couple of questions

I have been working double time on Princess, trying to prepare her for a trip to Brittish Columbia and one to Florida coming up. She is a year old and is discovering how powerful she really can be.
I still have a few problems. 90% of the time our walks are great. We walk even when its snowing out (and now I'm catching a cold) but she loves to take walks. I've noticed now when we walk out the door its not like a scene from the jetsons where George is pulled off his feet as Astro pulls him out the door! Its now she walks out like a polite dog with a little self control and I'm not holding on for dear life praying my arm doesnt get pulled out of joint! She doesnt pull me so much on our walks, when she tries we turn and go the other way and do this until she gets the hint. But she still insist she walks in front of me. How do I get her to walk beside me or behind me? Or does it matter so much?
Another thing is I'm trying to get her to calm down when people come. Since I walk her daily she has calmed down in that area also. I noticed it bigtime yesterday when two people came back to where me and Princess was, she didnt jump all over them. I was so proud, bragging on her. BUT then that evening as we was leaving to go home I was just about to open the door when someone started pounding on the door (I thought how odd to knock on a business door instead of just walking in). I opened it and there stands a cop! Princess got so excited, she is jumping like crazy, pulling as hard as she can to try to get outside to say hello to him, I'm trying to pull her back and get her calmed down but she is doing everything she can to go say hello to him. So while I am trying to calm Princess down the cop is asking is we have seen the owner of this building we are in (hes called to be a witness at a trial), my husband came in and started talking to him. I was finally able to calm Princess down, she sat whinning because she didnt get to jump all over his clean uniform. SO I have work to do still. I cant be taking her out in public areas if she thinks she has to greet every face she sees with jumping on them or making them think she is trying to attack them by trying so hard to get to them.
So my two questions this time, how do I get her to walk beside me or behind me, and how do I get her to not jump on people when we are out for our walk and come across someone she finds interesting and fun?

She was doing good. BUT yesterday she had some kind of brain fart or something. We can still walk out the door nicely. In fact her first walk was done very professionaly, she even walked beside and I walked a new route with her. But each walk after that went down hill.

She noticed birds, she managed to advoid a mudpuddle and somehow I didnt, she noticed every rock in the road, sticks, leafs, at one point when she was to find a place to potty she thought she found buried treasure and tried to dig it out. She found a wrapper, she had to carry with her, then would just lay down as if she was on strike, refusing to budge because she had that wrapper in her mouth she wanted to play with, during the day she became very interested in 2 different cars that drove by as if she thought they'd be perfect cars to chase, she seen someone walking and wanted so badly to go say hello to them.

The worst was at night. We was working late and at 10 I decided I wasnt staying there any later, I'm going home, so I told my husband I was walking home. He said he'd take me because it's to cold to be walking. I argued with him that it isnt that cold out and besides, Princess needs the practice. So off we go. I wasnt thinking, Friday night, no sidewalks, traffic was on the busy side. She's fighting me the entire way. I was froze before we even got halfway home and I wasnt about to go back and admit to my husband he was right so we kept walking. We get almost to our street when another car comes so I take her off to the side, she spotted the neighbors outdoor ornaments, DEER. She growls, then tries to go after them barking. I'm trying to get her to go my way, she's trying to get me to go her way. I'm pulling her telling her they arent real, stop being a dork. FINALLY I get her past the deer and to our street when she hears the neighbors dogs barking, she wants to go play with them, then she spots our house and forgets the dogs, she starts pulling, I'm frozen, my fingers hurt because I didnt grab my gloves, if I turn back she'll want to play with the dogs so I decide we'll run the rest of the way home! I will only say this, she runs alot faster than me!

Oh Becca, I understand where you are coming from. Brady is like that walking and greeting people. He just gets SO excited when he sees people or other animals. He thinks he has to meet everyone and every animal. He loves all dogs, cats, people, kids. I will say he is very good with children by not jumping on them. He will sit and let them pet him and he seems to enjoy it so much. But if you were to come to my house, he would jump all over you. He gets so excited about it, and when we walk he pulls me all over the neighborhood, and he is so strong too. I have had to plant my feet and sit down in order to stop him from pulling me somewhere. It is crazy. I do have a harness on him when we walk and I really think that probably gives him more leverage over me, but I hate the coughing sound he makes with a neck collar. I usually walk with my friend down the street and her dog (who is his sweet girlfriend) and he tries to run our ahead of all of us and pulls me so bad. I really need to get him into a class, I guess, it is just those are the two main things he needs to be taught. I may try that www.barkbusters.com or I was going to get that book about the Monks of New Skete that Renee suggested I would probably like because it teaches you to communicate with your dog instead of ordering your dog around. I like the idea of that.

So anyway, sorry I could not be of more help, but I just wanted you to know that I am going through that too, so if you find any helpful solutions, please let me know, and I will let you know if I find anything that helps. Good luck.

Beth

I only have just a minute before I have to urn to an appointment, but I wanted to tell Beth that before you go to Bark Busters (who doesn't train their trainers well) or--god forbid--the Monks of New Skete (whose original book had a chapter titled, "How Hard Should I Hit My Dog?"), try a $90 beginning obedience class at PetSmart (all positive reinforcement; the trainers are not allowed to raise a hand against your dog in any way, and it's a good foundation to build on) and these books: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training by Pamela Dennison (the best introduction to positive reinforcement that I've found and a great resource for teaching basic manners), Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor (the reverend mother of clicker training) , and The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell (tries to explain what life is like through a dog's eyes, and a fabulous read).

Becca, I have some ideas that I think may help with Princess. I'll get back to you, hopefully this afternoon.

Thaks for the advice, I will look into the Petsmart classes. I did not know the book had that chapter in it.I will try one of those books you mentioned also.

I'm not familiar with the training books from the Monks of New Skete but I have personally attended many seminars with their lead trainer giving demonstrations. He has never suggested in any way that the dogs should be hit. Perhaps in years past that was part of their method and if it was it has definitely been changed. The obed. school we go to goes there for 2 seminars each year and their methods, in my opinion, work very well and are along the same lines as the trainer at our school. There is much emphasis on eye contact as well as using a happy tone of voice for praise and learning to communicate with your dog and realizing that many times it is not the dog that is having a problem learning a command but rather the person is having a problem learning how to teach the dog a particular command. He always stresses that each dog is an individual and the training needs to be adjusted to meet that dog's needs. The dogs are happy and enjoying the sessions as well as learning. I know many do not & will not agree with their methods as snap collars are used but this method has worked extremely well for me. My 2 look forward to going to class every week and they now work on flat collars. Farley has completed his CD degree and Chloe just earned the 1st leg of hers last month.

I may have missed mention of it here, but has anyone mentioned the gentle lead ??? I've never had to use one, but it is really recommended by our Retriever Club.

Emma, I've yet to be able to get my copies of the Monks' books, but I'm somewhat familiar with their methods - more so with their philosophies - and I'm now dying to see what that chapter you mentioned really says. Have you had a chance to read it? I'm guessing - from what I know of their philosophy - that the title is meant to get your attention and the chapter may actually go on to explain why you don't hit dogs?

Which book did you see it in? I'm going to make a detour to a books store to check it out, even though I can't afford to buy the set of books yet. Thanks!

By the way, I thought you might want to know that you can't depend on the PetsMart training programs to be uniform at every store. I talked to a couple of people who had started the training programs at the one in Knoxville and quit going after the second session. It seems the trainer liked to yell and wag her finger in dog's faces - and then got angry when the dogs bristled at her!

Most people I've known who were happy with the trainer they found either located the trainer through other owners or by their veterinarian's recommendation.