How to teach dog to be calm around visitors

[Juanbablo]

My brother is in our bubble and our dog absolutely loves him. The dog is 16 months and very friendly. But he jumps up, tries to lick my brother's face and then bites/chews his hands. We've tried exchanging this for toys but it makes him more hyper.

Today I basically kept him on the lead or in his crate because he was being so stupid. So I really need to address this. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hmm we have a similar issue! Have you tried leaving a toy/treat outside the front door, then when visitors come they can ask your dog to go to his bed, then reward with toy/treat? Repeat until dog sufficiently distracted or calm?

Sorry just seen that you makes more hyper. In that case I would maybe advise no reward for that behaviour. Eg for you/your brother to ignore /fold arms across chest/turn head away** until dog is calm then reward calm behaviour with attention/fuss. Feels mean but works

Could you start by training him to keep four paws on the floor and he gets rewarded for that only? This can be trained by you and reinforced by visitors giving him a treat when he’s got four paws on the floor.

We don’t mind the excitement, but do discourage jumping up and this works for us.

We have an over-excited puppy at the moment and while it's a long slow job, we're ignoring jumping up, and rewarding paws-on-the-floor with praise and attention.

Now and then she hurts one of us and gets shouted at - hard not to when you've had claws raked across your knee.

We want it cracked by the summer because summer clothes offer zero protection, but we know from past experience that we'll get there.

Has the dog got a calm or settle cue when there is no one around?

I would work on settle on a mat when there are no distractions so at least the behaviour is understood.

Then build up the distractions.

No harm in keeping the dog on a lead whilst your brother is around to prevent the crazyness being practised. Just remove the dog from the room when he is ott. So to start with he may only be in the room for a millisecond

Had this problem. Dog now only gets attention when she sits.
Worked so far. Ish.

Get your brother to totally ignore the dog until it's calm. No eye contact, arms folded, and turn away. The dog only gets rewarded or given attention when all four paws are on the floor.

Jumping up is SUCH a hard behaviour to train out of them because lots of people accidentally reward it. For example, a dog will run up to a dog lover, who will fuss them, or they'll jump at someone and find a treat in a pocket.

Mine is three and STILL jumps when he's excited. It's very frustrating. I put him on a lead around strangers who may dislike the behaviour or encourage it, and at home he's on a lead around visitors until he calms down.

Saying all that, we had someone in the house on Friday to replace our boiler, and after a sniff and a fuss, he pretty much ignored him completely. So there is hope

Thank you everyone. Some great advice! He doesn't jump up when people are standing but when they sit down he will jump onto the sofa. He's tiny so it's not that he's huge and leaping over everyone but it's still an absolute pain. He knows "up" and "down" so I think we will start with a settle command and making him get down from the sofa and stay down. A few things to work on.

We’re struggling with this too. It’s hard because he doesn’t jump up at us (so can’t practice ignoring) just exciting visitors. I end up shouting at people to turn away from him but it’s seems like I’m being rude. Often they don’t turn in time and have already fussed over him.

I’ve tried to get him to go to his bed and reward with a treat. But he doesn’t want the treat he wants to jump all over the visitor.

I’m thinking maybe we have to have him on a lead every time someone comes over (which is never now but want to get it sorted). But hard with unexpected visitors. I also think the minute I take the lead off he’ll jump.

Watching for advice. Mine is a big lab so really don’t want him jumping up at people.

georgie and co .... how do I

Could you start by training him to keep four paws on the floor and he gets rewarded for that only?

This is something it would be GREAT for mine to learn!

You need a shed load of high value treats and a ton of patience. Every time he has four paws on the floor, you say ‘Yes’ instantly and then give a treat. If he’s bouncing around just wait and seize the moment. You have to be quick to mark the good behaviour with the treat so they make the connection.

Or you can strengthen your ‘sit’ command since he probably already knows that one. Make it highly rewarding to listen to you and practice it with distractions.

I read the easy peasy puppy squeezy book and found it excellent for his kind of thing.

Georgie thanks... and coincidentally just ordered easy peasy a couple of hours ago...

He is darn good at sitting but I think four paws would be really great to work on too! Sounds like Im going to need to be patient so might wait until Ive done a couple of the more important ones first!