Too Friendly to Strangers

Question
QUESTION: My question is how can I get my 6 month old rescue puppy from running up to every person she sees?  She gets so excited whenever she see people.  I've been told that because she was in a foster home from birth, and there really wasn't any opportunity for her to bond, she's just happy to be around people and is straved for affection, which I will add, she gets plenty of attention at home.  

Is there a way to break her of this?

ANSWER: Hi, Madlyn,

Thanks for the question. I hope I can help.

What kind of dog is she? How much does she weigh? How much hard vigorous playful exercise does she get every day? Does she get a chance to play with other dogs on a regular basis? Do you ever play tug-of-war with her? What kind of leash (length) and collar/harness do you use when walking her?

While I wait for your answers, the quickest and easiest (though not necessarily the most thorough) way to solve this is to teach her what "Wait..." means. When you put her food down, say "Wait..." and if she tries to go to the bowl, you pick it up again, and keep repeating until she can hold still for a few seconds. Once she does, then you say, "Okay!" and let her eat. The same thing applies when it's time to go for a walk, and she's hooked up to her leash. You put your hand on the doorknob and say, "Wait..." and if she tries to go ahead when you open the door, you say "Wait..." and close it again. When she can hold still while you open the door, you say, "Okay!" and you go outside. The same thing when you stop at a corner, say "Wait..." and "Okay!" when it's time to cross the street. You can probably think of several other times during the day when you can teach her this sequence of commands.

Once she knows them really well (it should only take a couple of days), you can apply the same thing to when she sees people on her walks and wants to race over and jump up and give kisses, or whatever.

I hope this helps,

LCK

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Firth, thank you for your response.  Here are the answers to your questions;
1.  She is a Border Collie/Lab mis
2. She weighs about 35 lbs now, she weighed 33 lbs two weeks ago when I took her to the vet.
3.  She gets some exercise daily, I don't know about hard vigerous. She has her toys that she trashes around.
4.  I've been taking her to the dog park, it's about 3 acres and she plays nice with the other dogs, running, chasing ect.
5. She doesn't really like tug of war, I think because her herding nature.  She will bring me her toys and go get them when I throw them.  
6. The lease length in total is about 60 ft.  I recently purchase a gentle leader which I use when walking her, and it works wonderfully.

As for your suggestions on teaching her to wait, I do that when I'm feeding her, and she does know to wait when I open doors, I go first, (I'm the pack leader) and if I say back, she steps back a few steps and waits till I go out the door.  I will apply that technique to feeding her too.  I am teaching her about cars, when we're walking and a car is coming, I say "Car" and she knows to stop and get closer to my side.

ANSWER: Hi, Madlyn,

Thanks for the info.

It sounds like she's getting a lot of hard vigorous playful exercise with other dogs, which is great.

I'm not a big fan of the gentle leader, though. You wrote that it works wonderfully, which kind of confuses me. I had the impression that when sees other people she runs up to them and pulls on the leash to get to them. Perhaps I got the wrong idea? Personally, I'd rather use a prong collar on a dog that pulls. The GL works by causing the dog's head to twist to the side whenever she pulls. This is very disorienting for dogs, who as natural predators, prefer to keep control of where their heads face at all times. The prong collar gets a bad rap as being "mean," but from my perspective the GL is a lot meaner. A lot! I know if I were a dog I'd rather wear a prong collar than a head halter any day.

That aside, it sounds as if you're doing mostly everything right. I wouldn't worry about being the "pack leader," in terms of not letting her go through the door ahead of you, or anything else. There's actually no such thing as a pack leader in wild wolf packs. The behavior of the "alpha" always going through openings ahead of other wolves was observed only in captive wolves, who were culled together from various sources, who didn't know each other, and weren't able to hunt together as a cooperative hunting group. Almost all of the "social" behaviors they exhibited are actually ANTI-social behaviors that wolves exhibit toward rivals, and are never seen in how wolves relate to their own pack members. Even at Wolf Park (in Indiana), where the wolves don't actually get to hunt and kill, but do get to chase buffalo, the wolves there don't exhibit this hierarchical stuff about who gets to go through doors first.

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.tiny.cc/DogScouts  (dominance)

http://tinyurl.com/2q2esp

Now the reason I bring this up is because there are a lot of things one is supposed to do to let one's dog know that we're its pack leader, and many of them can get in the way of the dog feeling safe and comfortable and trusting of us. (The door thing isn't one of them, but there are plenty of others, the most common of which are scolding and punishing the dog; dogs learn better to behave in a positive manner through techniques that are more positive and less punitive.)

I'm going to recommend that you play "Chase-Me" with your dog. It's kind of like "Tag, You're It!" but the dog is always it. Do this when the dog hasn't had any activity for a while. Start by teasing her with a favorite toy, a twirled bandana, or even a tasty treat. Then run away, encouraging her to chase you, keeping the lure actively available (or almost available) for her to grab. If she catches up, zig-zag, stop-n-go, do a stutter step, keep praising her and asking if she wants the object in her hand. "Do you want it? Come on! Come and get it?" Make her crazy to get it, and make it hard for her to get, but don't overdo it. You don't want her to get the idea that she can never get it, you just want to build her desire for it. This should only take about 15 secs. max.

Here's a link that contains a fuller explanation: http://www.tiny.cc/walkingonleash

Here's the first cool part: if you use a bandana, and she's really into chasing you to get it, once she catches you and grabs hold of it she'll automatically be in the mood to play tug. Tug is very important in training because it releases a lot of a dog's energy very quickly. Plus (the 2nd cool part) it works the same way the chase me game does, by getting the dog to "plug her energy" into you. So eventually when she meets other people on her walks she'll be calmer, more connected to you, and won't plug so much of her energy into them. Make sense?

Here's a link on tug: http://www.tiny.cc/tug

Try this for a few weeks and you should see some results. If not, let me know.

LCK

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I use the Gentle Leader when I'm just walking her.  When I take her to the dog park I have her on a regular leash, and when I take it off, that's how she's able to run and great people.  She's getting a little better about jumping.

Every article I've read about dogs, and most of them, if not all, speak about the natural nature of dogs and I've seen this when I observe them.  

I will do the tag game, that would be good and she likes to play.

Thank you again for your advice.

Answer
Hi again.

Thanks for clearing that up, about how she greets people when she's off-lead at the dog park.

As for what you've read about a dog's "instincts to follow the pack leader," again, that's outdated information. It's sad that this myth about the "alpha wolf" still persists, but that's how myths are. Most people still believe that George Washington wore wooden teeth, even though that myth has been dispelled thousands of times. (They were made of ivory, which to the inexperienced eye can resemble wood; but even so, it escapes how no one even stopped to consider how quickly the enzymes contained in human saliva would soften wooden dentures and quickly cause them to be useless!)

Good luck with the "Chase Me" game. It's a lot of fun, it doesn't take long, and you should start to see a difference in how stimulating her real instincts (for chasing, playing, and biting in play) will make her pay attention to you more when you're outdoors.

All my best,

LCK