Teaching her to be... less enthusiastic?

[vanillasugar]

I don't know if this is even a problem, let alone one that needs to be trained out, it may just be that she's still very "puppy" in a lot of ways.

Sierra is enthusiastic. I love that about her. She is happy to meet everyone and everything, and is very outward when showing it. The thing is, she can be careless and definatley NOT gentle about her enthusiasm.

I'd been away from her over Christmas, and when we picked her up she was so happy to see me she LEPT over another dog and got me in the face with her big happy smile (hitting me with a tooth, but not biting at all. It just hurt from the force of her jump). She often gets mouthy, grazing my hands/arms with her teeth, but never biting. She does the same thing with new people that are greeting her happily, it's like she feeds from their energy and gets jumpy.

Is this something she'll just grow out of, settling as she gets older? Or should I be training her to be more gentle somehow?

[lizzybeth727]

Some of this she'll probably grow out of, but I've known 1-2 year old dogs who still act like this and their owners are still waiting for them to grow up instead of realizing that it is a behavior that can be trained!

You can teach her that whenever she gets too excited, mouthes, or jumps, she's not going to get any attention whatsoever. Turn your back to her, cross your arms so she can't grab them, and do something else that takes your attention. Whenever she's calm, though, you should make a point to give her lots of attention for that.

At this age, it's going to take lots of repetitions and lots of your time before she really learns to try to control herself, but if you practice now, at least it will be much more controlled by the time she gets bigger and stronger!

[vanillasugar]

We've been doing the "OW!" thing but she just doesn't seem to get it. I do want her to get to the point where she understands that her teeth should never touch human skin.

I've been doing a bit of the attention thing (she stops getting any when she mouths etc.) but mostly when she gets carried away playing and takes things too far, so I stop the play until she settles. I'll work on using this more consistantly in other situations.

Any other suggestions?

[Dekka]

If you keep doing that she will get it. Hehe maybe she needs more of an outlet for her enthusiasm..maybe agility ;)

[vanillasugar]

If you keep doing that she will get it. Hehe maybe she needs more of an outlet for her enthusiasm..maybe agility ;)

Oh I think she'd be very good at something like agility... I was leaning more towards fly ball though, I think that would suit her better. We'll get through basic obedience first though!