Over enthusiastic greetings

[OneDayIWillLearn]

My dog is a 15 month Border Terrier and he is generally doing well and a pleasure to own but there are a couple of training related issues I still don’t feel we have cracked.

One of these are his over-enthusiastic greetings. Since he was a small puppy I’ve focused on not letting him jump up to greet people as it’s a really important one for me - the advice I read (and was given at classes) was to ignore him until he had ‘four on the floor’ and we’ve been really consistent with that. It took him ages but he does now ‘know’ that he needs to not jump up on us when we greet him.

HOWEVER

1. Though he doesn’t jump up on us now, he is far from calm when greeting us and will still leap in the air with four feet off the floor before he ‘remembers’ he’s meant to be on the ground. Lots of whining/ panting/ growling etc
2. He still jumps up when greeting people outside the immediate family so doesn’t seem to have ‘applied’ his training with us to anyone else. I manage this by holding his collar to stop him or putting him in his crate if for example children are visiting our house. But I don’t really feel this has solved the problem and whenever half a chance arises he will be jumping up again.

What other strategies can we use with this behaviour? He has a lovely affectionate nature but I’m really uncomfortable with having a dog that jumps up and need something new to try!

He's still young. Keep going with ignore, ignore, ignore.

Always drop treats onto the floor when you approach. He will be snuffing around on the floor head down looking for treats rather than jumping up in the air.

If you are consistent he will start to look down when he greets people. When this is calmer behaviour you can reward the sit but again drop the treats on the floor so he does not have to raise up to get the treats from your hand

Border terrier slave and trainer speaking. To a point it’s what they do. They are pawy dogs as they were bred to irritate foxes out of holes. If you watch them play they box.. They also don’t cope with frustration well so ignoring is the worst thing you can do. What we do ourselves is drop to floor level for greetings. Don’t give then chance to jump up. We’ve also taught ‘get a toy’ which works well for the mouthing - she whizzes off to grab a toy. With other people we tend to not allow greetings unless we can keep four on the floor. Food. Food is your weapon here. Keep shoving it in for keeping them down and then walk away. In the house drop food. Tiny bits. They don’t need much.

He’s very young. Mine is 2 now and only just beginning to grow up!

Haha it’s so true, he uses his paws A LOT! The number of times I’ve been gently pawed in order to scratch/ keep scratching his tummy - he would love to have hands, I swear 😂

thanks for the tips too, I will try both of those. How did you teach ‘get a toy’? We’ve taught him various commands and tricks so I think he’ll be able to pick something like that up….

It sort of came naturally when she was a pup. We used to shove a toy in her mouth when she was biting then mouthing. She is a mouthy dog generally and when excited in particular. Some dogs are. So one day she grabbed a toy when she was excited. After a few times we put a cue on it ‘Bills get a toy’. She soon was whizzing off to grab one. Now often when she’s excited she will automatically get one as it’s become habit. You can just play with one with them, throw it a little way away and as they drive to it put a cue on it 🙂