Enthusiastic greeter

[RD]

What do you do to manage an excitable dog when greeting strangers?

Every day I'm out with Eve, I have people asking if they can pet her, but I have to say no because she is too intense about her greetings. When someone says hello to her and pets her, she gets excited, thrashes around, throws herself down for a belly rub and just makes a fool of herself. After she makes a scene (which people just looooove because it's sooooo cuuuute!) I find that it's harder for her to concentrate on working because she's wondering if anyone else will pet her.

I've been thinking that she'll outgrow this, but she's now a year old and I don't care to let it continue. I don't mind the way she greets people but I'd rather she stand politely for petting and snap back into working mode when the attention stops.

Typically I'd just tell people they can't pet her and that would be the end of that problem, because she behaves very professionally otherwise, but she needs to be able to greet people politely in order to pass her public access test, so this is an issue that I need to address. She's passed the entire test except for this one issue.

What would you do with an over-enthusiastic greeter?

 

[lizzybeth727]

I'd teach her an alternative behavior - something she does which will make it impossible to "make a fool of herself." I teach my dogs to sit for petting, and stay in the sit until I say they can get up. To do this, you'll have to teach strangers, too - always tell them, "Let me have my dog sit, and if she gets up, back off until I get her to sit again." They're usually very happy to comply, especially if you tell them you're training your dog. Then give your dog lots of treats while she's sitting for petting, 1 treat at a time about a second apart. When she gets better at this, you can give gradually fewer treats, but given how excited she gets, it might take a while!

You could also have her stand, if you want, but I think sitting is easier for them because they have to concentrate on staying on the floor. You could also do a down, but if she rolls over on her back, tell the people to back away until she flips back over.

Incidently, what public access test are you doing?

 

[RD]

I agree Lizzybeth that it's more of an issue of teaching strangers, but I guess that's where I'm running into trouble. People seem to think that just because she's a cute puppy (never mind a service dog!) she should be petted whenever she does something cute and they actually get offended when I tell them to stop petting her. I don't have a ton of nerve around strangers and I've kinda skipped around this issue because it's stressful to deal with.

She'll hold a sit or stand-stay while she's being petted, but she moves when the person walks away or stops petting her. I feel so stupid, not being able to teach my dog to hold a stay of all things!

I don't have a training club or anything of the sort around here either, so my only training assistance is dog-savvy friends who Eve behaves perfectly around. It's total strangers that are her weakness, and I often don't have the patience for them.

We're doing ADI's public access test.

 

[adojrts]

RD, oh I feel your pain My stud dog is like that, he earned the name Bonzi Bobbi for good reason!! If people didn't go to Bobbi, he went to the them by leaping into their arms and licking their face and ears. Needless to say, he had to be on leash and he had to be better trained. I worked very hard on auto sits and four on the floor when greeting people. Of course that was all done with PR and a clicker. I have to give him credit however, he never behaved that way with children ever. With kids he was slow and gentle and never tried to leap on them.
Bobbi is interesting to watch in public places, he has figured out that if he can make eye contact with people and they smile at him, that they are excellent candidates for over the top greetings. At almost 8 years old, he has not changed but he has learned to control himself and conduct himself correctly when greeting people, although he can forget himself sometimes :lol-sign:
Years ago, at his first agility trial, my students and those who know him, were taking bets as to how he would react to ring crew and the judge.........
well we were laying down a lovely clean run, on the last turn he all of sudden leaped out of the ring...........leaping onto the lap on one of my fellow exhibitors (someone he didn't know) throwing his front legs around this guys neck and covering his face and ears with heartly licks, tail a blurr.........Oh Bobbi.........I called him, on his way back to me, he noticed the judge and tried to leap into her arms as well. But she turned her back, I called he came back and we finished.
On the way out of the ring, I overheard someone saying 'Well theres one JRT that can't be accused of being aggressive!!"
So dealing with this is a whole bunch better than dealing with a negativity reactive dog

Hmmm little of track here lol, one thing that helped Bobbi was training him with self control games. Garrett's 1 2 3 game etc.
I would recommend you puchase Shaping Success by Susan Garrett, it has many excellent games and exercises that she uses. The book is a training journal and the story about Buzz her out of control, over the top Red/White BC, that she was told to give up on............He won several National Agility Championships over the years and proved many people wrong. Gotta love a great story!!!
Good luck
Lynn

 

[MafiaPrincess]

You sure you didn't somehow sneak Cider into your home? She used to be people shy. I'm not sure exactly when it happened but she is ALL over people suddenly. Was so excited she jumped the judge in rally o last weekend, and so excited she did a waist height swimmer's turn off a judge in agility 2 days ago... Not to mention the crating area was so cramped she found it an invitation to try to put her paws on anyone within 2 feet of her for head pats.

Glad she likes people suddenly. I'd like to curb it while keeping it positive. I fear her regressing and hating people if I correct it badly at all, but I don't want her jumping on the wrong person and getting a really hard knee to the head or chest as she's little and has a super low pain threshold. I try to keep her in an almost heel if we approach people while walking to make sure an oops liek that can't happen..

 

[StunnedMonkey]

I dunno, but if you figure it out please let me know. Darby (10 months) is exactly like that, she's like a live wire and nothing at all can keep her from her greeting theatrics. We can physically restain her from jumping up, but that's about it. Bouncing, rolling, flopping, squirming...it's like a Mary Lou Retton floor routine when someone comes over. We've tried most all of the common techniques, but the dog just goes into another zone when she greets someone, even someone she's met 20 times before.

I think I'll just get a "Beware of the Wheaten Greetin'" front door welcome mat and be done with it.

 

[adojrts]

I guess with my ramblings I didn't state very well what worked.
Absolute focus on the handler, 'watch me', and self control games.
One of the games, is to hold kibble in your hand, let the dog sniff, lick, paw etc your hand, when the dog backs away, give them the kibble, then do it again, this time when the dog backs away open your hand and show them the kibble, if they move towards the kibble, close the hand, when they show self control of sitting/downing etc with control and waiting, reward by giving them the kibble.

RD, I still highly recommend Shaping Succes, although it is about agility, the benefits it has for all dog training and teaching control is very high.
You also may look in Unleashed Control both can be purchased at www.cleanrun.com

Good luck
Lynn

 

[lizzybeth727]

I agree Lizzybeth that it's more of an issue of teaching strangers, but I guess that's where I'm running into trouble. People seem to think that just because she's a cute puppy (never mind a service dog!) she should be petted whenever she does something cute and they actually get offended when I tell them to stop petting her. I don't have a ton of nerve around strangers and I've kinda skipped around this issue because it's stressful to deal with.

She'll hold a sit or stand-stay while she's being petted, but she moves when the person walks away or stops petting her. I feel so stupid, not being able to teach my dog to hold a stay of all things!

Yeah, sounds like you'll just have to "nerve-up" and work on stopping people before they start to pet her. Remember that every time she goes "nuts" while people are petting her, she's just practicing that behavior and it'll take you at least three successful greetings to make up for that one unsuccessful one! If they get offended - first, stopping them and telling them the rules before they start petting will help, and second, just reiterate to them that she's a service dog and you have to be more strict with her or she will not pass her test!

Incidently, kids are much more understanding of the rules, and as long as your dog is good with kids, you might want to start there to get her some good practice.

Oh, and since you know she'll get up and follow the person when they stop petting her, go ahead and put a treat at her nose as soon as they begin to back away, and give it to her as they leave as long as she stays sitting.