Help...guest excitement!!

Hi dear friends,

My 7 month old Enya has always been excited when guests come home but, she has been taking it to another level the last couple of weeks. It looks like she goes 'mental' out of excitement when visitors come.

If I know that I am expecting guests at a particular time, I leave her in my laundry room a few minutes before (where her crate is situated). When my visitors have settled down and want to meet Enya, I bring her out, with the leash. OMG...she goes beserk when she sees them. She lunges, jumps and barks like a mad dog while trying to lick and kiss them. Her whole body is wriggling out of excitement. I know she is hyper excited but to an outsider she looks like an aggressive dog trying to bite them. I have tried bringing her out without the leash but then I am unable to hold her.

Any command I give at that time is not heard...she is in a different state and has tuned me out completely. After a few minutes, I give up and put her back in the laundry room

What am I doing wrong? I am afraid to have visitors meet her as not everyone likes to be jumped upon by a big dog. She is a sweet girl who loves people but just cannot contain her excitement.

Thanks,
Priya

 

It is difficult , this is the age when its " here I am, love me, fuss me , I love you all " , I remember it well ! First thing is yes by all means put her away whilst your visitors settle down , but request that when you do unleash the beast , they ignore her ! Nothing winds up an exuberant Labrador puppy more than hand waving , shrieks , basically any attention ! Keep her on lead, maybe you could also ask if your guests could be standing when she first comes in , less chance of causing chaos, jumping etc . when people are standing up , sounds a little extreme but it worked for me and mine . Have a look at the sticky articles in behaviour , and try practicing the LAT regime , its a case of repetition and patience but she will get there, its just a really silly age x

 

Depending upon your room set up you could also use a stair gate so Enya is on the otherside and remains there until calm. Then bring her in to the room to greet, on lead. If she starts jumping/lungeing you can calmly lead her back to other side if the gate. It is a way of introducing calm, allows greeting while any other behaviour has her seperated but able to see and hear visitors. An alternative is to bring her in on lead and then sit while wrapping the lead around leg and under foot to prevent the jump (so a train settle position ) and allow her to calm down with the visitors present. My preference is for the stair gate . Good luck and remember it does get better

 

My 4 mo old is the same. Advice has been make her sit before they can pet her, have the guest ignore her, turn their backs on her, put your foot on her leash to hold her down. Doesn't help. She is just completely out of control with excitement. As you said, any command given at that time is not heard. "Sit" before greeting will never happen when she's in this state of mind. Having guests ignore her or turn their backs does not stop her from jumping on them from behind. I can put my foot on her leash and she will still attempt to jump so hard I fear she'll hurt her neck. Puppies really are out of their minds when they get like this. They don't even realize they are hurting themselves. Sometimes I take her to busy places like Petsmart hoping if she sees a million people and other dogs it will eventually become so ordinary it's not so exciting anymore. But I don't know how months/years that will take. So far spending an entire hour at Petsmart once or twice a week for the past several weeks has done absolutely nothing to dampen her enthusiasm.

 

Thank you for your responses! I am trying the methods mentioned above. Like @cdwarrior, I also do the Pet Smart trips to get her used to people and other dogs. Yesterday, when a friend came for tea, Enya was behind a baby gate and kept barking her head off and jumping up as she wanted to greet my friend too! It took her almost an hour to calm down. Once, she was calm we went to her and gave her a treat. I let her out for a few minutes, with the leash in my hand but again all she wanted to do was jump on the visitor and lick her face. I put her back in when she started that behavior. She got all revved up and began to bark again. Sigh...its going to be along road it seems

 

It might not be as long as you think. My puppy used to jump at lot and I used her lead, told people to ignore her, turn their backs on her and I asked for a sit. She is now 12 months old and apart from the occasional jump when she forgets herself in the excitement, she has stopped. In fact she is so eager to say hello, you can see her thinking ‘oh yes, I have to sit and then I will get a fuss’. I was really worried about her around my 95 year old mum and 85 year old MIL and having lots of adults and children in the house the last few days but she was brilliant. Amazing what a few months and consistency makes .

 

Hi, my 20 week old pup has started barking/ growling at visitors. We’ve been doing the bathroom. She met the plumber and was great but when the joiner came (she was in her play pen) she did the jumping barking then when he came closer she growled. She’s fine with visitors she knows. How did I help her with this. Thanks