# Chaos with Visitors



## Amberbark (Oct 5, 2011)

Good morning...we are having an ongoing problem with Amber and visitors in our home. A little history: Amber is a one year old, spayed female, sweet, but energetic. She has been to Puppy Kindergarten, is enrolled in Novice Obedience and her exercise consists of 3 1/2 hour sessions of chasing a ball and a 45 minute, 2 mile walk at the Park in the evening. 
We are exposing Amber to more and more new environments such as the walk in the park with lots of walkers, bikers and a nearby railroad, trips to the dairy, walk on the boardwalk, car wash and visit to the dog sitter house. 
We do not have too many visitors to our home, mostly just some family and friends. Our BIG problem is: Amber will NOT settle when folks do come over to our house. We have tried crate in the bedroom for timeout, leaving her free and ignore, sit for petting, and putting her on a leash. None of the above works. She jumps on the couch and our guests and acts like a kangaroo. My daughter had surgery two weeks ago and we tried to let Amber see her and even on a leash Amber pulled away and jumped up on my daughter's stomach. Amber's behavior is as follows: put in a sit/stay on the edge of the carpet with the other dogs for us to open the door, hold collar/leash and let her greet, wiggle/wiggle butt, then breaks and tries to jump up, sit on the floor with her and try to control her as we talk with guests. She lunges, wags and cries to get to the guests. I am really done with this....we have tried to invite a few people over to practice, but not many want to consistently be our guinea pigs.
I am so exasperated...all suggestions will be genuinely considered and appreciated. :doh::doh::wavey:


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Hopefully one of our trainers will have some suggestions for you to work on, I've never had one who was quite that bad. I do keep my 1 year old pup confined in an X pen when we have large gatherings with a ton of you g children. He is allowed out to greet people on leash and be petted and then I put him in the pen in a corner of the kitchen where he gets a chew bone. I figure this allows him to socialize and see people but not be a risk to knock over kids. I hope you are able to work thru your girls exuberance! I'm sure it will come eventually with age.


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Sounds like you've tried everything. With Casper, we put him in the kitchen behind the gate. He greets people from there, after he has calmed down a bit. After he's really settled, he can meet "in person.". More people takes more time to settle. When my son had five college friends over, I think it was a couple of hours before he settled down! But once we let him in with them, he gots oodles of cuddles. He was great.

The funny thing is that now he can tell the difference between a friend at the front door and a delivery person. Not so much enthusiasm for the delivery guy.


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## Amberbark (Oct 5, 2011)

*Thank You!*

Thank you for your responses! I think that she will have to stay in the laundry room behind the gate when we have people over until she can settle. She is doing much better in the house and somewhat better out for a walk. People always say, "Oh, let her out! She is fine!" I know better and behind the gate to chill is a great idea! Thank you. :wavey:


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Hire some "visitors" bribe them with free pizza and a movie!
Encourage visitors to talk, laugh, eat, move about as normally as possible...

Going through this with Rumor now...have Father and FIL as well as brother that have balance issues, plus my own arthritis flares....jumping cant be tolerated in the house...

So I have always used the leash for her...
Dog on leash, leash in hand....looped down to floor...leash trapped between foot and floor with enough leash to comfortable sit or lay down, but not an inch more....then the patience to stand there for as long as it takes for the dog to settle down...then lift the foot...at the first sign of excitement...foot back on leash...

Rumor is 4 months old and I have just started allowing her off leash when company comes...


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## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

What about a wall mounted canine hitch?
Guardian Gear Canine Hitch

The various lengthed leashes could be attached to it. That way she could be with people but not on top of them. Then once she relaxed you release her slowly by lengthing her available leash length over time. No fear of her pulling the leash from your hands and jumping on DD. 

I hope this makes sense. Best luck to you.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Hank just turned 3 y.o. and we still put him behind a gate in the laundry room when most visitors come. Most people use our sidedoor near the laundry room so he get to be part of the visit. He gets so excited and wound up you'd think he never saw people!


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## Mom of Maizie (Nov 11, 2011)

Amberbark said:


> She lunges, wags and cries to get to the guests.
> 
> we have tried to invite a few people over to practice, but not many want to consistently be our guinea pigs.
> :doh::doh::wavey:


Your situation sounds soooo much like ours. We've gone to great lengths to socialize Maizie and she's really coming along nicely out in public. But at home we don't have many visitors, or people willing to be guinea pigs!!!

I'd love for her to be able to settle around visitors, but my top priority is to keep everyone safe and she could hurt someone in her exuberance. We often crate her when we first get visitors, although that isn't an ideal situation when she's so excited. I'm going to try to figure out a way she can feel with us more, so she can learn. Lots of times my DH will get her out around the others on a leash after she's settled down some. One thing that helps is to put her through some tricks for the guests. That seems to help her focus her attention, helps the guests appreciate her a little more, and generally calms her down. 

Jill


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## wmag (Mar 17, 2011)

Kasey gets crazy when we have visitors! I found that if guests ignore her she calms down alot faster. The bad part is getting guests to do that! My family comes over and ignore her and she is great. I let her off leash with in 5 minutes and if she jumps they tell her off or turn their backs to her and she instantly sits. When my inlaws come over it is a different story! They were over yesterday for a few hrs and I pretty much kept Kasey on her leash the whole time. FIL is the worst he comes in with a super excited voice and talks to her and she goes nuts! When we told him to ignore her he said no I will go outside it is too hard to ignore her!:doh: Good luck I am hoping we will break this crazy habit at some point!


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## Amberbark (Oct 5, 2011)

*Thank You!*

@Mom of Maizie...Yes, I have to think about safety for everyone involved. That was evident when Amber jumped on my daughter's lap. Amber is not allowed on the couch, but all bets are off when guests arrive. One poster suggested putting her behind a gate. We have our laundry room split into two sections, one is for our 15.5 yr. old 8 lb. senior and Amber can go behind the second gate until she settles down. Thinkin' in the October time frame .

@wmag.......Thank you for your response. It helps just to know that we are not alone in our predicament. Our trials sound just alike. Everyone that comes in greets her with a high-pitched voice, even our dog sitter with "HI AMBER!" Literally impossible to hold her back. I hope that we can break it, too! She is beginning Novice Obedience in two weeks. :wavey:


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## Amberbark (Oct 5, 2011)

*Update!*

We had my daughter and her family (hubby, 2 kids) over yesterday. We put Amber behind the second gate and let everyone in. I told them that Amber would greet them from behind the gate and when (if) she settled down, she would join us. Amber wagged like crazy, but stayed behind the gate and greeted each one. After about 5 minutes, she sat down. My daughter (37) kept saying, "Let her out, let her out!" Sheesh.....I said, "No, she will stay behind the gate until she is settled!!" After about 10 minutes I let her out. Amber was still very excited, WIGGLE BUTT, but did not jump up! 

I feel like the gate worked very well. She could see, but settle down much quicker. Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. P.S. Amber LOVES my 4 year old grandson. He calls her "My Sweet, Sweet Girl." :wavey:


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## Tucker's mommy (Nov 9, 2011)

Yes - as others have said - the key for us is that the visitors really have to ignore Tucker for awhile, or he is crazy jumpy mouthy and annoying. (He is 14 months old, by the way). when the visitors come, he knows it's crate time for a short while. When he is settled, he can come out and approach/greet the visitors, but we let everyone know to not touch/pet for awhile, until Tucker views them as normal people again, and not playthings! Usually takes about 30 minutes before he is chilled enough. But really, even after all this, Tucker has an annoying habit of displaying his ownership over me by posturing at me in a playful way, nipping and barking as if he's saying "you're all mine!!!" Work in progress, I guess! :bowl:

I should add, when little ones come over to visit our kids, we're extra careful to avoid over-exciting situations. Which usually means some extra crate time. But with that said, he's still allowed to do a meet/greet under total supervision.


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## ms_summer (Mar 23, 2012)

My dog settles down pretty fast once she has greeted the visitors, but what drives her crazy is the doorbell, and then she starts with the jump on people. What we tried with her and helped a bit was taking her to the yard when people were coming over, leash her, when the person was already inside the house, get in with her and have the person make her sit/give her a treat and then ignore her if she acted too excited. I mean, it helps only when you know someone is coming over.... When we have unexpected visitors, she gets pretty excited and still tries to jump, but i make her sit pretty fast or else she doesn't get to say hi (doesn't work 100% though lol). Honestly, the biggest problem is that everybody that comes over wants to "train" her one way instead of following what I tell them to do. We have a wonderful neighbor that stops by at least 4x a week, and Summer adores her, but she thinks she is a trainer sometimes and that drives me crazy, lol. I noticed though, that Summer is much calmer when greeting her though, I think because she is so used to seeing her all the time.... I don't know, it's still a work in progress, but she is only 6 months so I'm hoping she will get better at it... Good luck with your girl 

PS: We don't have lots of contact with kids though.. We take Summer to parks and let her see the kids playing and such, but I don't have kids yet, so when she gets close to the kids she gets so excited and tries to jump and think they are toys.. so we're also extra careful. She can only get close to kids when she is very very tired from her walk because my girl is SO NOT gentle :doh:


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## Max's Dad (Apr 23, 2012)

Max also gets excited when visitors visit. Sometimes we put him behind a gate down the hall until he settles down. However, he has gotten much better as he has gotten a little older.


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