Excitable behaviour in our Border Terrier

Question
We have a 6 month old Border Terrier who is VERY excitable. She has calmed down very well at home, & now is almost the perfect dog when she's just with us. She will do what we ask (usually!) and is so sweet natured and keen to please that you couldn't want for a nicer companion.
However, she is still very excitable when we take her out (which we do twice a day). She still wants to jump up at people we meet, despite never being allowed to do this. She finds it hard to walk nicely on a lead. She knows what she should do, & I stop when the lead goes tight. She immediately comes back to my side but is pulling again within a minute or so. Our walks are all start & stop!
I've just returned from a checkup at the vet, where she behaved like a lunatic! I am firm but kind with her, but find that I have to go over & over her training for her to finally improve. If I continue as I am. will she finally calm down when she is out as she has done when she is at home? I am taking her to training classes but she becomes so excited that it is really difficult to get her to concentrate for more than a minute or so.

Answer
Carol -

She sounds like quite the handful.  However, that said, she sounds like a pretty typical terrier puppy of that age. They are usually the source of boundless energy and get excited by everything.

I would add a couple of steps backwards when you stop on the walks so that she immediately has to turn and face you. It should bring her back quicker. An alternate way is to immediately turn around and start walking the other direction so she is having to catch up with you, as opposed to the other way around.

You may also want to train a "touch" command or "look at me". Touch would have her come and touch your outstretched index finger. Eventually you would not have to say anything, just point and she would come and touch.  This is a command used a lot in agility to refocus the dog to the handler before going on to the next obstacle.

Another command for refocusing a dog on the handler is "Look at me" which you put your index finger to the outside corner of one eye.  It's super easy to teach since you initially start by holding a treat next to your eye.

I really believe you will start to have a truly lovely dog in the months to come, and that she's being a very unruly child right now.  I do think that working on things that will refocus her attention on you will help later - Once you have it down pat, it can help some when out and about and she's not paying attention.

I know I use "touch" with my jack russell often. Even though he's not hyper or excitable, he is a very avid hunter and also loves children, so those 2 things are big distractions.  But once I can get his focus back on me, he returned to the well trained guy he is 90% of the time.

I hope this gives you both some hope and some ideas.  You may want to contact a border breeder as they are likely to know the approximate ages at which you should expect improvement.

-Beth