18mo border collie. She is getting on great it’s just this one thing I would like to change a bit. My children some times have friends round and I generally keep them apart as she will jump on them and lick them and I dont want to frighten them, although most are dog savvy luckily. Recently have said to the kids to completely ignore her and she does calm down a bit. But then they move around and she gets all excited again and the jumping starts again. It’s hard to practice with the kids cos she wants to lick their face and with them being at the right height it’s hard to stop her. I think I need to start with adults and progress to children in time.
when the doorbell rings I have her behind a stair gate (all the time - she never goes to the front door). This works well as she just lies behind the gate and waits to see what happens. But when guests then come in she jumps up on the stair gate wanting to reach them and jump up on them.
this morning I was thinking I would like to train her to go to her bed when doorbell rings. I tried pressing doorbell remotely and encouraging her to go to her bed for a treat. I think I could progress with this until she waits on her bed , that it what i am hoping. The. When guests come in keep her in that position until I tell her to “break” or whatever. Then she can speak to the guests if she sits nicely.
I am just aware I don’t want to do anything wrong. The last thing I want to do is make situation worse where she gets worried and anxious about it all. When I go to other peoples houses they seem to have a more relaxed approach to visitors where the dog mills around everyone’s feet as they come in the door. If I did that would that be better? And just tell visitors to ignore her? It’s really hard with getting visitors to ignore her. The kids actually follow my instruction but my parents insist on a combination of fusssing her and shouting “stay down” Even when am standing right there saying just ignore her please