Golden Retriever Dog Forums banner

Excessive Greeting Disorder Support Group

23K views 138 replies 79 participants last post by  Karen519 
#1 ·
Does your golden enjoy being petted, or simply being NEAR people so much that he turns into a level 5 tornado at the mere thought of greeting people or other dogs?
Are you so embarassed at his wild antics that you have considered never letting him meet another stranger?
Has your dog bowled over the elderly and made kids cry because of his exuberance?
Have you tried everything but your dog will simply not be calm around strangers?

Then this thread is for you. Professionals who have experience treating this common disorder and golden owners who have successfully overcome excessive greeting disorder are MOST welcome also.
 
#33 ·
My boy has EGD with other dogs. It seems all I ever do is say "I'm sorry" to dog owners while I try to get him away from their dogs and back to me. Not only does he turn stone deaf but I could be getting mauled and dragged off by a bear and he wouldn't care. I am so embarassed.
The good news is that if there are no other dogs around his recall is 100%.
 
#43 ·
At least your dog LIKES new people. Sigh.... We need a Socialization Superhero.
Yes, I much rather have him too friendly than the opposite. There are certainly worse problems.

I went to a Cesar Milan Dog Whisperer seminar and really liked it. I said to the gal sitting next to me, "My dog is too friendly". She said, "NEVER complain that your dog is too friendly." I thought, yes, she is right. If that's Cody's only fault, I sure can live with it.

Good luck.
Connie and Cody
 
#35 ·
LOL, this is Sienna in every sense.

My neighbors have a running joke that we don't pay any attention to our dog and she is attention starved. This stems from the fact that they are always greeted like they are a rock star when we seem them out on walks LOL. She sits, but whines, wiggles and literally shakes with excitement. She will do this little hopping motion as she sits to try and get closer. Sometimes I find myself checking the ground as she has been known to excitement pee on occasion and I want to be ready to warn people about their toes. If she can get close enough, she will LEAN :p: and look up at them adoringly.

She LIVES to walk to the bus stop to be able to greet all the kids. I have to be sure to check and be aware of when each one arrives so as not to be pulled flat :p: I've taken to having her sit between my legs and she has a prong collar on.

When I come home I can barely get in the door, she is in sheer joy mode, spinning around me, bouncing... finding something to grab in her chops and greet me.

It can be embarrassing, but it is also endearing. I showed this thread to my husband and he laughed, grinning ear to ear. Count us in!
 
#38 ·
She sits, but whines, wiggles and literally shakes with excitement. She will do this little hopping motion as she sits to try and get closer.
You have described Griff's greeting to a T. He's not happy until he's sitting on the person's FEET! :doh:

His favorite person in the whole wide world is one of my closest friends. If she sits down he's in her lap! Naughty I know but she laughs and was one of the worst people when he was a pup to not wait until he sat before she greeted him.

If we go out to get lunch and come back it's the same routine all over like it's been 100 years since he's seen her. What a goofball!

I'm looking into basic obedience classes even though he's 4. Never too late to train right?
Around the house with us he's perfect but the distraction of a guest makes him deaf to my comands. I call him "Mr. Excitement".
 
#36 · (Edited)
Has anyone noticed that when you pet a golden on the chest they are much more likely to remain calm? I find that trying to pet him on the head is the worst as he will do anything to try to lick your hand first. Hard part is bending down to pet his chest as you'll likely be "french kissed", as someone called it, first.

I say let's all take our EGD dogs out this weekend and see if we can make some headway, whether it's starting at the very beginning (like for us) or doing more advanced exercises with those annoying high pitched babytalkers.

BTW, Cosmo is usually fine with people at the dog park, he just kinda says a quick "hello", but I guess that's only because his focus is elsewhere.
 
#68 ·
I've noticed that too! If I rythmically rub his chest he calms down and sorta eventually goes into 'tummyrub coma'!!! It takes ages though! Alfie's issues are more greeting other dogs than people, althoug he does his fair share of wild greetings! It's when we meet dogs on walks and he tries to practically wrestle them...leads get tangled, poor tiny dogs get scared and I look like I have an uncontrollable dog. The first thing I say when I meet anyone else with a dog is...he's only 10 months old so he's a bit bouncy'....:curtain::doh:
 
#37 ·
I am so glad that Harvey is not the only one and that I finally have a name for it!!

Cody's Mom- I really wanted to do therapy work with Harvey too and I am thinking it will be a LONG time if ever. He's also good while we're out walking but gets way too excited and tries to pull the leash if we stop and talk to a neighbor.

He's at his absolute worst when people come over to the house though. I live with my parents now and I guess we don't have people over that often so he really goes crazy when we do. I actually have to keep him on a leash when we have people over.

And like many people, I don't have many people I feel comfortable asking to come over and practice with him. But I'm hoping he'll get better with age and practice. We have family coming to visit soon and they have two pre-teen kids so I'm really hoping that helps socialize him. We haven't had any overnight guests since we've had him so it should be interesting.

I was laughing hearing that dogs get real crazy when people pay him attention cause that is definitely Harvey. If someone ignores him, he's ok but the minute they even glance at him, he goes nuts!!

It's good to have a support group on here :)

The funniest thing is how he greats my dad. You know those videos of dogs greeting soldiers after months/years apart??? Well, that's how he greets my dad every single time he comes home (even if he's been gone 20 minutes). I've been meaning to get a video of it and post it to see if anyone else's dog does the same. It is insane though and he only does it with my dad.
 
#39 ·
OH BOY...this thread is close to my heart! My crew is crazy...Jax being the leader, and all others following suit. Can you imagine 3 crazy dogs greeting my company?? Thank Goodness the only people that come to visit know and love my dogs. As a matter of fact, it makes it sort of hard to discipline during these times becasue of it. I find that a firm voice and really good treats for sitting works the best. I break up treats in tiny pieces as I go along and make them sit to get the treats. By the time the treat is finsihed (I use these long treats i get from Costco, pretty big), they are much calmer and ready to say hello properly, well at least semi-properly lol
 
#40 ·
Sasha has this especially when people come over to visit. He runs around like a maniac jumping on all the furniture and the person. We are working on OFF when he jumps up and I am sure he will "get" it just as he finally learned not to stare at my finger pointing and look at the ball!! He's only six months, I am sure with continued training he will settle down like the other boys did.
 
#41 ·
I've had some success with this problem, though RedDogs gives better advice than I do. My biggest asset has been friends who will really cooperate with our training plans. Guests know to ignore the pups for the first ten minutes. Only once they calm down will guests play with them.

Same deal goes when we visit a house. Our friends who welcome the dogs are also willing to cooperate with our plans and ignore them for a while until they settle. You have to break that association between greeting and excitement. People are super boring when you first see them, every time.

The only way to get attention from a human is to calm down and offer a pre-approved behavior, like sit. When you jump on people or otherwise maul them, they turn away from you, fold their arms, and ignore you.

I've had a lot of success changing undesirable play behavior using that basic equation: the dog wants play and tries to initiate it the way he understands. I don't want that, so I show him that the undesirable behavior makes humans boring. Less intuitive behaviors (like sit, etc.) make us more exciting. As long as you're absolutely consistent, the intuitive association begins to break down, and the desired association begins to build.

My dogs aren't perfect, but even when they do try that undesired behavior (spinning in front of people, bumping their legs, etc.—jumping is rare now), they only try once, and once the human turns away, they immediately reboot and try something better.
 
#47 ·
Along with EGD I think Izzy also has EEAD (excessive eating anything disorder). For example, she will go into the bathroom just to check to see if the seat has been left up for her to find a tissue floating, then take it out, sopping wet and purposely show me and then hide under the table and proceed to fully eat it. (you try getting a wet piece of paper out of your pup's mouth....impossible). Today she also attempted to get as many toddler size lego's into her mouth as possible....those we got out! The list could go on and on. I just hope she outgrows this sometime in my lifetime!
 
#48 · (Edited)
Head movement and butt movement seem to be oddly related - and move in opposite directions. To minimize this movement, as that tail seems to propel it, we have found a stuffed toy inserted into the mouth reduces the motion slightly enough to cause them to go in circles. This circular pattern reduces the side to side. Now you have a golden or two going in circles and still doing the wiggle and rooing. To reduce the circles you start a conversation to distract...this takes circles into "what are we doing what are we doing motion" normally for us it's lets go outside for a minute and we ask them to "pee" or whatever. This distraction is enough that they forgot you just got home, and now they will give you the "oh my god you opened the door and let us back inside" greeting.

This can be distracted by making them think someone else came home so just say "is dad home?" and they will stop and listen. The next distraction will be - it's time for dinner.

Meeting people we make them sit - no matter waht. When first starting have a fav. treat. Focus them on the treat and your good to go. Do not give the treat until proper behavior is had. If they are like my Scout you have to be very calm and non-overly "good boy" otherwise you'll get the wagging body and the need to kiss button gets turned on.

I believe EGD is my fault. When they were puppies I think I walked in the door sooooo happy all the time to see my pup. Sadly perhaps they are saying "this is what you look like to me coming home." : )
 
#49 ·
Both of mine need to sign up for this support group. They both have "house" EGD. When they are out on walks they are veery good - hence the CGC certificates. At home :doh: two different dogs. Of course it doesn't help that DH is a total dog whimp.

We're doing really well with the jumping until Kirby and I started attention, one exercise is her jumping up for a cookie on "command", she takes liberties.... :uhoh:
 
#50 ·
Ruby also suffers from a severe case of this. Anyone who so much as glances in her direction obviously wants a 65 pound dog to run full speed up to them and try to leap into their arms. Ruby has been a year old for the past year because I want people to think she is still a puppy and not an uncontrollable untrained two year old. So her behavior has turned her mother into a pathological liar!:)
 
#52 ·
So we've been doing some work on Cosmo's EGD.

I bough him a head halter (Sporn) and we've been making an extra effort to hang out in places with lots of dogs and people. Have been sitting in front of the community centre and in touristy areas without greeting anyone.

Has been going pretty well. The head halter changes his mind set a little because he knows that trying to lunge will be pretty pointless. Today we actually sat on the dock with hundreds of tourists going by. There were people eating fish and chips right next to us and kids looking at him from a few meters away. He did well and mostly just focused on me and the kibble I brought. He had a pretty relaxed posture which was a good sign. I thought my luck was over when a troup of Guide-dogs-in-training came past us (including one 11 month old who obviously also suffered from EGD). He didn't budge, he looked around but I got him focused back on me and the kibble pretty easily. I asked people not to pet him but a kid came up to him anyways. He only jumped once and then flopped on his back to let him pet his belly. Although he was pretty excited he was not as out-of-control as normally, even after a large crowd gathered to watch him. Then when I called him back to my side he came to me. The whole thing came to an end when another 11 month old Golden ran up to him and started lunging and growlling. Cosmo, to my surprise, mostly just looked at him and remained seated with a few reminders - I don't think Cosmo felt 100% comfortable with the growly pup so he was a little more willing to remain seated.

So I guess we've been making progress...but I'm not holding my breath and will keep working on this step at least twice a week, especially on sunny weekends when there are a lot of people out.

Here are some photos from today:
 

Attachments

#55 ·
My buddy has problem's with kids. He has no issues with adults... just likes to smell them, but when he see's kids he's "a level 5 tornado". at 4 mths old and 12kg's (around 25pounds), he is a pushover even on a leash. Its hard to hold him back. Occasionally a firm "no" works, but half the time he forgets himself. Any good way to stop that?
 
#56 ·
You have to set up situations so that a freakout gets him nothing, but good behaving gets him something he wants. Every time he successfully goes through the undesired pattern and gets a reward (acts like a tornado, immediately gets to play with a kid), he's more likely to go through that pattern next time.

If the tornado just makes everybody boring and leads to no attention at all, it'll become less and less likely. If at the same time, you're teaching him a pattern that you do want him to use (sit nicely, get attention), he's more likely to use that.
 
#58 ·
Put the left hand on your dog's back or shoulders and your right hand on your dog's collar. You will get an arm muscle work out, but you keep your dog restrained and tell people and kids that he's an insane puppy but PLEASE pet him.

^ The above worked with all of my cyclones. They didn't get any free offleash meets with kids or anybody until they were well able to keep their feet on the ground while greeting.
 
#59 ·
I'm a crappy owner because I've given up on their EGD. Not really given up on THEM as much as visitors... no matter how much I tell people to turn their backs, ignore the dogs and wait until they are calm and sitting... they pet them and give them attention anyway.

And then you make a comment about them jumping on you.

Well, yeah... if you did what I told you to do, they wouldn't. But hey, thanks for ruining days of training. I'll have to start all over now.
 
#60 ·
i'm definitely joining this group, you described my dog (except for a couple things) and i need help too what have you guys done to make it easier and not as crazy when visitors come? i could sure use the help. if you look at the pic below you will see the calm side why cant she always be like the when visitor's come???
 

Attachments

#61 ·
Yes, my Sierra gets very excited at the thought of company. Some visitors she is extremely excited and calming her down is not an option unless i leash her and take her out of the room
 
#62 ·
Jackie, what I want to know is how you got into my house to hide cameras?! :uhoh:

I thought my boys were bad, but they are nothing compared to Sunny, who clearly has pogo sticks for legs. She does the most impressive greeting leaps I've seen - and that's saying something. :doh: Her boisterous greetings are not reserved for strangers. I get one nearly every time I release her from her crate and certainly every time I return home from work. There is a certain joy in coming home to a welcoming puppy frenzy, but Sunny is getting close to 60 pounds now and her enthusiasm shows no signs of waning.

Thanks for starting this thread. Needless to say, we are eagerly reading all suggestions about how to teach our pack to behave like the lady and gentlemen they are most of the time. ;)

Now to find those cameras...:D
 
#64 ·
Our Smooch

Our Smooch definitely had this, she would go crazy when people came over, jumping up and trying to kiss them.
We took Smooch and Snobear for a 90 min. session with a dog trainer near our home and she told us to get an empty Pepsi/Coke bottle (12 oz.) and fill it 1/3 with pennies, and everytime Smooch jumped at someone to give it a few quick shakes and when she stopped the behavior to say good girl.
The reason this works is the noise distracts the dog and they stop the behavior.
It sure WORKED FOR SMOOCH!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Catgondek
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