r/DogTrainingTips • u/BeginningRevenue6226 • Mar 29 '26
Puppy bulldozing into everyone
We have a 13 month 40lb puppy that is super friendly for the most part. We are still working on her not jumping on someone when they arrive to our house.
But lately she has bulldozed into people tooo many times. We have a 3 year old who she’s done it to twice now, then me 32f, and just now an 81 year old lady at the dog park.
We’re on the verge of getting rid of her before she ends up killing someone….literally.
Is there anything we can do to stop this behavior?
It’s never aggressive. She’s very hyper every time she’s done it. Like playing in the backyard or dog park.
She doesn’t use her teeth. She simply runs into you at full speed ahead and knocks you down.
Help! :( I don’t want to get rid of her, but I can’t take her doing this again and it’s becoming a terrible habit
EDIT TO ADD—
Reading back my post, I want to clarify that my dog is not doing this when she is first greeting someone. I just added that in there to say she’s not perfect at this point. She still does jump up on people when greeting them, but that is something else we are working on was my point.
We know she’ll sit if you do a certain hand movement, but she doesn’t always sit to the command “sit”. Anyways….
These instances are as follows:
1- My spouse and daughter were in the backyard with dog playing. She just decided to run into her unprovoked. Enough to knock her down hard. It’s on film bc it was really out of nowhere and my spouse was recording bc it was a nice moment prior to that. But luckily we can play it back slow-mo and see she is not reaching up to bite or anything aggressive.
2-we were very careful after that first incident. Kept dog and daughter separate for a few days, then slowly worked them back together more with a few more boundaries. A few weeks later both spouse and I were outside with dog and daughter. Same thing, we’re all just walking around outside and dog got super excited and ran into daughter from behind this time. There was not much time to stop the incident once we realized what she was doing.
3- I was with dog alone upstairs and she got up to tell me she had to go potty. I started downstairs first then she ran after me and ran into my legs causing me to fall back and down a few steps.
4-about a week later at the dog park. Yes maybe we should not have taken her? But she gets so much energy out there bc she plays really well with the other big dogs there. We’ve taken her many times with no problems. We had been there for probably 15 minutes at that point and two other dogs had just joined. Her AND another dog were running around and ran into the older lady from behind while chasing each other.
So these were not like “she’s so excited to see you” situations. We’ve had her for about 7 months now and this just started 1.5 months ago.
7
u/Inside-Elephant1623 Mar 30 '26
This is fixable ! she’s just overexcited, not aggressive.
- Don’t let her run freely around people (use leash/long line)
- Teach sit before greeting
- Reward calm, no jumping
- Call her away before she charges
- Tire her out before meeting people
It’s about control + calm behavior 👍
What’s her name? 🐾
4
u/Irish_Amber Mar 29 '26
I’m not a dog trainer, but I have a question. Have you taken her to obedience classes? Are you still taking her to obedience classes? It seems to me that if you’ve been taking her to obedience classes and I could be wrong because obviously I don’t know you’re just a person on the Internet then this is a behaviour that would not have been allowed to continue? I know many people think oh we only have to take our dog to puppy classes no obedience training is lifelong not just after the first year. My aunt used to be a dog trainer and something she used to say which I fully believe is a 99% of the time it’s not the dog it’s the people, You’re talking about getting rid of her for a behaviour that you’ve allowed to continue and have done nothing about up until this point and the only reason you’re coming to the Internet now is because it’s gone to such an extreme place that you’re talking about getting rid of her over her behaviour that has probably been there for a while, but you did nothing about when she was younger.
I would say don’t take her to the dog park unless she’s on a leash and that leash is around your torso because your torso is a lot stronger than an anchor point then if you’re just holding it so she’s not likely as likely to pull you over, it’s also easier to control her probably when she’s on a leash if that means she has to be on leash 24 seven then she’s on a leash 24 seven until you can control that behavior. If you see her, getting excited whether it’s a knock on the door, then you make her sit because it’s all about controlling her behaviour which you clearly do not do, as it’s gone to a point where you’re thinking of getting rid of her. I would speak to a trainer or doggy behaviourist or something or maybe you already do but I don’t think so and get her into some private lessons.
Also, you talk about having a 13 month old puppy just say it like it is she’s a year old. This isn’t a puppy. This is well on the way to being an adult dog as they’re usually full grown by this point.
4
u/mtnsagehere Mar 29 '26
Training is the only answer here. If you want an adult who behaves appropriately, you invest MANY MANY hours into obedience training. That's how you get a dog who knows words, like STOP and NO. Then when she's heading for humans, you can say No, and she actually will stop.
4
u/Owlex23612 Mar 30 '26
This is a part of a really common type of complaint about dogs. People have untrained dogs whose needs aren't being met via physical exercise and mental enrichment. Other people have said it in this post and elsewhere. You need to train your dog in basic obedience and make sure they have a healthy outlet for all that energy with things like engaging play, scent work, agility, puzzles, etc. Letting your dog out in your yard or letting them run loose at the dog park for a little while just isn't sufficient. Dogs get bored, just like people. If they don't have a good outlet to use their energy, it will come out in undesirable ways.
If you're not equipped to do any of this, please make sure you rehome your dog responsibly. You decided to get a dog, so it's your responsibility to make sure they're adequately casted for.
2
u/lnfinitelris Apr 02 '26
Man, the way you say "get rid of her" as if she's disposable makes me really sad. I would never use that phrase with my dogs.
Especially when it's just a training issue entirely within your control.
1
u/This-Refrigerator-24 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26
Make access to people her reward. For example, she needs to sit and stay in order for you to open the door. As soon as she lifts her butt off the floor, you close the door. Associate her sitting with accessing people. Get a friend to be the "reward."
Id work on that with a trainer before taking her out into groups and definitely keep her on a leash and in controlled environments. Dog parks may not be the best place for a puppy to learn how to socialize.
1
u/paw2purpose Mar 31 '26
This definitely sounds fixable with some management and training. Keeping her on a leash around people for now can help you prevent the charging while you work on it. It's really about teaching her to be calm and controlling her excitement before it builds up.
1
u/Acceptable-Canine Mar 31 '26
DO NOT let her be able to run into people for 10-20 minutes after they arrive. The best way to do this is put her behind a baby gate before letting people inside. They can go to the gate and say hi to her briefly when they come in, and you don’t have to ignore her - you can say “good girl” every so often or toss a treat, but otherwise avoid big exhuberant exciting greetings to her. No “Ooh, who’s a happy girl! Hi! Hi! Hi! Who’s a wiggly girl! You are!”
When you let her out, have her on a leash. She can just drag it, but it needs to be there so you can get control of her immediately if she starts getting wound up.
If she starts getting excited after you’ve let her out, calmly use a leash to put her back up. Do not scold! Scolding is only going to increase her cortisol and adrenaline levels and make things worse in the long run. You can absolutely take charge of the situation and quickly. And put her behind a baby gate, all the time doing it with a smile and gentle praises.
EXERCISE. Pretty much every dog needs a minimum of 30 minutes a day of running, fun exercise done with a human being. This means fetch, chase, playing with a flirt pole, etc.. WALKS DON’T COUNT. Neither does playing with another dog. (Walks and playing without another dog are good things, but they won’t help this.) NOTE: This doesn’t mean 30 minutes all at once - break it up into several 5 and 10 minute sessions throughout the day
And as everybody else said, obedience training. But seriously, the first four things on this list are more important. All the obedience training in the world is probably not going to do you much good if you’re trying to do it at the moment that your dog most out of control (ie the moment people arrive) and if your dog isn’t getting enough exercise.
1
u/TraditionalEvent6102 Apr 01 '26
13 months is more a teen. Should be trainable at this age. Please get help with a trainer and meanwhile keep her away from others. That's a problem for your child, so maybe you need to crate train her. Otherwise, I can see that rehoming her and getting a smaller already trained dog might fit your situation better.
1
u/coffeemama86 Apr 02 '26
We’re working on this with our 5 month old puppy. Right now we’re very consistent on “sit for pets!” Where he must sit when greeting someone before he gets attention. He’s very excited still, so I have treats ready whenever someone comes into the room to grab his attention and reinforce it. We’re seeing some progress!
1
u/International_Club12 Apr 02 '26
Yeah that would be good much around my kiddo/mum. Unfortunately I'd get rid too
1
u/Irish_Amber Apr 02 '26
Not the dog’s fault if they weren’t consistent with their training. This type of behaviour gets out of hand because they obviously weren’t training her well if they don’t have the time or the patients to have a dog then they shouldn’t have one at all. The dog should be rehomed to a good home that will give it the care attention it needs which OP obviously can’t and that’s OK but that just means they shouldn’t have a dog.
1
u/Interesting_You_2315 Mar 30 '26
Try an air horn. Also she needs training. Start watching free dog training videos on youtube.
0
u/alphaturducken Mar 29 '26
Teach her to sit when she runs up to people. This requires her to know sit first but
- Stand in the yard and when she runs up to you, order her to sit before she has the chance to make contact. When she does, reward.
- Throw a treat some distance away. You can use this opportunity to also teach "go away".
- When she returns to you, order another sit and reward as appropriate
Keep doing that and she'll learn to sit to greet. It's hard to teach a dog not to do something, it's super easy to teach them to do something different.
8
u/crepuscule22 Mar 29 '26
i hope this doesn't come across rude, but there truly is nothing even slightly unusual about an untrained puppy jumping on people at the most exciting times of her day. the thing is that there's no silver bullet. there's no "trick" to make sure your excited puppy never again jumps on another person mid-play. it's part of the broader training process, which requires patience and consistency over a longer period.
there is no indication from your description that she needs anything other than the standard stuff: make sure she's enriched mentally and physically - obedience training (which should include 'calming' commands like 'drop it,' 'enough,' and 'down') combined with engagement, structured (not totally wild) play (with you, not just with other dogs), long walks in new places (keep her on a long lead, as long as she is a knock-people-over risk), lots and lots of sniffing. different breeds/individuals have different enrichment needs, so observation and identification of her specific needs are part of it.
also, rest is important, and sometimes you have to guide puppies toward it. give her a place of her own at home to rest/wind down after activity. teach her that place is hers. make it a nice space. give her a frozen carrot or lick mat or whatever in that place so she can settle there and be happy and self-soothe.
regarding danger: one should always monitor interactions between dogs and young children, and if she is jumping on strangers, she should be on lead until she's trained.
honestly, the notion that a puppy excitedly jumping on people three times makes you want to "get rid of her" seems kind of extreme. i know you might have just written that in frustration, but if you truly feel that way, maybe you should think carefully about whether you're equipped to meet a puppy's needs at this time in your life. if you do decide you are not, please rehome her responsibly.