[Altra]

My mini aussie puppy, Kalani, just turned five months old, and for the three months I've had her, her jumping has been a constant problem, especially when guests come over. She goes completely wild and won't stop jumping up on them.

I've never encouraged her to jump up (made that mistake with my mini aussie boy and we've just now, at two years old, stopped the behavior). With my boy, a firm "No!" or "Down!" works when he gets overly excited. With the puppy, nothing, nada.

Since my mom visits almost daily, she's usually the one to get scratched and jumped all over. She's tried pushing Kalani down (which doesn't work. Kalani thinks its a game). We've tried the whole ignoring/turning our back to her thing and that isn't working either. She just keeps jumping up. Commanding her to "sit" (she knows the command. when it's just me and a bag of treats, she sits immediately) only works less than half the time because she's so excited.

When she FINALLY calms down/sits quietly, we immediately praise her, of course. Then she always pees on the floor.... sigh....lol.

She's just so hyper and excited when people come over. Nothing seems to work with her. Any ideas?

 

[Gilliandi]

This is easily fixed if you can get everyone who interacts with her on board. Play the greeting game.

Keep a jar of treats by the door and when anyone comes in they pick up a treat and wait out the jumping until she sits. Don't turn your back as this is a cut off signal that may make her even more desperate to greet you. Just wait it out and the moment she offers the sit give her a treat and then greet her and praise her.

With consisitncy she will learn that the most reinforcing thing to do when people come in is to sit.

It's much easier to teach dogs what to do instead of what not to do.

 

[Shandula]

Does she know a "mat" or "place" command? That would be my suggestion first. This way you can send her to her mat when guests come, and once she's calmed down, she can come say hello.

The second option would be to have her on a leash. If she sits to say hello, let your guests pet her. If she jumps, you turn and walk away and your guest leaves. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Altra]

Those are both great ideas. I'm sure my "normal" visitors would agree to the treat jar tactic. And if that fails, I will pull out the leash.

I probably should have mentioned that my three other dogs get excited as well. They don't jump up, but they bark and come to greet visitors with wagging tails. My australian cattle dog mix is the worst (she continues to bark--excitedly--for entire minutes after the guest arrives). I'm going to assume this makes my puppy even more excited/riled up...