It’s normal for puppies to become over excited when they greet people.
Jumping up, barking, zooming around and toileting accidents are common behaviours.
And they can happen several times throughout the day, when:
- they see you in the morning.
- you come home from work.
- they meet someone new.
- you have visitors
Their behaviour seems cute and endearing whilst they’re young. So, we continue to reinforce it by giving the puppy attention.
But problems begin to surface when the puppy grows up.
Teaching your puppy to greet people calmly right from the start is much easier than undoing months of learning.
In this blog post we’ll explain why greeting people calmly is important, and how to teach your puppy to greet people calmly in 10 simple steps.
Please note: There are affiliate links in this post. If you click a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only give recommendations for items I feel will truly benefit my audience. Thanks for supporting our blog!
5 reasons to teach your puppy to greet people calmly
To prevent:
- Serious injury to you and others.
- Your puppy getting hurt.
- Embarrassment when you have visitors.
- Strangers getting cross because they’re covered in muddy paw prints.
- Scratches and bruises on your arms and legs.
Puppies are more susceptible to injury. And they’re “more likely to get injured doing activities which: Are repetitive (overuse) …Increase the risk of slips, trips, falls and collisions (Complete Canine Massage Therapy).
Six weeks crate rest for a young puppy during the most critical period of their development is going to impact upon the dog they grow up to be. So, you want to avoid this at all costs.
How to teach your puppy to greet people calmly
Before you begin:
- Make sure everyone in the household is on board. Consistency is everything! It helps your puppy learn so much quicker.
- Set up management. Ensure your puppy isn’t practicing undesirable behaviour by investing in a crate, puppy play pen or baby gates. You can also use their harness and lead indoors as well as outdoors.
- Have a portion of your puppy’s food or some tasty treats ready.
- Practice at home and in your garden to start.
- Choose your time carefully. You want your puppy to be successful. If they’re too tired or haven’t had time to burn off some energy, your training session is likely to be unsuccessful.
Step 1
Take a few steps and stop.
Step 2
When your puppy approaches, ask for a ‘sit’.
Step 3
Crouch down and stroke your puppy slowly. Use verbal praise too.
– Repeat steps 1-3, 3 times.
Top tips if your puppy:
– gets too excited by petting – use a few pieces of food at the same time
– hasn’t learned ‘sit’ yet – play this game whilst your puppy keeps four paws on the floor.
– jumps up – don’t say anything, just walk away and try again.
Click on the video below to watch a tutorial.
Step 4
Take a few steps and stop, but don’t ask your puppy to ‘sit’.
You don’t want to be nagging your puppy!
Hopefully, they’ve got the idea that when you stop walking, it’s a cue for bottom on the floor.
Don’t worry if they don’t sit straight away. Just give them a moment to figure it out.
If they jump up on you, just walk away and try again.
They may need a few more reps using their cue, ‘sit’.
Step 5
Repeat this game with every member of the family.
Now your puppy is a pro at sitting for attention you can practice with other people.
Step 6
Make the other person aware that you’re training your puppy. Ask them to stop approaching until you have your puppy’s focus on you.
Step 7
Ask your puppy to ‘sit’ and feed them a few pieces of tasty treats.
You want to avoid getting other people to feed your puppy as this will only serve to make people even more interesting. For a social puppy this can cause them to become over excited around strangers which is not something you want to encourage.
Step 8
If your puppy is calm and relaxed, ask the person to approach slowly. Let them know where to pet your puppy.
Tell them if your puppy jumps up to stand up and move away.
Step 9
Continuously feed your puppy and keep the interaction short.
***Always watch your puppy’s body language. Maybe they don’t want to be touched by the person approaching. Be your puppy’s advocate and say, ‘no thank you’.
Step 10
Practice a lot and your puppy will get good at this.
Putting time into practising polite greetings now will pay massively in the long run.
Top tips to progress:
Start to have short breaks between treats so that your puppy has a chance to choose how to interact and make good decisions.
I hope this blog post has explained why and how to teach your puppy to greet people politely.
Please share with me if this blog article has helped you and your pup by writing a comment below.
And if you’d love to learn how to prevent other common behaviour challenges and plenty more, join our Puppy Wise Academy membership!
When you sign up you get unrivalled puppy at home, on your schedule and instant access to all the support you need to raise an awesome pup!
Click on the image below to learn more and sign up today!
if this article helped you, please share it! You might also like the related blogs below.
Happy training!
Lindsay xx
0 Comments