Still launching herself at people!

Sky launched herself at my mum today, and knocked her so hard I watched her stumble backwards. I am proper struggling with her not doing as she is told, at the moment I still have to put her in the crate when someone comes round, otherwise it is jump, jump, jump and more often than not she catches someones jumper etc. I've mentioned this before on here, but everything I try or get recommended doesn't work. When I put her in the crate it is constant crying, to the point now where I have to cover the crate like some parrot to stop her seeing what is going on.

When I am in my house now, just me and her she is brilliant. When someone else is here, I might as well not bother asking her to do anything.  When someone comes to the door, I can get her to sit, although she howls as if to say "whatever", then when they come in, I constantly keep saying stay. I can see the excitement building until boom she is off, and I have to literally grab her to calm her down.

I've even tried having a biscuit in my hand, but I might as well not bother.

Due to launching herself, I've had to resort to no off the lead walks, otherwise she is going to accidentally hurt someone, which again i've mentioned on here before.

Anybody got any extreme tips, for an extreme monkey that will not listen when she is slightly excited!!!!

Sky does seem to be treat orientated, well I thought she was, and i'm thinking maybe the treats I am using are boring. She is walked, and doesn't chew my house, so i just can't figure it out. She is 2 now, hence the first post in the non puppy section lol.

I need some Caesar Milan like tips!

Caesar Millan is not a dog trainer - he is a bully that works with cruel and outdated methods, that can actually CAUSE aggression in dogs. What about the person that is coming in doing the training? If sky is both food and attention oriented - which she sounds to be from the jumping up/attention seeking, the person that she is hoping to gain attention from (from displaying this boisterous behaviour) should be the one to put in the boundaries. She needs an alternative - just being disciplined for jumping up isn't teaching her anything. When she jumps up, have your guest turn away and say "off" so that her feet fall to the floor and then immediately praise, give treat and fuss, only when four feet are on the floor. Use high value treats - jumping up is a self rewarding behaviour because she gets something that she wants from it - in this case, attention. So the treat needs to be of higher value than the attention that she wants - I'm talking cheese, ham etc. Being sociable isn't a bad thing, but she needs boundaries of course to keep people safe. How much is she exercised also, and what is she fed? Does she know any commands that she carries out consistently, as in 9/10 times asked of her.

Ah I just know I use to watch his programmes, and it seemed to work. I tried the whole totally ignoring her but, that doesn't work. I was a bit worried that if I praised her after she had jumped that she would think I get a treat when I jump.

Sit when asked.
Stay when asked
Stay when walking on the lead, just stops in position.
Lay down.
Doesn't eat food until I say she can, constantly stares at me waiting for the signal.
Jump on command. I thought as she was a jumper, If i taught her on command it would stop her just doing it all the time, but didn't make any difference.

I clicker trained her really well with all the above, quite easily. But again these are when it is just me and her, if another dog was in the room or she was excited difficult to get her to comply at all, or without crying and howling like she is annoyed with it ..

She is fed Wainwrights meat with Wainwright dry. Walked every day, and when I go for a run I take her too, on a big flexi lead. She is getting better at running, as apposed to stopping all the time. The running is not every day but a couple of times a week. In addition to this, I send her on a dogs day out, so she can run with a pack of other dogs. I try that every week, but at the moment once every week.

I spent a week increasing the walking, running etc, took her to the forest a few times. But still didn't make a difference in her behaviour.

It sounds like you've got the general commands/feeding/exercise pretty spot on. Try and make the training fun for her, when Bug tries to jump up at me I take a step backwards away from her and then give mega fuss when she's got her feet on the floor, she picked it up pretty quickly - she's quite an insecure dog and jumped up excessively on arrival, but rarely does with me now, still does with new people though always seeing what she can get away with! Which is where I ended up training my visitors to train her. If you ignore/turn your body away does she ever get bored and try something else? If bis jumps up and I ignore her, 9/10 she will try a "sit" to see if she gets anything from that instead. Or does she start to mouth when you ignore her? If you're confident with a clicker, try shaping her behaviour. Or keep her on a lead when visitors first arrive and practise calm behaviour. This is a good video:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=49A12LPsE8M

The thing with caesar, and discipline/dominance based techniques in general is that they don't teach the dog anything - they just suppress the behaviour through fear/bullying techniques. When training, I like to work with my dogs as a team, whichever way suits them, I have found this to be effective - I was initially a "dominance" trainer, so I've seen both sides.

Another suggestion - when new visitors arrive I give bis a MEGA tasty kong in her bed, she wags at the visitors as they arrive, but nothing will tear her away from her kong. Once she's finished she's pretty chilled, and used to the person being around by that point, so just casually walks over and says hi! Visitors arriving should signal "chill time" not "mega excited this is the best part of my day" time!

If I ignore her, she starts to mouth, and has caught a few jumpers and tops. I tell everyone who enters the house, that they enter at their own risk now lol. I've never really thought about giving her a kong, I just have to be careful otherwise she will get chunky with the amount of treats she has. Just wish I could stop it, then hopefully further down the line she can be off the lead in the fields. Just watching that video link you posted Rachell33

Good advice from Rachel. And I agree with you about CM - it can look great on telly as long as you don't look too closely!

That video is actually really good. He uses treats too. Think what i'll do is stop her mid afternoon treats, and she can have these when I come in.

I'll do the hand down slowly then give her treats for staying on all fours, see how I get on, just like he does. Usually she picks up on things quickly, I'm hoping with the treats she might play ball somewhat.

Really great advice and thanks for the vid Rachel

I agree with Rachel as well. Also you could keep her on lead when people come over until she has setteled down. Also the more frequently you have people over the more chances she has to get used to it.

To Bo nothing is more interesting that a person, nothing at all, and it's impossible to distract his attention when someone comes to the house. And that's that, I'm afraid, so either they put up with it or Bo goes in the kitchen. He's much better outside the house but inside is a lost cause.

I've battled with this for nearly 3 years now with Axl and this is the solution we have.

He has boundaries in the house, he's not allowed in the kitchen and he knows it SO we say to anyone coming into the house go straight through to the kitchen and ignore him, don't stop if he jumps just walk straight through him as if he's not there. They go into the kitchen he will run up to the line separating the kitchen and the living room and then lay down, when he lays down or sits I tell the person to give him a treat and they do. Then after 2 mins of sitting there staring at us and wiggling he will eventually get bored and wander off to chew his bone, it's at that point we let our guests come into the living room and sit down because he's completely calm. He usually tries to get in a snuggle here and there but he's more receptive to commands because he's not in that state of "OHMYGODITSAHUMAN" while resembling something similar to a kangaroo on a trampoline stage

Boundaries work for me so maybe you could try something like that, if there's somewhere he can't go or you could teach him he can't go, like a kitchen. It gives him time to calm down which in turn makes him more likely to listen when we say "no" or "off".

I also have the same problem with Harry and he is 6

Because its just him and me at home he gets so over the top if
we get any visitors and its a mixture of anxiety and excitement in
his case.  Unfortunately he will mouth as well which doesn't help
the situation.

Ive tried the treats with all 4 paws on the ground, but have had
to resort to training him to go to another room when the door bell
rings.  He is very good at that - except being a clever staffie he chose
the room with sofa in, not the kitchen with his bed in So my friends
end up in the Kitchen while the dog is stretched out on the sofa

Debs that is an absolutely brilliant idea to teach a no go area as it
gives time for calming down.  Why didn't I think of that

Debs that is an absolutely brilliant idea to teach a no go area as it gives time for calming down. Why didn't I think of that

We only discovered it by accident lol, we had a visitor he was hopping around on like a crazed kangaroo and she went into the kitchen and he didn't follow... result! lol now we use the kitchen as a safe place all the time

Axl also mouths as well, I was hoping he would grow out of it but no such luck He doesn't do it to people he knows just strangers which is even worse!

Skye has started being calmer when we have people over due to the guests being told to ignore fold arms and turn their back on her when she jumps up. It takes time but also having a house line (long lead)on her for guests to stand on and treat when behaving works well

It sounds like boredom, you can take a dog for miles but if they don't fulfil their mental needs outside they'll look for alternatives elsewhere. A time and a place in other words.

Update, I've been really trying with this and so far I've seen a little improvement.

When I come in form work, she runs towards me now and doesn't always jump, but i immediately stand in-front of the kitchen wall facing it, so she doesn't get much of a chance. This is gonna sound hilarious, but I then side step still facing the wall, all the way through my house.

Now when I get to the shoe rack to take off my jacket, and shoes she seems to sit on the rug waiting for me, which is really good. As she has given up at this point. She doesn't always stick to it, and sometimes when I bend down to take my shoes off, I get her launching at me ,but it is working be it slowly.

If she does come at me when I'm bending down taking off my shoes, I instantly go back into facing the wall until she leaves me alone.

But every time I come in now it is exactly the same. Off goes my shoes, jacket and everything else, and after that I wait a few more minutes before she even gets eye contact.

I'd say 50% of the time she'll sit on the rug waiting for me which is great, but I'm hoping it will work every time. When she doesn't jump and sits quietly on the rug she gets a treat, so can't be all bad, along with the fuss.

I'm trying it with my friends too, but they are such girls, and they keep thinking she is going to eat them.

I'd try asking her for less before she gets a reward. After all, it doesn't matter if she sits or just stands, as long as she's not jumping.

As you're doing your shimmy round the walls of the house, try and keep her in your peripheral vision, so just out of the corner of your eye. Look for her to just stand still, just for a moment, and reward that with a quiet stroke. If she jumps, then turn your back.

The more quickly you can respond to her trying, even just trying, to do what you want in order to get what she wants, the quicker she'll be able to understand. She needs to be able to work out 'what is it I need to do to get attention?', because only then will she be able to do it consistently.

It does, though, sound like you're making progress so keep on, just with a bit of refinement in your timing.