English Labrador retriever jumping excitedly on people

[CYNTHIA KACIAN]

My Lab jumps excitedly on people when first meeting them. It's like she is saying, 'Yay! People, people, people!'  She'll even bite them, but more like a pinch bite not an aggressive bite. She wiggles all over like mad. She'll do it to me if I'm away for several hours, but will respond to 'off' for me and stop. She won't respond to 'off' if I say it when the new person enters. I have to physically remove her. Normally she is not like this. She is easy to teach basic skills to. She is calm around the house. It's really a Jekyll and Hyde moment to describe her different temperament when someone one new arrives. I know another person with a lab having the same problem. She is a year old. Thanks 

[CYNTHIA KACIAN]

PS

to better describe behavior, she acts like this in her best buddy she hasn't seen in like years. Normally she has a calm demeanor 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there! Welcome to the forums!

If you're able to tell her 'off' and she stops with you, but can't in presence of people, that's a sign that she's too "over threshold" https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ around people and is struggling generalizing the behavior to perform it in their presence.  

When we see dogs who act hyper like this in the presence of people and nip as well, it's sign of too high arousal levels and there also may be some anxiety mixed in as well. Tackling this issue requires creating frequent set-ups with collaborative people who are willing to follow your directions and not reinforce any of her hyper behaviors by petting her/taking to her or acknowledging her in ay way. 

Here is a guide: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/jumping/

In the background, you may also find it helpful desensitizing her to behaviors people do when they see dogs like talking in an exciting tone, and training her to sit by default no matter what happens. You can see an example of this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-assessing-jumping-behavior-desensitization/

and here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-practice-greetings/

When not working on set-ups make sure to use management so to not allow her to rehearse hyper excitable behaviors, more tips on this are found here:

It also helps to up her training and impulse control through these exercises:https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/10-impulse-control-games-for-dogs/

And of course brain games to keep that busy mind stimulated.

Hope this helps,

Happy training!

 

[CYNTHIA KACIAN]

Thanks! Lots of good info here. She knows all the basics well and likes the 'games' like hide and seek and find it, I need to add more opportunities for her to learn control with strangers. Thanks a bunch!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You're very welcome! Keep us posted on how things go.