So, Enzo is two and a few months old. She turned two in February. I put her "up" so to speak for the winter, because she was SUCH a nuisance to deal with in public. She's gotten better, but these are still problems I'm dealing with.
She absolutely ADORES people. Which is a good thing, yes, but so much so that she can't/won't focus on me when we're working. She gets so excited when people even LOOK at her, that she bounces up and down at the end of the leash, she whines, she makes wookie noises, she just generally is too excited.
It's worse when there are a small number of people out. She can't focus on one person in a crowd (though it does happen if someone makes eye contact with her) and she is a bit easier to deal with in large crowds. But at the store, training, walking, whatever, it's very hard for me to break her focus and get her attention back on working with me.
What I'm doing now, and I've only had limited success with this, and I may be going about it wrong, is backing up as far as possible, or as far as she needs for her concentration to break off the person and jackpotting her for focusing on me. However, I can't seem to get within a ten foot radius of someone and still have her focus, and we've been working on this for AWHILE.
She forgets her leash training, forgets her manners, wants to jump all over people, no self control whatsoever, and people don't care, so I have trouble correcting the behavior when I DO allow her to greet people, because they're always "Oh, it's okay! I don't mind!" and I'm so non confrontational that I can't just be "Well I DO mind!" and so she doesn't get to greet people appropriately nearly as often as she needs to. I just generally try to avoid the set up where she HAS to greet someone, but we get approached often. And its also hard for me to be "Sorry, we're working" so I just try to manage her behavior and reward her for what she does do right.
So, I guess what I'm asking is how to get around this people obsession that she has?
She absolutely ADORES people. Which is a good thing, yes, but so much so that she can't/won't focus on me when we're working. She gets so excited when people even LOOK at her, that she bounces up and down at the end of the leash, she whines, she makes wookie noises, she just generally is too excited.
It's worse when there are a small number of people out. She can't focus on one person in a crowd (though it does happen if someone makes eye contact with her) and she is a bit easier to deal with in large crowds. But at the store, training, walking, whatever, it's very hard for me to break her focus and get her attention back on working with me.
What I'm doing now, and I've only had limited success with this, and I may be going about it wrong, is backing up as far as possible, or as far as she needs for her concentration to break off the person and jackpotting her for focusing on me. However, I can't seem to get within a ten foot radius of someone and still have her focus, and we've been working on this for AWHILE.
She forgets her leash training, forgets her manners, wants to jump all over people, no self control whatsoever, and people don't care, so I have trouble correcting the behavior when I DO allow her to greet people, because they're always "Oh, it's okay! I don't mind!" and I'm so non confrontational that I can't just be "Well I DO mind!" and so she doesn't get to greet people appropriately nearly as often as she needs to. I just generally try to avoid the set up where she HAS to greet someone, but we get approached often. And its also hard for me to be "Sorry, we're working" so I just try to manage her behavior and reward her for what she does do right.
So, I guess what I'm asking is how to get around this people obsession that she has?