How do you get a dog to calm down around people?
Our puppy is now about 11months old, and we have been working with her from the start on not jumping on people and trying to train her to stay calm when she sees someone. There were times when she was younger (and probably still true) that she would try to lunge across a street to get to people on the other side while there was traffic (thank goodness for her leash!). She has a lot more energy than most puppies I've seen or sat for, so I take her on off-leash hikes so she can bolt around. 99% of the time, she stays close and will come when called, but all bets are off if she sees another person or dog. Even if my husband or I step out of the house and come back a moment later, she is very excited to see us (though not as bad). She doesn't care when we leave, and she's completely fine being separated from us, and she doesn't have other symptoms of high anxiety or anything. As far as I can tell, it is pure joy and excitement. She is not aggressive. Here are all the things I've tried:
Intense physical exercise. Amazingly, not even remotely effective, either with new people in the house or going to another environment (vet) and seeing people.
Teaching "off."
Using "sit" when we come home to get pets. This has been the most helpful so far.
Teaching "bed" (aka go lie down). She takes convincing to go to bed around new people and whines if she shut the door or otherwise don't let her come out to greet them.
Clicker training to redirect attention. We have to be extremely far away from a person for this to even work for a second.
Gentle leader - Fine when no people/dogs are around, but then she throws herself to the ground trying to get it off when she sees a person/dog.
Ignoring - Moderately helpful for my husband and I, who she sees regularly. Not effective for new people.
I would like her to be able to calmly sniff someone when they come into our house and then LEAVE THEM ALONE. Is there ANYTHING else you can think of that we should try? She is highly food motivated, but we've been burning through treats just for a second of success from a mile away. The only other thing I can think of is to take her downtown and just not let anyone interact with her to desensitize her to people being around, but I know she would go nuts, and I worry that would be too stressful for her.
I feel your pain! I've tried all these and what works best is a "go to rug" and then have the guest basically play red light/green light to approach ie: only approach when dog is sitting on her rug. She is three and we rescued her at two. May never "grow out of it" at least she loves people!