Un-trainable dog, please help, have tried everything, jumping up, hyper .....

[Marne]

I love my dog and she is a part of our family, she is great with the dd's (who are autistic), she enjoys her walks (walked every day) and during the day she sleeps and is very quiet (i forget she's here sometimes).

The trouble is as soon as we have visitors (which isn't often), she turns into a hyper puppy, jumps up, leaps onto peoples laps (she's too big to be a lap dog), licks peoples faces and is generaly uncontrolable. Its got to the point where we dont invite people over and the dd's can't have friends over as i'm affraid she will knockthem over and kiss them to death.

We have tried so many things with her, ignoring the behaviour (which seems to make her worse), rewarding good behaviour when she sits on the floor and stays still (but she's not too bothered about rewards/food), telling her to get down over and over (i can say 'down' 100 times and she still doesn't get it), removing her from the room (which makes her scratch the doors or bash her face), destracting her with toys (makes her more playful which makes her growl) and have tried keeping hold of her by the collar until she calms down (but she never calms down).

I don't know what else to try?

Last sunday my dad was here with his partner and the dog kept trying to jump onto the sofa (even though i had told her 100 times to get down she still kept trying to get up), my dads partner kept dragging her down by her collar which she didn't like, eventually the dog growlled at her (didn't bite her but i was worried that she might), i have never seen her do this before so was .

I am trying to train her to stay off the sofa, she has a blanket on the floor but as soon as i leave the room she drags the blanket onto the sofa and curls up on it, i can remove her 100's a times a day, reward her for getting down, reward her for lying on her blanket (on the floor) but she still gets back up as soon as my backs turned.

I dont know what to do with her, i think if i can crack the 'not getting on the sofa' she would be a lot easier to control when people come over as she would not jump up onto the sofa and onto peoples laps.

Any ideas what i can try?

She's 4 years old so should be calming down a little by now but she still seems to think she's a puppy .

[daisydotandgertie]

What breed is she?

[bochead]

Crate her when you have visitors as a temp solution. Pref in a different room to where the visitors are. It's not a solution, but will get you through the odd outreach worker visit or play date until someone you can get it under control with a behaviorist properly.

[Marne]

She's a Staff, we have tried crating her and she hurt her mouth on the crate trying to get out, she has done the same with stair gates (has bashed her face through them and hurt herself), she hates being on her own but is now ok when we go out. She just wants to be glued to people but she forgets how strong she is (she thinks she's a yorkshire terrior). She doesn't seem to have any brains at all but knows when its dinner time (will ask for food bang on 5pm every night).

I didn't put her breed in y first post as i didn't want people to judge (as a few people tend too), because of her breed people tend to be a bit wary of her, she is a softy really, has never sown any aggresion other than the growl last sunday (though she growls when playing but not in a angry way). She follows the dd's around and plays with them (tug a war) and is very gentle until people visit then she gets very excited and bouncy.

In our old house i used to shut her in the conservatory when we had visitors as she couldn't harm herself or damage anything (glass doors) but we cant do that in this house. TBH it probably made her worse to be shut out.

[Lizcat]

There are ways to manage and then retrain for this behaviour. However, it sounds as though it has been going on for a while and so obtaining one to one advice and a home visit from a behaviourist I think would be the best thing.

[Anomaly]

We had the same problem with our last two dogs and we ended up seeing a behaviourist about it. Anyway she taught us a settle exercise. It really worked, at the first session we could barely hear instructions because our mad dogs were barking and jumping etc at the second we walked in and the dogs settled at once.

It's simple but you do need to practice it lots. You need to start somewhere quiet e.g. your front room with just you a cup of tea and your dog. Put the dog on it's lead and tie it to the chair or whatever you're sat on and then ignore it. If your dog is like mine was then she will woof and try and fight the lead, try and jump up but you carry on ignoring and wait for her to settle. It may well take a fair amount of time at first e.g.15-20min. Eventually she'll settle the minute you tie her to the chair. You then progress from doing nothing while she's tied up to doing something e.g. getting up and making a cup of tea. You then add in other people starting with family members and finally new people. It's very important that the people know how to behave which is basically to ignore her unless she's settled.

I found this link which bascially describes the same sort of training. dogtime.com/dog-training-settle-down-dunbar.html

Good luck!

[Marne]

Thank you, will give it a go, she gets very hyper when she see's the lead as she thinks 'walk' so may take a long time to settle .

It doesn't help that my dad will play with her as soon as he comes in which makes her 10 times worse, he will also feed her treats (even though i tell him not to), we never feed her treats but now he has started it she has started to grab food out of peoples hands .

I'm going to check her insurance to see if she's covered for behavioural problems, it might be worth getting someone in if she is covered.

[midori1999]

I agree a one to one home consultation with a good behaviourist is the way to go with this. The good news is, dogs like yours, ones which are usually viewed as 'untrainable' are actually usually very trainable because they are highly driven and easily motivated. My staff x is very much like you describe and he is a dream to train.

If it helps at all in the meantime, the dog is doing it because it gets him attention. Just like children, even negative attention is still attention to the dog. The reason it seems to get worse when you ignore him is because when a behaviour that previously worked (eg, jumping up/all over people got him attention, even if it was negative attention) stops working, the dog has an 'extinction burst'. eg. the dog will try even harder to get the attention, because it worked before, so it should still work now. Then what usually happens is the behaviour does get the attention again and so the cycle continues.

A behaviourist can help you on a practical level and guide you in getting the dog to do what you want. You can find a good one at //www.apbc.org.uk

[midori1999]

'It doesn't help that my dad will play with her as soon as he comes in which makes her 10 times worse, he will also feed her treats '

and as usual in these situations, it is the humans that need training, not the dog...

[Anomaly]

Oh yes you need visitors to ignore her completely. That made a huge difference to one of our dogs. She soon learned that sitting was the best way to get attention. I know you'll get doggy people saying things like 'I don't mind, she's lovely' but that doesn't help the visitors you have who do mind.

[Booboostoo]

You need to stage manage the situation rather than try to deal with it as it happens. Pop her on a lead in the room that she is most likely to meet visitors and do nothing other than hold the end of the lead. Get a friend to come by (set up and pre-arranged). The friend should come in as normal, as soon as the dog displays unwanted behaviour (e.g. barking, jumping, hyper), the friend should turn around and leave. She should wait a few minutes and come back in again. If at any time the dog is calm the visitor should come in and give her a treat. Repeat until the dog gets the message.

Visitors so far have rewarded her bad behaviour, i.e. when the dog has gotten excited the visitor has still walked in thus rewarding her.

Feeding her treats is not a problem as such, but it should not be done when she is badly behaved. Your dad should try to be very neutral when he enters the house and maybe only play with her in the garden to break the association with excitment in the living room. It's also really worth teaching her a 'leave it' command to discourage her from stealing food.

How much training have you done with her? How much exercise is she getting? Giving her more mental and physical stimulation may also help.

[Marne]

Thank you, i think i do need to train my dad (maybe crate him) , she's a lot better with my mum, mum will only stroke her when she is sat nicely and the dog calms down after 10-20 minutes, when my dads here she is constantly begging for attention, jumping around, trying to lick him and will mouth at his fingers (she doesn't do this with anyone else).

She's getting better when we are out and we see people, she used to try and pull towards them and try and jump up but she will now follow my instructions (if i say 'no' she will just look but not pull) but if someone comes over and starts making a fuss of her she gets a bit excited and will try and jump up and lick (but i can control her whilst on the lead).

[Marne]

She's walked at least once a day (probably about a mile, she has a run on a long lead too), we have a large garden so we also play fetch for 20 minutes or so each day (she will return the toy to me and let me throw it for her). She will sit and give a paw, she will leave food if i raise my voice at her (i often wonder if she is deaf but her hearing has been tested), she knows 'down' and will do it straight away but will get back up 2 seconds later . I have just taught her to 'go and lie down' (sometimes i have to say it 3 times and she looks at me as to say 'do i have to?') and dd1 has taught her to talk (bark on command) which she pcked up really quickly, she doesn't bark often but is very verbal (will growl and make odd noises whilst playing and will whine when not getting attention).

She's my baby and i have probably been a bit too soft on her but she is quite nervous and hates people shouting at her or dragging her by her collar, she often yelps if someone touches her to roughly (sometimes dh has had to grab her by the collar to stop her jumpng up at someone).

[Booboostoo]

Sounds like your mum has the right approach, perhaps you can, diplomatically, suggest to your dad that he tries the same for a little while to see what happens?

I don't think you have been too soft on her, nor do you need to shout, cuff her or hit her to train her, so you have done nothing wrong. You may enjoy clicker training, which is a technique based on positive re-inforcement and doesn't involve any touching, pushing or pulling the dog about. It does tend to calm hyperactive dogs down as it focuses them on the handler and gives them a job to do. It is also easily transferable to other people, so your DCs and other family could be involved with the training. The main thing is that it is fun for the dog and gives them another outlet for their energy.

Clicker can also help you re-inforce the commands she already knows so that you don't have to talk loudly or repeat the command.

[Marne]

Thank you all for your great advice, we will try a few things out with her (i think she may react quite well to the clicker).

She's such a lovely dog, when i come in after being out she hardly reacts at all, will stroll over to say hello but doesn't get overly excited but when its someone she doesn't see every day she changes to a hyper puppy, maybe its because we dont get visitors often so she's so pleased to see a different face that she cant control herself?

[Inthepotty]

Just to pick up that you said she knows 'down', is that as in 'lay down?'
If so, when she is on the sofa and you use the command 'down' she probably thinks "well I am lying down'"

We use off as a command for stop jumping up.

Hope this makes sense!!

[Elibean]

Reading thread with interest, as our 1 yr old Staffy/Goldie cross has bouts of hyper behaviour like this - but nearly always out in the garden

If I go out there, he starts jumping up at me hysterical and excited, trying to lick my face. If I turn and say 'down' he lies down and will stay there as long as I tickle his tummy, but the minute I try and walk away he gets hyper again. After a few minutes of my being in the garden, he loses interest and is ok.

I know its been wet, and no one other than dh has been out there much recently, but is it really THAT exciting when I go out?!? dh thinks its territorial...

Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to hijack. Marne, your dog sounds v trainable, I hope some of these tips work. We do find taking Mouse to his bed, and telling him to lie down, then sending him back to it if he gets up, works well. He also loves his crate, so we have options - but it would be nice to find a way of managing the situation without crating him at times.

[Marne]

We use 'down' for get down (when she jumps up of gets onto the sofa) and 'go lie down' to tell her to lie on her blanket.

[doggiemumma]

"It doesn't help that my dad will play with her as soon as he comes in which makes her 10 times worse, he will also feed her treats (even though i tell him not to), we never feed her treats but now he has started it she has started to grab food out of peoples hands"

And therein lies the problem!

Visitors are EXCITING, She gets food! She gets fuss, the visitors are hyper.

People need to ignore her when they come to your house.

Try this: Stop her going to the door when visitors come. When the front door goes, go to the kitchen, get something really yum from the cupboard, make her sit, give it to her. You'll need help with this of course as omeone will have to get the door so that whoever is there doesnt go, but after a while a knock on the door will = yummy treat in kitchen, so you will have trained her to go to the kitchen when a visitor comes.

Then when they are there - keep disappearing quietly off to kitchen, "sit" food, then see how it goes from there. Guests must ignore her, no one is allowed to talk to her, no eye contact etc, god how boring they are are, see?

[doggiemumma]

oh and no judging ( because i love love love staffies) but you will struggle, staffies can be mad (in a good way)

[Marne]

Thankyou doggiemumma, i think my dad is the problem, i tell him every time he comes 'to ignore the dog' but he continues to wind her up, he does it to his partners dog too (sinse my dad mooved in with them the dog has got a little bit naughty). I will have a word with him next time he comes and will try and get both of them (him and the dog) to behave .

[CharlieMaroc]

I'm so pleased to read this I thought my pup was the only Jekyll and Hyde dog with visitors. I suspect it might be one particular friend who we spent a lot of time with when she was tiny, who was very rough and excitable with her. Add that to my very solitary lifestyle and when she gets visitors she goes barmy.

I will certainly try some of the solutions given, thank you

[CharlieMaroc]

I don't know how Marne is getting on with her training (I'd love to hear!) but my Tara has responded very well. Visitors are advised to cross their arms and turn their back on the dog, ignoring all jumps and attempts to nip, and not making any eye contact until she settles. A friend has been coming every day just for a few minutes and today it took less than two minutes for her to settle down. Once he fusses her, if she starts getting too cexcited and boisterous, back turned again. Working a treat, cannot believe the difference in just five days. Good luck Marne!