Little advice needed on overexcited puppy with other dogs

[Midnight herald]

Hi all, can anybody give me any advice on calming an excited puppy down. He is very laid back in the house but as soon as we go out and he meets people he goes mad and tries to jump up, cries an generally goes mad! We calm him down by asking people to tell him to sit and only greet when he's calmed down... This is starting to work but as soon as he sees a dog nothing works he goes hyper. Howls... Cries ... Yells even once he has greeted the dog he just goes mad wanting to play an ont calm down, even when we walk away he carries on for a good few minutes. He did go to puppy socialisation run by the vets for 4 weeks only problem is as soon as he sees the vets..we pass it on our street... He goes hyper and also while in the vets as he now associates it with play. He is 3 month old and I know he's just a pup but he's already big and weighs 15 kilo and if he jumps on a child.. As most kids want to stroke a puppy... Then he could hurt them..though my sisters children come round and thy know they must tell him no if he jumps up and walk away .he is learning with that... It's the dog thing that's a problem....any tips appreciated.

 

[eingana]

Awwwww, sounds like he's a very excited boy, and although it's not the reaction that you want from him, it's good honest excitement and you don't want to squash that too far down when he's growing so that his little puppy brain still gets lots of socialising, stimulation and training.

Can I suggest that you start off with a little bit of training at home? If you can get him to learn a 'watch me' then that would allow you just a few seconds to get him in check, focusing on you and with his bum planted on the ground, which is a good start.

Do you already have 'sit' working pretty well? If you have that then when you pick up a treat that he really wants his bottom should hit the floor pretty quickly, which is just what you want, but what you could really do with is him looking at you and making eye contact with you too because every second that he's looking up to you for a cue he's bringing his excitement level down and getting himself just a little bit more in hand.

So, get a treat and stand holding it until his bum hits the ground then hold the treat up next to your face and say 'watch me'. With a bit of luck his eyes will follow the treat and you will have a fraction of a second when he makes eye contact with you. Treat, fuss, praise etc for this. Repeat several hundred times until he makes eye contact with you for a second or two, then repeat in the garden with all of its excitements, then in the garden with a friend nearby but not interacting with you, then with said friend interacting, then out in the big wide world with no other distractions etc,

Build up to asking him to come up to you and make eye contact with you whenever you ask him to (for treats and fuss) and you have a little focus time to help him learn what to do and what not to do.

It will all take time, but until he learns how to address people then I'd also limit how and when he meets them to on-lead times so that he can't take a running jump at people who aren't expecting him

 

[Midnight herald]

Hi thanks for the advice, at present he doesn't get let off the lead when we are out yet as he is so excited about everything he does sit, down, wait and stay all really well an does make a lot of eye contact so it shouldn't be too hard to learn him watch me....I hope!

 

[KateandSam]

Could I also suggest that you do loads of recall work, indoors and in the garden . Make sure that you dont set yourself up for a fail so dont use your chosen word ( Here or Come ) until he is running towards you , this way, when he comes flying towards you and you are giving the command word, he will associate it with doing the right thing and always lots of praise and a treat when he gets it right ! if you can work on the recall really hard , then he will be able to go off lead and by doing this, he will soon become used to all the exciting things without reacting in such an exciteable way , it will all become normal and every day to him . Pups are like sponges at this age, they soak up all the training so easily, but also the bad habbits too , so its all about training but in a fun way and repetition too, good luck !

 

[Midnight herald]

Yeah we do lots of training in the garden, he does a sit stay and a Down stay and he does come when you do a recall, we did take him to the seaside for the first time tonight so lots of dogs about and he did get very excited but did calm down after a while and we were able to let him off when we were on quieter parts and he came back every time we called so hopefully he will get better around other dogs . Guess we need to take him to places there are lots of dogs so he gets used to them bless him