Geez you all are probably so sick of my questions. This is a toughie though. I'll try to make it quick. Abram has a serious problem with jumping and molesting our guests when they come in. The jumping is the biggest problem because, he can take a grown man down to the ground if off guard. I need to get this corrected before my family comes to visit on the 28th of Dec. He tried that crap with us for a bit, but that was nipped in the bud. He won't jump on us now. But when guests come in, he turns into crazy dog. We tell our guests to turn your back, ignore him, while we tell him no & down. Half the time our darn guests encourage it by petting him and hugging him when he jumps up :mad: The other half of the time, he acts like he can't freakin hear us when we tell him no & down. After about 5 minutes of jumping & licking he calms down. That's his greeting ritual for guests that needs to stop. But he doesn't do it to small children though. He does something else really irritating and that's NOT leaving their side! He'll tiptoe in circles around them and give them little baby kisses, not big wet sloppy ones he gives us, on their hands and cheeks. He won't go outside, he won't come when called, not even for a milkbone! He is just planted by those kids. That I can deal with for now, but the jumping... it's annoying and embarrassing. It's hard for us to train him too because we don't have guests that often, and when we do, they usually don't cooperate with us. He doesn't do it out in public. Only at home. Hubby suggested a shock collar, I said no way. I don't think he realizes how cruel it is. He works with a bunch of hillbillies that can't keep a dog for more than 2 years without running it over with a tractor or a monster truck or something that all say a shock collar is the way to go. Any ideas on how to stop him from jumping even though we don't have company a lot?

That is a toughie. I usually have my puppies trained not to jump on or bite me long before others. Those that slap their thighs to encourage the puppy are no help at all. Out in public, we have the puppy on leash and can give it a pop, or just a steady pull if in a Gentle Leader. They eventually catch on. Along with establishing yourself as top dog, a sharp ''Ah, ah, ah!'' may eventually do it. You might also try a strategy of one of you goes to the door while the other grabs Abram and leashes him. Abram then gets no attention until he sits quietly.

We have it easier since enough of our visitors are also raising puppies, they know the correct procedures. If they have their puppy with them, ours isn't interested in the people.

Good idea to use a leash. I'll usually just sit on the couch with him between my legs while my guests kind of settle in and say hello to my calmer one, Brandy. Once I release him, he gets right back at it. I'll go to grab him and my company will say, "oh he's fine" or, "it's ok" or, "oh I like it, it's cute" GRRRRRR :mad: Then they'll look at me like I'm a mean mom for holding him back and not letting him say hello. It's so frustrating. I try to make it clear that he's not allowed to jump and lick and get on the couch but they say "oh he's just a puppy" He may be a puppy but he's 8 months old 70ish lbs already! That's a BIG puppy! Like I said, he only does it to company in our home. I can't even remember the last time he's jumped on us. I'll try the leash thing. We've got one of my husbands buddies coming tonight to help tear up the linoleum in the guest bathroom. We're laying ceramic tile. He's bringing his tile cutter for Shane to use. Amazing that we got all the tile and supplies for $116 and they wanted to charge us $400 to install it! So hubby's doing it himself. Uh oh. Keep us in your prayers :p Anyway, that gives us an opportunity to try new methods with Abram.

I will point out that this is your house and your dog. It doesn't matter what the guests think, you are the one who establishes how your dog gets to greet people. For an analogy, if you had a kid and wanted them to address guests as Mr. Brown and Miss Smith, you wouldn't let them call your guests Bob and Sue just because they said "we like it when they do that." I agree with the others... have your dog on a leash when other people come over, correct him when he tries to jump on and lick people, and if your guests don't cooperate, tell them that you understand that they don't mind, but other people do and you don't want your dog to be confused about how to greet people.

If your dog is trainable, it would be good to train him to a different greeting. Sitting and putting a paw out for shake, for example, would be adorable and keep him from jumping up on people.

About 10 years ago, I thought my daughter's classmate put it well. I told her that even if she didn't mind, I had to teach the puppy not to bite. ''Yeah, people freak out.''