# greeting guests?



## Minnieski (Jan 27, 2009)

Hi,

So lately Minnie has be a bit exuberant when guests arrive. She doesn't jump on them, but she does jump next to them, lick them a LOT, and run in circles around them. If they ignore her, like I've been telling them to, she will settle down after a few minutes, and lay down. If they try to pet her and bend down when she's excited like that, she'll hop up and lick their faces (yucko for some of my guests). We have worked on her "stay" and "place" commands (place is where she has to go to a certain spot and wait there to be released, so that she's not crowding people in the entry way). She does ok with waiting, it needs work, but it's coming along, but once I release her to go say hi she goes nuts. I'm getting so frustrated with the whole situation. Also, if the guests stay standing, she is pretty good about laying down, but if they sit down, she has to stick her face on their lap and crowd them for attention. It's gotten to the point where she has to be on a leash when we have guests over so that she doesn't annoy them. :help:

Now Tanner on the other hand, has the opposite problem. He's only 4 months old, so we're working on his stay. But if he breaks it, it's to run to the other side of the room, and bark at the guests while tracking back and forth across the wall. 

So I have one dog who can't WAIT to love up on my guests, and one that doesn't want anything to do with them. I think if I work on Tanner's stay he'll be alright, so long as I tell people to let him approach them instead of them approaching him. He doesn't bark at people at the stores, just people who come over to the house. I've been having them toss him treats when he comes in, and he warms up a bit. But I don't know what to do with Minnie. I really want her to be able to stay out and be around our guests, but she can't if she's annoying them all the time.  She doesn't do this with us, btw, we have very low key greetings and goodbyes. With our greetings, for example, we walk in, pat her a few times, and then ignore her until she settles into a down. Then if she's calm we'll rub her belly a few times. She doesn't annoy us, but she's ALL OVER our guests. :help:

Thanks.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

as part of my dogs socializing
i had people visit us often. i called 
family, friends and neighbors
to come visit our puppy. i made sure
my pup had visitors daily and sometimes
several visits druing the day.

in the beginning i always had my
dog leashed when visitors came. i
always held the leash close to his neck
so he couldn't jump up. i held the leash
this way whether we were meeting
people on the street or at home. i use to hang
out in front of the Supermarket (near the doors)
because there's plenty of people coming and
going that want to pet a puppy.

once my dog got older and he
learned "go to your bed" he would
wait in his bed untill i released him.
when i released him i made sure he walked
towards the visitors. 

i think the key in "greeting training"
is to make sure you have visitors. go to
some busy place and hang out because
there's many people that want to pet a pup.

when you have lots of visitors at home
and you work with your dog in a busy
area your dog will learn to greet people at
home or in public.


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

What helped with my dog because he gets over excited when visitors come over, is I put him on his bed and he's not allowed to come meet them until he's calm. When he's calm he's allowed to come say hi, but as soon as he gets over excited i put him back on his bed.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

do you have the occassional visitor
or did you invite people and dogs
over to practice greeting?

in order to teach a good greeting
you need visitors. i think you need
more than the occassional visitor to teach
a dog how to greet.



DCluver33 said:


> What helped with my dog because he gets over excited when visitors come over, is I put him on his bed and he's not allowed to come meet them until he's calm. When he's calm he's allowed to come say hi, but as soon as he gets over excited i put him back on his bed.


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

doggiedad said:


> do you have the occassional visitor
> or did you invite people and dogs
> over to practice greeting?
> 
> ...


I completely agree. We had a lot of different people come over (family, friends and neighbors that he really didn't know) other wise he would forget what he was supposed to do, now when visitors come over he goes straight to his bed. we're still working on having other people bring their dogs over that's still a work in progress.


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## GSDSunshine (Sep 7, 2009)

Something else which I don't think was mentioned yet. When you have guests come over have her on a leash. the moment her little paws leave the floor, she is removed from the room. A quick uh-oh and then walk her away from the room into a hallway or a bedroom, where she can't see the guest. When she calms down, bring her back into the room and let her greet them, the moment her feet come off the ground give another uh oh and walk her back to her cool down area. It might take 5-10-20 tries, but eventually the gears in her head will start to move and she will understand that she can only greet her friends when she is calm and has all four feet on the floor.


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

GSDSunshine said:


> Something else which I don't think was mentioned yet. When you have guests come over have her on a leash. the moment her little paws leave the floor, she is removed from the room. A quick uh-oh and then walk her away from the room into a hallway or a bedroom, where she can't see the guest. When she calms down, bring her back into the room and let her greet them, the moment her feet come off the ground give another uh oh and walk her back to her cool down area. It might take 5-10-20 tries, but eventually the gears in her head will start to move and she will understand that she can only greet her friends when she is calm and has all four feet on the floor.


that's a good idea too never thought of that lol.


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## Minnieski (Jan 27, 2009)

Kira we'll have to try that. We have people over as often as possible when the pups are small, but we just moved to this area not too long ago and we don't have a vast network of people that we can invite over. I take them to all the stores that allow dogs, to the park, out on walks, etc.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

We don't have people over often enough to really work on this, so it's been a problem here too. But keeping them on leash until they calm down has worked so far, hopefully we can get to the point where that's not even necessary. Mine will bark when people come over, and jump on them if they get the chance, so the leash prevents them from jumping, and I'll have them do downs and watches for treats. Once they calm down I drop the leashes, and then finally remove them, and they're great after that. 

We had a friend over on Memorial Day for a barbecue, and we took them outside and gave them Kongs with a biscuit in it and that occupied them long enough that the leashes came off within a few minutes, so I'll probably do that more often. They walked around soliciting attention once they were done with their toys, and Halo took a nap on our friend's feet, so it's really that first few minutes of excitement that we're dealing with. 

I really like Kira's idea of removing them from the room if they're not behaving properly, and then trying again. I think Victoria Stillwell did something similar on It's Me or the Dog.


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> I really like Kira's idea of removing them from the room if they're not behaving properly, and then trying again. I think Victoria Stillwell did something similar on It's Me or the Dog.


yup she uses that technique all the time it works too, my friend does that with her dog and it worked beautifully. I would use that idea but we don't have any rooms down stairs to put him in, except the bathroom but that's too small, so i use his bed


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

when my dog was 11 weeks old i started
having people visit with their dogs and pups.
not only to work on greeting people and dogs coming into
the house we worked on greeting when people or dogs
came directly into the backyard.

i had a lot of people help train/socialize my dog
in many situations. friends, neighbors, family
and people we met on the street.



DCluver33 said:


> we're still working on having other people bring their dogs over that's still a work in progress.


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