Help with Excited and Mouthy 2 year old Staffy Please!

Good morning,
We have been blessed with a wonderful staffy, Bella! She is just under 2 years old. Around the house she is calm, even tempered, and a great companion. However when we take her out around other people (which we have been doing since she was 12 weeks old), she gets very excited and at times hard to manage as a result. We have noticed that when people approach her in an unsure way, she has a tendency to jump on them and mouth at their hands (she is definitely not biting them). She does not exhibit this behavior with all people she meets, it tends to be people who are more apprehensive around her. She has also done this behavior with some kids, which also concerns us. We have talked to many people about the behavior and have been told it could be a dominant behavior, or that she is reacting to weaker energy, or just how dogs greet (like how people shake hands). We have tried correcting her, putting a toy in her mouth when she greets people, or using the clicker to reward when she is not doing that behavior. Each has worked to some extent. Since she can be such a calm dog most times and she loves people, we would love to have her trained as a therapy dog in the future, which is why we have been working so hard to manage this behavior. We would welcome any thoughts or advice about how to work with this behavior. Thanks so much!

welcome to the forum from me and woody. i cant really advise but im sure someone more knowledgeable will be along shortly

Hi & welcome!

What you could try is when you approach anybody, or they approach you, get Bella to sit. Keep her on lead. Tell whoever wants to stroke her that she's in training & could they....

1. Not touch her until you say so,
2. Don't make any eye contact to start with, just stand still,
3. Just put a hand down for her to sniff, and if she gets over exited, take the hand away,
4. If at any time she gets too exited, stand up, break any eye contact & just ignore.

Meanwhile, you will tell her to sit & keep her calm when the person (child etc) puts their hand down. Keep her calm by talking softly "Steady" or "calm", whichever you want to use. If she gets ott, then ask the person to do point 3 above, and turn her away. Make her sit until she's calm, then turn her around to face the person again, and tell her to sit.....keep repeating.

It's boring as hell, and you'll probably p*ss some people off, but it'll work in the long term. She'll catch on that if she goes ott, she'll get no fuss & will be turned away from the attention.

For a while, keep her on lead for all intros so that you have full control. Don't let very young children jump on her etc, because she'll just respond & want to play hard, as staffs do. That's when it gets out of hand.

I know its no help but I have the same problem with my dog Harry but in reverse. He's an angel with me, so well behaved in the house and out walking when we meet people. But as soon as someone visits the house, he loses the plot due to excitement and behaves much the same way as your Bella.

Have tried just about everything to correct him, hes now 3 and he is learning to control himself more.

You have been given good advice by Caryll, Good Luck.

Hi, we have exactly the same problem both in and out of the house. With just us, Sophie is perfectly calm but as soon as she comes into contact with the public she is like a bottle of champagne that has just popped it's cork

I have repeatedly asked people whilst out, not to encourage her to jump up but they completely ignore us and praise her for being excited and jumping up which is completely undermining what we are trying to do.

I know it sounds extreme and completely ridiculous but we have actually got some teeshirts printed with the following words:

"Message from the dog. If I jump up, pelase ignore me".

We don't want to offend or alienate people obviously, but they are really not helping. We have explained to the local children that Sophie is in training and when she has learnt not to jump up she can make proper friends with them. They are fine with this.

Of course we want Sopie to be sociable but she has got to learn what behaviour is appropriate. We are doing everything Caryll is advising.

We are confident we will achieve this, but Sophie being only eight months is still very excitable.

We will let you know how the tee shirts are received. We will explain the dog is on a training programme. We just didn't know what else to do as the public totally ignored our requests not to encourage her to jump up and get excited.

hi
one of my other dogs was like it mainly around new people entering the house.Caryll's advise is spot on and most dogs pick it up quickly as long as u stick to it . I found the no touch and no eye contact worked great

Caryll,
Your advice is greatly appreciated and I am going to put it into practice today! Your advice seems right on and I think it will work if we use it consistently. We have also had the same experience as Bobs with people not listening to what we say-especially adults! They always say "she is so cute, we don't care if she jumps on us or nibbles our hands" but they don't understand that it is US that minds and we don't want our dog behaving that way! It is nice to hear that others are having the same experience and we really appreciate the support and great advice!

yeah some people just don't help do they... we had Winston on his lead waiting outside a shop and people were coming from all directions "puppy, puppy" and Winston was just so excited and leaping everywhere like a man possessed !