other people. Had a run in with the area gossip the other day (he didn't touch her as on lead, just bouncy) and I'm sure by now everyone in the area thinks I have a devil dog living with the baby!

I have a golden retriever so have exactly the same issues.
I agree that the meet and greet exercise helps loads, although just having visitors ignore him won't do it. He needs to make the connection between leaping about and the thing he wants (ie to say hello to new person) going away. He has to learn to control his impulses voluntarily in order to get what he wants. You can start this amongst your own family.when one of you comes home and he wants to greet you, get the other person to pop him on lead in a sit at heel. It is VERY important to make no eye contact or engage the dog in any way at this point, as it is a mixed message. Once he can cope with you indoors, do it outside, then move on to friends at home, then outdoors etc upping the anti slowly over time
Also a rock solid 'leave it' command is your friend. Start with food in your hand and you can progress it over time to food on the floor, you leaving the room etc. you can also use people,objects,scavenged food crap found on walks, horse poo etc once he knows the command. On lead to start with, let him get interested in something low value and let him start to go forwards to it. As soon as he does, give a leave it command and walks backwards. Treat with something he really loves and praise. Do it a few times and the lead will no longer become taught.....he will have worked out what to do to get the nicer treat. Again keep upping the anti until it becomes automatic for him to turn and follow you on that command regardless of what is in front of him. You are then ready to use it off lead!

whoknows that's brilliant. Thank you.

He is fantastic at leave it. We laughed the other day as DD2 had given him a treat on the floor and told him to leave it, she got distracted when DH shouted at her to turn her light off, wandered to the loo then came down some minutes later. So off she went came back and he was still staring at the treat.

He will also recall half way through a chase for a thrown ball, so he has a really good recall and obedience, except with people. Funny he will obey the leave command with joggers and cyclists.

Just not walking, stationary or visiting people. I will get his lead to hand at all times and start there. Thanks

You can't really teach him this with people just ignoring him because they are not really ignoring properly. Normal visitors will continue talking to you, keep walking into the house, move their arms around, etc. all of which is fun attention for the dog. They really have to be primed to fold their arms, turn their backs and walk away. It really does work!

Alternatively teach him a 'stop'. Start this in a part of the house with a natural barrier like a doorway, a change in footing (e.g. from carpet to tiles) or a step. Walk with the dog towards the barrier and just as you get there turn around so that you are in front of the dog and say 'stop' using a flat palm movement in front of the dog (nice and gently, no need to dominate or anything like that!). Repeat until the dog does a sit or down (doesn't matter which, either indicates reluctance to cross the barrier), then call the dog to you and treat. A few weeks into this training you should be able to command the stop from the side of the dog and later from behind the dog.

Ditto the advice regarding training classes. Any decent training class would teach all these techniques which come in very handy for a variety of situations.

Can I hijack slightly and ask the experts here a question about a related problem. My young rescue gets very excited when visitors come. He's actually okay with people at the door, if the doorbell rings he calmly comes with me, has a sniff and that's it. But when people actually come into the house he charges about with the zoomies (you know that thing when you hear their claws in the carpet as they change direction!), bounces off walls, highly excited, occasionally jumping up (although better at that now after doing the ignoring techniques outlined here). After a bit, once he has 'met' everyone, he calms down, and then is perfectly fine for the rest of the visit (although he is a bit of a cuddle monster pest, and will try and climb on visitors laps if they let him).

What techniques would work? It is just that he is highly excited - but it's scary for non-dog people/children.

Pretty sure I don't qualify as an expert, but I'll go first

What you are describing is a dog over threshold. It could indeed be down to excitement but it could also be stress. Impossible to say which without seeing the dogs body language

I would develop a 'watch me' command. Start at a quiet non stressful time. On lead is best and a clicker will make it about 100 times easier.Wait until you dog looks at you, click and treat. Keep doing this until he realises it's the looking at you that's important. Then add a word command to it.
Practise in gradually more challenging situations so that he learns to ignore what's going on around him and focus his attention on you whenever you ask for it.
The visitors coming should then be tackled. Put him on lead before you answer the door and keep him on it until he is completely calm. Then use your 'watch me' command whenever needed, clicking and treating calm behaviour.

As above, getting the dog to pay you attention can work really well. Some dogs prefer a sit stay command rather than watch me. Some dogs settle with a really nice chew. Try a couple of things and see what works best.

The most difficult thing is that you will need to give you attention to the dog rather than the visitor so you may want to prime your visitors about what is going to happen!

Also be patient, which ever one of these techniques you use will take 2-3 weeks of consistent application before you say a change.