My 4 month old puppy is too friendly!?!?

Question

She's a Aussie/bordercollie mix - great puppy, no complaints. She is extremely active but I love it - keeps me in check. However, she goes crazy with people and other dogs. When I take her for walks, she wants to say hi to EVERYONE she sees which is a pain b/c i have to pull her from trying to run to them - after which she whimpers as she stares back :(. When people come over to visit she gets extremely excited and wants to run to them. If I keep her behind the doggie door she just barks and wants to get out. When we do let her greet people she goes CRAZY! She crawls to them, jumps on them, licks their hand, rolls on her side/back to get her belly rubbed, the whole 9. Its great that she's is good w/people but I dont want her to just be friendly to just anyone plus it can get annoying to the people. Is she just being a puppy? will she grow out of it?
PS - she is going to puppy class and is very smart...its just this issue...thanks

Answer 1

You have a fantastic puppy, why worry about her being too friendly. Take care when you take her into an unfenced area, train her to come back when you call her. Let her play with other dogs after you give her permission.

If she is over exuberant with visitors, put her in another room before you let your visitors in. Wait until she calms down and give her something to carry into the room, (try cracking the shell of a hard boiled egg and give her this) get your visitors to ignore her. After a spell out in another room and something to carry in she will calm down.

When you come home and she jumps up at you, turn your back on her and DO NOT SHOUT OR TELL HER TO STOP. Ignore her and pretend to do something else, opening kitchen cupboards or filling the kettle. Do anything other than to reward her for jumping at you. When she calms down, take her into the garden and play/train and go over the top with praise and cuddles.

Answer 2

Friendly Puppy

Answer 3

That's exactly how my dog acts. Her motto is: I'm so adorable, you obviously want to pet (or play with or whatever) me.

I know not everyone wants to touch a dog, but that's why I keep her from approaching people (by having her on a leash). If somebody acts like they want to pet her, I let them come to her.

I have different feelings about my dog being friendly to everyone. I would much rather have my dog lick an intruder than bite a child who approaches her to pet her. Collies tend to be very affectionate (although I have a friend with a collie mix that is a biter - he's bit twice and if he bites again, he will be put down), so if you were looking for a stranger weary dog, you should have gone with a more reserved, protective dog like a chihuahua or doberman (although these guys can be super friendly too).

Answer 4

You have her in puppy class, continue through intermediate and advanced obedience if you can. But, other than that, I would just give her some time. As long as you are correcting the behavior in appropriate manner, she will more than likley 'grow up' soon, and her temperment may calm down with it. I think she is just being a puppy. Plus, with that particular combination of dogs, more than likely she is very high energy-maybe a good candidate for agility? She might need a better challenge than most, given her energy and potential intelligence level. You can get her to calm down with repeated consistent correction, and I'd recommend that everything, from people visiting to feeding time you start out by making her sit prior to "release", that has helped my exuberant puppies in the past-they become accustomed to sit/stay as a condition required prior to any enjoyable activity. I even made my boys 'sit' and remain there for a few before putting them in for a ride, it did work for me.

Answer 5

Labs were bred to be friendly family dogs and hunting companions. So yes its normal. HOWEVER, Labs shoudl be taught manners - no matter how excited the puppy may be to meet people, you must teach the dog its not allowed to be jumping up on people. They grow fast but still have puppy minds and nothing worse then an untrained wild puppy. Start now or you will end up with a dog no one wants to be around.

Answer 6

you want to get it under control now while she is a puppy or she will jump up all the time for walking her u should go get dog trainer to learn the heel commamd with that she will walk and learn to ignore other things the jumping up on ppl put her on a leash and step on it ignore her and the ppl that come in ignore her she will sit and then lay down when she is calm then have the ppl greet her but if she hypes back up have the ppl turn there back from her and ignore until she goes calm when they can approach her calm praise her not hyping her up again but give a treat to her with a good praise u will see a diffence when she goes to training it helps not only u but ur puppy

Answer 7

go here:
http://leerburg.com/articles.htm#workpup
scroll down to "who should pet my puppy"
Basically, you shouldn't just let anyone pet your pup. A puppy should never view people as treat dispensing, petting machines, which is how your pup views people. You want your dog to accept people around, you want her to be friendly, by that i mean not aggressive, and to know that just because there is a person there, it's no big deal. But you don't want your dog to run up to every person it sees. A dog can be people friendly, without being an attention whore.

Answer 8

Don't worry, my dog used to be the same, and I think he still is at 8 months. Train yourself a little bit more in controlling her when out on a leash, she'll still stare but she will stop and pull less. Other than that, I think it's preferable to have a friendly dog that a poorly socialized one.

Answer 9

My pup was like that when i first got her but now that she is almost a year she has mellowed out. She should learn in her puppy class how to walk and after that i should just come to her natuarally to just walk next to people!

Answer 10

1) get her to respond 100% of the time to her name (that means calling her by name at home and then rewarding her at first for any look in your direction and eventually for direct eye contact with you)
2) once you have eye contact, start to teach her "watch me" which means continue to make eye contact until i release you
3) when she is reliable with "watch me" at home, start to add in distractions so that eventually you can take her out on a walk, tell her to "watch me" and have her turn to you.
4) release her to greet other dogs/people with a "say hi" command
5) wait is also a useful self-control command

this allows you to control when/who/where she gets to greet others (she will be happier, too, not having to make those decisions for you).