Freddie is 21 months old and is very friendly! The problem is he is too friendly and greets people when we are out with too much enthusiasm and the other day knocked over the same lady twice! Luckily she was very understanding but I was mortified. He didn't jump up at her although he does do that too sometimes. When I saw her approach with her 3 dogs I put him on his lead but she said it was ok to let him off to play with her dogs. We have seen her out before and they have previously played together. He sat whilst I unclipped his lead and waited for me to release him to 'go play' so far so good. But he ran straight to her wrapped himself around her legs a bit like a cat and then forced himself between her legs from behind causing her too loose her balance. I quickly caught hold off him and checked she was ok and offered to put him back on lead. She said he was fine. We then walked together for a while and he ran and played with her youngest dog. The problem is he doesn't look where he is going when playing and crashed into the lady again! She is an experienced dog owner and I had a good talk to her about how boisterous he is . She said he is young and not at all aggressive just very friendly! He has a good recall but I feel I can not let him off his lead incase he knocks into someone he is a big dog and could cause an injury. Will I just have to keep him on lead when we see other people? He loves to play with other dogs but I don't think I can risk him hurting either another dog or a person with his clumsy play. He also does the going between peoples legs thing as a greeting in the house and has nearly knocked over a few visitors who weren't expecting it! Help please!
I often put Tatze on the lead when we see other people. If they look old or young or have a stick or pale coloured clothes I just don’t risk it. She’s still a bit over friendly in her greetings at five years old. Keir is only twelve months old, much bigger than Tatze, and can be trusted off lead, even with toddlers.
I'm so sorry, I had to laugh! I'm sure you didn't at the time though It must be quite a worry for you. Would it be possible for you to find a positive trainer to help you find a way for him to learn a more appropriate way to greet people?
If he is still jumping sometimes you could teach him not to jump by using high value treats. If you see someone approach get him to sit holding a treat under his nose until the person has passed if he remains sitting or at least has all paws on the ground treat him well, this of course will need lots of training. You could also teach him "look at me" again using high value treats. Starting at home, lure him with a treat and hold it to you face, when he looks at your face say "look at me" and treat or you can mark this behaviour with a clicker if you use one. When he understands what you want try it walking up your street. When meeting people out and about I would keep him on lead until he is reliably responding to the training, then you can advance it to off lead with the same training. You could also use a 'hand touch' so again the same deal with the treats, get him to touch your hand with his nose = treat, when he is reliably doing this add a "touch" cue. I use this at long distances to get Hattie to return to me if I want her to. It means your dog is keeping an eye on you. As for visitors in your home, put your dog in another room until your guests have arrived and are settled, say 5-10 mins. this gives him time to calm down. Instruct your visitors to totally ignore him when you let him out, if he behaves they can treat him. Or you could put him on lead so that he can't rush up to them, if he says "hello" nicely he gets a treat. Hope that helps a little x
Thank you for your replies. We do go to a reward based training class once a week which is helping he just doesn't apply what he learns in the hall to when he is out on a walk! But I will work on it. He knows touch and I will work on look at me too. Thanks!
It doesn't work on his walk because you need to proof this training, so you need to work on it in low distraction areas, e.g. in your house, move from room to room slowly introducing low level distractions then move to your garden applying the same low distractions, make sure you use high value rewards during this training. Move on slowly making sure he is succeeding before you move on and only then introduce more distractions and then try just walking up your street for a few minutes a few times a day, don't overdo it. Involve your friends and family to assist you with your training and it will make a difference. Keep going you will get there x
