Bosley & Hannah love, love people. Doesn't matter who you are, strangers or family get equal treatment. The issue is at 11 months old and weigh around 70 lbs. that's a lot of dog. They have recently started jumping up on anyone who comes to visit. This summer we will ha e a lot of company including small children and I cannot ha e them jumping up on them. They only do it when they first meet them and then really do settle down, but first impressions are so critical...help!
You could put Bosley and Hannah in another room when visitors arrive, a penned off area, behind a baby gate and when they are calm bring them out on lead so that you can control them and not allow them to jump and self reward. You could clicker train four paws on the floor which is fun for them. The biggest problem is visitors , you have to get them not to intereact with your dogs at all until they are calm and not jumping then reward. My dogs are 8 years and 5 years and I put them in a quiet room until they are calm and then they can come and say hello. I do this because people don't listen and destroy my training. Good luck! x
I agree with Helen. You can start practising on family. Get one of them to go out knock on the door. Decide on a cue word which means dogs in the kitchen now, take them in the kitchen, eventually they should learn to go in on cue, reward, close door. When the person has come in get them to sit in another room and insist they ignore the dogs when they come in. Take the dogs in on lead to begin with. If they start getting excited take them back out or stand still until they calm down. Gradually move nearer. If the dogs start getting excited move away again. They will get the idea that to get to the exciting person they must stay calm. I use this with my two although I have the complete opposite problem. My two are scared of strangers. They will go to a visitor excited like you'd expect labs to do, have a sniff then usually, there are exception, start barking like mad. As Helen has mentioned the difficult bit is getting visitors to ignore dogs. I ask them not to talk, make eye contact or try and touch very few manage it. Once your two are calm then the visitor can interact.
Just to add to the excellent advice, consistency is the key and that has to include everyone whether they are a visitor to the house or a resident We have one rule, Juno's bum has to be on the floor or she is not greeted - simple, and that includes getting up in the morning, returning to the house, greeting people while on a walk, in fact any situation.
