JaimieBurns

Adrienne Thank you so very much for your comprehensive and helpful advice! You are amazing at what you do and we feel lucky to have found this great community! Thank you! jaimie

Good afternoon! Would love some guidance on this. We have a seven month old golden retriever with a very mild mannered and calm temperament who we would love to train to be a service dog when he’s old enough. He has been socialized with dogs and people since he was young and in general is calm when greeting others. Occasionally he jumps and would love to know how to manage that behavior as it is not always predictable and not super frequent but still want to nip it in the bud. He often jumps when people are too excited petting him or leaning down to pet him. If people ignore him initially or are calm with him he doesn’t jump on them. He doesn’t jump on family members. Would also like guidance on growling. We have two children aged 9 and almost 7. Our youngest is a higher energy person and sometimes struggles not to be high energy and excitable with the dog. He has growled at our son a handful of times mostly if he tries to kiss or hug him or pets him too intensely. I have taken the approach to correct our son and try and train the dog to be more comfortable with those touches. But if we want him to be a therapy dog there may be times when people are excited around him or touching him with higher energy and wouldn’t want him to growl at them or for the dog to be uncomfortable either as I feel he is trying to tell our son to stop. The other day our daughter tried to move the dog onto his back from his side and he growled at her. Again I’ believe the dog was uncomfortable with how she moved him and I corrected her and started working with the dog on being moved in different ways for training. I would like guidance on whether the dog should also be corrected or just the children and how to continue to train him to be comfortable with different touches and energy levels of people. Thanks! We love the brain training for dogs program! jaimie