German Shepherds Forum banner

Greeting Visitors Calmly

2K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Shade 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi All, I need some advice on how i could train my German Shepherd to greet visitors calmly. She is about 1.5 years old, sweet and lovely girl, but she gets all jumpy, happy and excited when visitors who she has met before come home. As soon as the door bell rings, she goes nuts, starts barking, pacing around. When my friends come home, she jumps on them and i keep telling my friends to ignore her, but they start petting her, talking to her and she jumps all over them. How can i teach her the right way to greet visitors?
 
#2 ·
Train her to have a "spot" when she hears the doorbell ring. Make sure it is out of the way of your incoming guests.

She must stay in that spot, quiet and calm until your guest are ready to greet her. She only gets to greet them when she is calm though.

This will take a lot of practice, since the doorbell is always so exciting! Lot of treats, and I would suggest a clicker to help train. I just picked one up from our petstore for a few dollars, and my dog picked up on it right away. WE love it!
 
#3 ·
Practice practice practice :) Work on going up to the door (with noone there) and having her sitting calmly and waiting beside you, have a family member or friend volunteer to help you and have them knock at the door. Depending on what you're looking for, shape the behaviour you want. So if you want an alert bark let the dog bark the number you'd like and mark and reward. Same thing with greeting, shape the greeting you want slowly and heavily praise when they comply

Shaping really helps in showing the dog in small steps what you're looking for. It'll take time, keep a small bag of treats at the door for those unexpected moments as it will come in handy. You should see the dog realizing that certain behavious get rewarded and they will start to gravitate towards them
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top