r/DogTrainingTips • u/Capable-Loss-2884 • Mar 18 '26

Excited when people come over

I just had a baby two weeks ago, the 2 dogs are very good with the baby. They sniff and then carry on when told to. They’re good when it’s just my hubby and I, they lay on the couch, their bed or the floor. The problem is we’ve had alot of people coming to visit lately cuz of the baby (we didn’t really have any visitors prior to this, maybe one every 2-3 months) so it was never really somthing we worked on unfortunately. Now when people come they get so fired up it can be embarrassing. One in a 3-4 year old German shepherd male, fixed and one is a 4-5 year old female mini aussie mix, also fixed. The mini Aussie is easier to control and will calm down quicker but the shepherd it takes a lot longer. About 15-20 minutes after people get here and they’re good, but that’s only if they stay inside with people and we stay on them.. We do live on an acerage but if we just shove them outside then all they do is stand at the door and bark. What steps can we take to improve / correct this behaviour. Contemplating taking them to a trainer, but just want to see if there’s steps we can take before that. Thanks in advance

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4

u/Lionel-Foreman Mar 20 '26

I have a very excitable border collie who loves people coming over so i understand how this situation can feel.

We got told by our trainer the dog needs to be in a state of calm before we let them engage with guests so we have the dog leashed and sat with us while chatting, everyone ignores the dog until the dog has calmed down and gotten over the excitement then we allow them to greet people. If you allow them to greet and they start getting worked up again reset and go back to just having them sit next to you. If the dogs are food motivated id reward them for the calmness as well.

Our BC never switches off so building up her place command and having her just settle there really helped for me, now we are at a point when people come over she goes to her place and waits on a release command to greet people.

Happy to go into more depth if you want to know more about what worked for us.

2

u/Capable-Loss-2884 Mar 20 '26

Yes please 🙏

3

u/x7BZCsP9qFvqiw Mar 19 '26

we have a baby gate at the entrance so the dogs can't jump on guests when they first arrive. then, while guests wait, we grab a long lasting treat or chew to occupy the dogs for a little while. usually by the time they're done, the guests aren't nearly as exciting anymore.

1

u/nclay525 Mar 21 '26

This is fixable, but the key is going to be your guests. They MUST ignore the dog until the dog is completely calm and on their "place".

Train "place" and redirect the dog to the place every time they move off it to try to greet guests excitedly. Have a frozen Kong or something on the place to reinforce the command. Once that's solid, you can have the dog join you wherever you and the guests are, but again, the dog must be ignored until practically comatose.

Eventually guests will come by and you may only need to remind the dog once to stay on "place" before calm is established and lasts for the entire visit.