# How to teach a mouthy golden not to grab people's arms



## Mr. Bojangles (Sep 15, 2011)

Bentley likes to put his mouth on peoples forearms when he greets them. Most people don't like it, and I am worried that he could hurt or scare someone.

How do I teach him that he is not allowed to grab on to people? I'm thinking of using the citronella collar - worked wonders for counter surfing.


----------



## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

Does he jump to mouth the arms?- If so teach him to keep all four on the floor.

Buddy must sit for people to say "Helllo" to him- It does take him a few attempts if he really like the person!


----------



## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

You could set him up by hot saucing the person in advance.

Shake a can or loudly say "No" when he does it.

"NO!" is only used for the most forbidden things for my furrbutts.


----------



## CRS250 (Dec 31, 2012)

I can see where the collar was necessary for counter surfing, as you need him to have a negative consequence for something that happens when you are not present. However this kind of inappropriate behavior is not one I'd think could only be solved with a negative/punishment type of training.

My puppy didnt do the arm mouthing bit, but does have "excessive greeting disorder" . Our trainer has told us not to scold or punish him for it, but to tell him what we want him to do instead of jumping or barking. It is still a work in progress for him, but we have had good success with sitting for greetings and/or asking him to get a "toy" to greet people. Even carrying a toy with us when we go on walks. Now when he's excited his first reaction is often to run and find something to bring visitors or to greet people with in his mouth. Then run back to them and plop down.

This is what happened the other morning when he was greeting me and I told him to go get a me a toy.








Little hard to make out, but that is three toys in there!


----------



## Jaykay (Jul 20, 2013)

Ha, he *really* wanted you to be pleased with him 

I like that idea of teaching them to go and get a toy, to greet someone. Gives the someone time to get in the door, and the mouth is full, and it's kinda cute


----------



## lhowemt (Jun 28, 2013)

That is such a cute picture! And a great idea. However we have an "arm greeter" also, and it is tough to stop. Let me know how you succeed. We tell her to "drop" and tell people to tell her "no"and "drop".


----------

