puppy socialized. Check. but

[EdwardSiedlecki]

I have been socializing Chloe to where she has become a social butterfly with people, kids, other dogs, cats you name it.  The problem now is that she gets so extremely excited when anyone comes near her that I am having an impossible time teaching her not not jump.  Her attention span is getting better as I play tug of war, and fetch.  We go for long walks of 2 miles or more,  sometimes she walks nice and other times she thinks she is a sled dog.  same thing happens when we go into the house at night.

[Adrienne]

First of all, congrats for socializing Miss Chloe very well which is a very important step for any dog who is meant to live in a social world. I have gone through a similar issue with my female dog when she was younger, although rather than being a Lab she was a Rottweiler. This created several logistical problems because not all people were eager to meet a large, powerful Rottweiler who pulls and acts over excited wanting to jump on everyone she met. 

So how can we tackle this problem? For starters, you may find it beneficial making changes to your walking gear especially since she is a large, powerful dog. Being dragged by a large dog who wants to meet everyone she encounters can be quite problematic and can result in you getting hurt too. If you are therefore walking your dog on a regular buckle collar or perhaps a choke collar, you may want to switch to something else. The buckle collar may work poorly in preventing your dog from pulling, and the choke collar can potentially cause your dog to choke, gag, and even damage her trachea/larynx area in the long term (laryngeal issues later on in life are a real thing in Labs).

Instead, you can try a "no-pull harness," also known as a "front attachment harness" where the leash attaches to a ring strategically positioned in the middle of the dog's chest. People who have problems walking large, powerful dogs are often happy to notice more control once they try a harness.

What's so special about this type of harness? The front-attachment harness provides owners with more steering power when compared to a collar considering that it controls the dog's shoulders and chest area. Dan Merson, the creator of the "Walk Your Dog with Love" harness, has a neat explanation that takes a peek at physics. He claims that dog owners are put at a disadvantage when walking their dogs because dogs are more horizontal than vertical and their horizontal shape results in the advantage of having a more stable center of gravity. We humans, being vertical beings with an unstable center of gravity, lose our balance when our powerful dogs pull more easily.  

While a no-pull harness can help reduce pulling, it's important to note that it's just one part of the resolution of the problem. It won't magically stop your dog from running up to people and jumping on them. In order to set your dog for success, you will also have to implement some training.

Often this issue though is matter of people compliance. In other words, exposing your dog to people who are compliant in not giving her attention when she pulls and tries to jump on them. Because what social butterflies are mostly after is attention. So if you have friends willing to help you out and follow some simple instructions, you may instill in her some new notions that may change the way she interacts with people. 

In other words, you would have several of your helpers show up on one of your walks and the moment your dog tries to jump on them, they should turn around totally ignoring your dog. If she keeps jumping, they may even walk away and leave. Rinse and repeat several times until your dog gives up trying to jump on them or grows bored of it. At this point, you can ask your dog to sit and bingo, your helpers can turn around, pet her (if she doesn't get too excited otherwise skip this) and feed her a treat. 

The same exercise can be done at home with guests. Have several guests show up at your place. If she tries  to jump, they should turn around and if she persists, they should leave and exit the door. Rinse and repeat several times, until she acts calmer. At this point, you can ask your dog to sit and bingo, your helpers may enter the home and pet her (if she doesn't get too excited) and feed her a treat. 

If on walks she pulls to meet people, you can also use the Premack Principle, in other words, if she walks on a loose leash you move towards the people to say hi, if she's pulling you turn around the opposite way or have your helpers turn around and leave. Calm behaviors lead to meeting people, hyper behaviors leads to not meeting people. "You have to heel or sit nicely in order to meet people" should be the new rules of the game. More on the Premack Principle here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/premack-principle/

Of course, it goes without saying that this exercise will need lots or rehearsals in order for the new behavior of sitting becomes ingrained. If sitting still is too challenging for her, you can see if having your guests ask her to hand target can help redirect her to that rather than jumping. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ 

Some dogs who are initially too excited to cognitively function and focus on performing behaviors such as sits and hand targets (or dogs who are a bit anxious rather than excited), may start off by simply going "on treasure hunts" when they meet people. In other words, the moment there are  in close encounters with people on walks or guests in the home, you can toss several treats on the ground to give her something else to do rather than focus on jumping.  Often this suffixes to divert the jumping behavior in something else and prevent rehearsal of the problematic behavior (the more a dog jumps, the more the behavior puts roots). Then, once the dog appears calmer, we can focus on training sits or hand targets. 

Something else that I find helped my dog a lot and other dogs I have trained, is taking social butterflies in crowded areas frequently. This may be impossible to do now with the COVID-19 situation but can be a good future project to keep in mind. Seeing many people all at once, to the point of saturation, can lower the drive to meet and greet until people become "blah" a part of normalcy. When around lots of people as such, it also helps taking advantage of the calmer state for working on loose-walking and attention heeling using high-value rewards as explained here:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

I hope this helps you,

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Best,

Adrienne