Jumping up

Max is now 8 months old and is really boisterous. Don't get me wrong, I love that about him, but my mother in law died last weekend and we have had many visitors to the house as you can imagine. He's not used to people calling so gets really excited and is a nightmare to keep calm.

My husbands side of the family are great with him as they have rotties and are used to big and boisterous, but my side of the family aren't used to dogs, I'd even go as far as to say that my mother really dislikes them as she is very nervous around them.

Yesterday she came for Christmas dinner and Max was a nightmare - he kept wanting to get "at them" to play, but ended up jumping all over my mother and even on her head at one point when he managed to slip past me and hubby. I was mortified.

Hubby usually holds him in his lap (he's a proper lap dog, so no hardship) as he just won't cool down enough to be trusted on his own with visitors as he just goes demented.

We've tried the ignoring him tactic until he realises that he's not going to get any attention until he calms down but it's either not working or not working quick enough. Any advice, I was pulling my hair out yesterday

I'm so sorry to hear about your mother in law, I hope you and your family are ok. Do you have a crate? If not, it might be worth getting one and putting Max in there when visitors arrive until he's calmed down. When you let him out to greet them, if he starts up again, just put him back in and repeat until he gets the message. Alternatively, you could simply put his lead on and keep him next to you until he's calmed down. Again, if he starts again when you take the lead off, just put it back on and repeat the process until he gets the message. Good luck!

Thanks Shon. We tried the crate but you know how vocal our boys (and girls) are, he just yelled the place down until we got him out again.

(I did threaten him with his manhood at one point which I don't think would be a bad thing )

Thanks for your sympathies, it was expected, but very quick, she was only diagnosed with cancer two weeks before she died. We're ok, up and down but at least the funeral is arranged, believe it or not we had a cancellation - who would have thought!

Obedience classes for my boy, methinks...

Just ignore him if he yells while in the crate. They're like children and need consistency and for you to be firm

Hey Max, I have the same problem with my Monty. He gets very excited when people come to the house, even putting him in his crate doesn't work, and ere is only so much barking and yelping my parents can take lol I am taking him to obedience classes I'm january thought to get come help with some basic skills.

Have you tried taking him for a long walk or play session before company comes over? If the crying inside the crate is too much for you you could also try having him go outside and meet the company and then go into the house. The more often people come around the more he will get used to it.

I have to say that this is almost 'normal' behaviour for a staffy of that age I had it with Harry and in fact this was the subject of my very first post on this forum. I always call it 'mugging visitors' He would jump up, pull scarves off, steal handbags and even hang off peoples coats as they were trying to take them off - all to get more attention and because he was so excited, he thought someone had come to play!

Tried everything, and it was especially difficult because I get very few visitors. When I asked a trainer what I should do he said that Harry had to learn that visitors were there to see me and not him. So as soon as the doorbell rings or someone arrives I tell him to go to his basket and I won't open the door until he does. Then I ask visitors to ignore him completely (usually of course they are saying how cute he is and making a fuss of him which doesn't help at all). Then I put him on the lead and bring him in and he can stay as long as he is calm.

Seems to take forever but they do catch on eventually.

Good luck, and I'm sorry to read of your loss.

We also have this problem when visitors come to the house, Tinkerbell espeically loves my mam and dad. My mam ignores her jumping and avoids any contact with her, Tink usually gets the message quickly and sits at her sidr waiting to be stroked. My dad on the other hand is a bit wary of dogs, even though they have one. He doesn't really react when she jumps on him but even I can see his nerovusness which makes Tinkerbell more excited. So it does take longer to calm her down with him.

I agree though that you need to ignore him when he cries in the crate. If you do let him out when he cries he has been rewarded. Totally ignoring him, whilst he is safe like this, is the best thing and he will soon calm down. When he is quiet and calm then bring him back out. Make sure eeach visitor ignores him and turns their back on him when he jumps at them. If he continues then take him back to his crate and repeat. He will soon calm down. But if you allow him to jump on you then you can't expect him to understand he can't jump on others. So it would be best to not allow any jumping on anyone so he gets the message. Dogs don't understand who they can and can't jump on, so it's best to stick to one rule for all!

Sorry to hear about your mum in law though, must be a hugely upsetting time especially with it being so quick and close to christmas. Hugs!!

Yep sounds exactly like our "Max" ... we live about an hours drive from both sides of our family, and on the agricultural outskirts of a small town, and get very few visitors ... and Max is a STRONG boy now around 16mths and 20 odd kgs!

We are gunna try putting him on his lead when we get visitors and hopefully, eventually he will learn not jump all over them

See, this is why I love this forum so much! All your advice is absolutely invaluable and it feels like I'm not alone in this, you've all been there. I had a German Shepherd before him and she was really quiet so this one is quite a shock to the system

I'm going to try all your suggestions and encourage hubby's side of the family to call in more as they are the ones that aren't nervous of Max and it will be good practice for him.

He did have a long walk in the morning but it seemed to have no effect at all, although yesterday (the day after, he was shattered all day and slept off and on for most of it).

Thanks to all for your sympathies, just got to get through the funeral on Friday and then hopefully close the chapter on what's been a fraught year.

Thanks again for all your advice

Hope you have success and if not someone is always here to give advice.

Good advice as always here. I need it with certain visitors and Tyson.

Rocky is exactly the same whenever we have guests. He just gets very excited and keeps jumping up. We don't very often have visitors so he is only used to having hubby and me around. This could be partly the problem with him I guess. We now give him his chewy toys to play with and his new Boomer Ball, which was his favourite Christmas present, this gives him plenty of distractions.