For many dogs, meeting and greeting humans is so exciting. New sights. New smells. A new friend of the pack. All of that excitement can be really difficult to contain, especially for young and hyperactive dogs.
If a dog isn’t taught how to greet people nicely, that excitement can manifest as jumping, barking, running around the house and general chaos. For dog owners, the entire situation can be frustrating, stressful and even embarrassing.
We all want our dogs to be polite greeters. Even if your dog is an excitable greeter right now, a little training and patience can transform Fido into a gentleman.
1. Manage the Situation
One of the reasons why it’s so difficult to correct inappropriate greeting habits is because bad behaviors are inadvertently reinforced.
Here’s an example that a lot of dog owners can relate to:
- A friend comes over.
- Your dog hears the commotion and comes running to greet your guests.
- Excitedly, he jumps up on your guests to say “hi.”
- You apologize.
- Your guests say, “oh it’s okay! I don’t mind” and starts petting your dog.
In a way, you may feel a little relieved that your guests are okay with your dog’s excited behavior. But what if future guests aren’t so forgiving? Do you really want your dog to behave this way anyway?
Here’s the problem with the above scenario:
- Your guests gave your dog attention when he was behaving inappropriately.
Each time your dog gets a pet when he’s jumping up, it’s reinforcing the behavior. Your dog thinks, “oh, she’s touching me!” and associates his jumping behavior with positive attention. Jumping up gets him what he wants: attention.
As a dog owner, it’s up to you to manage the situation and make sure that your guests aren’t controlling the situation.
- Use a tether or baby gate to keep your dog away from the door when guests come over. This way, you can greet your guests without your dog jumping up or getting in the way. Once the excitement dies down, you can instruct your guests how to greet your dog properly, and your dog will be in a better state of mind to listen.
- Place a basket of toys your dog loves by the door. Place a sign near the door that instructs guests: to take a toy before they come in, instruct Fido to sit, and then toss the toy after Fido sits. When guests follow your instructions, this reinforces the habit of sitting each time a guest comes through the door.
- The same rule can apply to treats. If your dog doesn’t care too much about toys but is food driven, guests can take a handful of treats and toss them to your dog after he sits.
The goal here is to get control of the situation so that your dog isn’t inadvertently rewarded for inappropriate behavior. As long as guests comply, your dog will eventually understand that sitting for guests gets him awesome rewards.
2. Ignore Inappropriate Behavior
A big problem with jumping, barking and other inappropriate greeting behaviors is that it’s so easy to reinforce them.
- Fido jumps up, you tell him “no!” and ask him to get down. The attention may be negative, but it’s still attention. Your dog loves attention.
- Fido jumps up, and you (gently) push him off and give the “down” command. Fido gets a “pet” out of it and verbal attention.
In both of these scenarios, your dog associates jumping up on guests as a way to get attention. And it almost always works – unless everyone ignores him.
This is a difficult approach, but if you have the patience, it can be effective. The goal is to completely ignore your dog’s inappropriate greeting behavior and only reward him with praise, attention, pets or treats when he’s behaving properly.
- Fido jumps up on you as you walk through the door.
- You ignore him. You don’t pet him, push him, talk to him or even look at him.
- Fido realizes he’s not getting anything out of this, so he naturally returns to the floor.
- You praise him and give him all the attention he wants.
Eventually, Fido begins to associate being on the “all fours” or sitting with getting rewards and praise. If you – and everyone else – can successfully ignore your dog’s inappropriate greeting behaviors, you can effectively get him to stop jumping up on guests. But it will require consistent and near-perfect behavior from everyone.
3. Teach Your Dog the “Place” Command
One of the most effective ways to teach your dog polite greetings is to give him a “place” to sit when people visit. Giving your dog a place to go and a behavior to perform will set him up for success.
To practice this approach, you will need to leave the house for a while.
- When you first walk through the door, ignore your dog’s inappropriate behaviors.
- Once he calms down, show him where to sit. Designate a “place” in the house.
- Give him treats and praise.
- Repeat this exercise every time you come home.
Training a dog to greet people nicely will take time, effort and patience, but the reward of a well-behaved dog is worth the effort. Just remember to keep your training sessions short and to be patient with your dog.
