help with my 1 year old dog plz asap! anyone!?

Question

hey, my dog, Ruby, is a 1 year 2 month year old Golden Retriever. She gets very excited when people come to our house, jumping and barking and stuff like that. Usually it gets to be that she has to be put in her kennel because she scares the little kids, sometimes knocking them over. We don't know what to do about it, please, anyone, give me some advice! And DON'T suggest getting rid of her, we won't do that. Just some real ways that work! thank you!

thanks everyone, i will definetly try all of these! she really is the sweetest dog i've ever met and simply loves people and gets excited. the problem is my neice who's 3 and some other little kids around have gotten knocked down and she could take down some old people too and i just don't want anyone getting hurt. keep the answers comin please!

Answer 1

Do not get rid of your dog. Training is the key. Try putting the dog on a leash, sometimes easier to control the dog. If you can't do it try obedience class.

Answer 2

Golden Retrievers are naturally very happy dogs. Yes, they will be bouncy if they're not trained. The good thing is, you can train her to not jump and it may cut down the barking as well. You don't have to get rid of her for this problem. First, teach her sit and stay. Once she has mastered those commands, you can move onto the next step. Have some treats handy, put a leash on her, and have someone knock on the door and walk in. When she jumps up on the person, firmly say no and give a gentle but effective pull on the leash. You do NOT want to send her flying backwards, so don't pull that hard. However, you do want to pull hard enough to get her off the person. Once all four of her paws are on the ground, get her into a sit and stay. When she stays, give her a treat and you can have the person give her a treat as well. If she gets up to jump, again say no and give a gentle correction with the leash. She's still young, so she has lots of time to learn, but that also means she has a lot more energy. Since goldens are very social, they are going to get excited when people visit; you can easily train her. Just remember to be patient. Don't hit her in any way, and don't yell at her. Also, don't punish her if she doesn't understand it. In my opinion, using positive reinforcement to train your dog will solve your problem if you're dedicated. Good luck.

Answer 3

It sounds like she's just being a puppy. The puppy stage lasts until they are 2 years old. Obedience classes would work if she's willing to learn. Yes some dogs cannot be trained. How often is your dog socialized? If it's not very often then that's another thing to think about. Take Ruby on walks and to the park where people are. Golden Retriever are very social. I wouldn't recommend ignoring Ruby. If she feels rejected you might want to hide your shoes. They become chew toys.

Answer 4

She is just saying 'hello' and there is nothing wrong with that. She needs to learn that there are right and wrong ways to saying hello. Had she had any training? I would suggest that it is time to start training her properly. I believe there is a famous quote that says "there are no bad dogs, only bad owners," meaning that you cannot blame a dog for doing what dogs do, and if you do not like the way your dog is acting it is your responsibility to train it. People who blame their dog and then get rid of them are most likely not very adaptable.


Your dog needs to be leash trained, and trained how to sit. When you have visitors you should ask them to be patient for a moment while you put your dog on her leash and tell her to sit while they come in. Once they are inside (and only if she has obeyed) then she is allowed to go sniff and say hello. Let her understand that if she wants to say hello she must first wait patiently for your permission. Basically you need to establish who is the alpha in your pack. Once she knows you are the alpha she will look to you for direction and hopefully you will reach a point where you do not need to put her on a leash. I have found methods and tips by Caesar Milan, the dog whisperer fellow, quite useful with my dog. I believe he has a regular column in the MSN or maybe it was Yahoo? pet page. Just search the sites mentioned and you will find it.

I agree with you that getting rid of her is not an option. I find it disgusting the number of lazy people who can't be bothered to properly train their dogs and then spend half their time yelling at the poor beasts, as it there dog actually understood where their frustrations was coming from. You people, all you are teaching your dog is that you are unbalanced and yell for no reason, unless you understand positive reinforcement methods your training will never be fully successful!

Answer 5

Try having a covered box with treats in outside your front (or back) door and ask all visitors to come into the house with a treat for her, make her sit and then ask them to give her the treat. By doing this it will make her sit by the door every time someone comes as she will be expecting a treat.

It will take some patience and a lot of co-operation from your visitors but it can work.

As for the children, tell them to fold their arms in front of them and not to give the dog any eye contact whatsoever as they walk in, just ignore her and walk into your home as if she isn't there. Dogs hone in on this body language very quickly and learn to walk away. It also helps them not to get excited. There is nothing worse than a child shouting and screaming with his hands in the air. The dog automatically assumes that it is play time so whoopee they start jumping up.

I saw a demonstration at Crufts two years ago and they stood about twenty children in a large circle and told them to fold their arms accross their chests and stare straight ahead without moving a muscle. Then they let 10 dogs into the hall and it was uncanny how the dogs just walked up to the children, sniffed around them but not one of the dogs jumped up at them. This can apply to adults too of course.

Ruby is still very young and she will start to settle down one day.
Nothing is forever. Good luck.

Answer 6

Okay when a dog is jumping on people it is trying to show some domanice it is also trying to get eye contact with the person. It is a over-excited energy that needs to be calmed. To fix this you need to over exaust the source. In this case visitors. Have a friend help you tell her to knock on the door while you try to get you dog in a calm state of mind by holding her on the leash and telling her sit. Untill she gives up and calms down a bit then you tell your friend to enter. Tell your friend to ignore the dog completely while she approches you. If they dog tries to jump up give her a correction by poking her on her neck with your fingers or by a little jerk on a leash but use body language to say you mean busness. If the dog jumps on your friend tell her to turn around and keep her back to the dog till you can get your dog calmed down. During this exercise you only give praise when the dog is CALM. Tell your friend to go back outside and start over. Do this for 10-15min and if the dog isn't board of her entering and knocking yet then do it again tomorrow. You want to desensitze her to the event so that the extra hyper activitie doesn't happen when people approch. But tell all your friends and regular company that the dog is not to be looked at and the dog is not to recieve any attention ever untill its calm! and if the dog does jump up tell them to quickly turn around, do not push the dog down, or knee it in the chest, or even look at it because that is the kind of recognition it is looking for.

Answer 7

Ruby gets attention when she act this way. It enforces the behavior.
Put her on a leash and answer the door.
Ignore her completely and have your guests ignore her.
Stand on the leach to control her movements.
She ONLY gets attention when completely calm and in the down position.
You are then rewarding a good/positive behavior with attention.
Consistency is the key, each and every time you MUST follow through.

Answer 8

Training is what you need, Use a training collar and practice people oming in and out of the house. Teach her that it is not okay to jump on people. Ask a proffessional trainer or one of the petsmart trainers to help you. If not stopped now this could become quit a problem

Answer 9

Train her this way, everytime she jumps up - raise your knee to bump her in the chest and yell down! She will get the message after you keep doing it. When guests come tell her "down" before she has a chance to jump to remind her that she should not be doing this.

Answer 10

when people come into the house if she tries to jump on them have them turn there back on her and ignore her.. do not yell since she doesnt understand english she will think you are joining in... also you can try an air horn to distract her.. you can watch its me or the dog on animal plant or look at the sight these are common things that happend and they show you how to correct it with out harming the dog and driving you nuts ... good luck.