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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.
 
#5 ·
Okay well I hyperbolize...but that's what it feels like. I will make a video to start us off so we can analyze the symptoms and come up with some potential treatments. Feel free to beat me to it as I have to go to work now.
 
#7 ·
I am more and more convinced that "Excessive Greeting Disorder," at least as far as our dog is concerned, is a terrible symptom of another disorder suffered by many people - the "Oh, I LOVE it when dogs jump on me, please DON'T correct your dog for jumping, come HERE, sweetie poo, jump all OVER me while I pet you and SCREAM!"

Of course, the above mentioned people disorder is greatly influenced by the owner's (umm, that would be I) inability to say, "No, REALLY, please don't pet her until she is sitting calmly. Seriously. I mean it. Okay, we have to walk away now."
 
#8 ·
On a more serious note, the Gentle Leader has been an absolute MIRACLE for us when we are walking Joy in heavily populated areas. It just makes a world of difference in situations where it is very difficult to manage other folks' interactions with Joy, like walking down a busy city street or walking at the park on a pleasant Saturday afternoon.
 
#9 ·
My Lady has a touch of EGD, but Koda has a bad case of Obsessive Pet Me Disorder. If I start to pet him he will not leave me alone for about 45 minutes! How do you fix that? In terms of EGD, Koda has the opposite..., loves other doggies though... This thread cracks me up!
 
#12 ·
Yup. Guilty. We don't have visitors, and I don't mind other than when it's judges....ahem.

Last time we did a training session on this...we were great for about 12 reps....and then we just pushed Griffin too far, he exploded with joy and did the 'bladder jump' ( a specific technique where the dog pushes with both front paws in an area of the stomach/abdomenthat causes problems if you really have to pee....). Our helper/visitor is a very experience dog trainer also exploded with joy and laughed as she moved out of range.

From my experience, it's best cured if:
1) It's important to the person
2) There are no exceptions (it's okay to jump on xyz)
3) The person does NOT let the dog get close enough to be pet/touched unless there's 90+% calmness.
4) The family practices *** this is the key step***

Most dogs in my classes are "cured" within one week. I find it surprising and I wouldn't believe it if they didn't tell me so!

How we "cure" the dogs... have treats right outside the door. Have a cooperateive, well trained helper/family member get a treat, enter the house (dog on leash held by owner, just so the dog can't bold out the door and get hurt....that's the ONLy reason for the leash!)..."Dog sit!" or wait for a sit. Feed the treat. Visitor walks out. Closes the door. Gets a treat. Repeats 20+ times. And you do as many sessions as you can. Get all family members involved, adn as many friends as you can.

For dogs who are seriously afflicted...dog on leash FAR from the door and the owner is the one to "Sit," and feed the treat. More repetitions, and with family members until the sit response is VERY strong.

**For dogs working on competition obedience, I highly recommend just doing a stand rather than a sit.
 
#15 ·
Teddi suffers from EGD She MUST say hi to EVERYONE.... She does not jump up, but she wiggles, would giggle if she could, and just turns into a quivering mass of fluff.

I have worked and worked. Funny now... she did pass her CGC at about 10 months of age. Passed clean. Our problem is when she is acknowledged. If other person ignores her, she will behave. Does her cute face though. I do want to try to get a CD on her, and I see that is our TOUGHEST hurdle. With the exception of the stand for exam, she could do it tomorrow.

I need to teach her to stand, part of why we enrolled in our obedience classes. I am hoping this spring they will re start. If I can't get with the trainer I like, I will find an alternate source until she is available again.

Perhaps some good suggestions will come out of my seminar next week.
 
#16 ·
If the dog is good indoors and not elsewhere, we'll start out with 20 some reps in the door at home and them move outdoors of the house... (right away, so the dog is thinking sit for greeting thoughts!)..... Dog on leash with owner, helper with treats walks up "Dog sit!" treat for sitting, person walks away, owner moves enough/talks to dog to get him/her up. Visitor walks up, "Sit!" treat. Walk away. repeat about 20x.

Depending on the severity of the distorder...it may be wise to start with sessions at the door and then move outdoors for many sessions before just starting a session outdoors. On the first outdoor only session, the visitor should be one you have used for door sessions previously. Over time, gradually add in completely new visitors, with fewer reps.

if the dog jumps up, the visitor should stay still, NOT moving arms up NOT talking, NOT making eye contact. Not turning away either.
 
#17 ·
Ann - practice the stand with BORING people first (you play both trainer and judge for a while, then ask your husband to do the quick hand to the nose and down the back). Then bump it up to more interesting people (people she doesn't see every day). Then bump it up with distractions (people coming up with toys and food). Then bump it up to practicing at agility class or shows, if you know somebody who will approach and touch for you. And help her out a lot at first with a hand under her belly and another hand at her collar while she gets the pat down.

All of that groundwork helped a ton with Jacks. Even though it didn't make sense to him until he grew up a little. :)

@ Jackie - Jacks started calming down and doing good stand approaches the second novice session we did with him. Then I think it just clicked. But I think he was about a year old then. Keep in mind though that he was doing classes or "public appearances" every single week of his life. It will definitely happen for your guy.
 
#20 ·
Ann - practice the stand with BORING people first
No such thing in Teddi's world. Even MOM isn't boring.

Reddogs, you always have the best training suggestions.
I agree here 100% if I haven't told you already. ;) I remember watching you with Griff in OH. My trainer was impressed to by the way..

Speaking of OH... I will send you an emai... just had an idea.
 
#18 · (Edited)
As many on the puppy forums are now aware, my boy suffers from an extreme case of EGD. : ) He has been known to leap, jump, tackle, nip, lick, and peeing in joy at the sight of unfamiliar people. On one very special day, when meeting my mom and grandmother for the first time, he was so excited, he ran around the house whining and roo’ing and emptying the entire contents of his bladder on the floor, and on my poor grandmother’s shoes. I truly think there was no one square inch of my slate tile floor that did not have pee on it that day. In fact, in the house this is how is EGC manifests primarily jumping is less of an issue – my floor is no stranger to various pet odor removers. Outside, he prefers to leap 1 foot in the air and try to either lick people in the face, or attach his mouth to arms, hands, or articles of clothing. Another side effect of public EGD is a sudden loss of hearing from my guy. As all of my attempts to get his attention seem to fall on deaf ears. Needless to say, most of the time greeting people in public is a face palm situation for me. : )

Reddogs, you always have the best training suggestions. I just need to find someone that’s willing to be mauled by my dog for the first round of repetitons. hmm... :)
 
#19 ·
Mirthril, you are right on - finding people who will "be a tree" is HARD! I had a puppy party (adolescent age) for Joy with the express purpose of teaching polite greetings, just like Ian Dunbar says - people go in, people go out, nobody acknowledges her unless she's polite. WHAT A DISASTER! My friends have NO self control around dogs! :) They ended up REINFORCING her excitedness. My best friend and I have argued about this - Joy goes absolutely NUTS over her, and my friend always pushes her away and talks to her. I keep saying, "Joy thinks you're playing!" When she's over, I try to maneuver myself so I can prevent Joy from getting close to her, but it's difficult. I don't like having to get "tough" on people!
 
#22 ·
Excessive Greeting Disorder- We definitely have it here! My dog knows what she is supposed to do- She is excellent in class and occasionally she will do what she is supposed to do outside. But mostly Eleanor gets so excited about seeing another person or dog that all of that training flies out of her head. I have tried all of the tricks to train her that have been recommended to me to get her to greet calmly but so far we have not had much luck!
 
#23 ·
I laughed out loud because I was nodding my head more and more vigorously as I kept reading! That EXACTLY describes Chloe. I took her to the vet for her check up the other day and she drug me all over the office in an excited frenzy to meet every other person and dong in the place! If I restrain her, she does this high pitched, make your ears bleed bark!! I left there SO embarrassed!!
 
#28 ·
We are getting better with our Toby, who also suffers from this disorder. Going out in public, after 6+ long training years, is now much better. He no longer jumps up in an attempt to french kiss everyone he sees, but he still believes everyone wants to pet him, even strangers walking by on the sidewalk in public places. He does not understand why some people don't want the magical healing powers he possesses and shares by simply petting his head. :confused:

At our house, well...that is HIS kingdom and there are no exemptions to the excessive greeting syndrome, despite years of trying to train it out of him. The worst excessive greetings occur when friends come in and start speaking to him in a high pitched chirpy voice. It's all out knock down greetings as soon as the chirping begins. :uhoh: We may be the only household where we brief visitors before they arrive: don't act excited, don't speak to Toby in a high voice, if he jumps and gets too excited turn your back to him. ;)
 
#29 ·
Sadie is definitely is a member of this group. I was hoping it got better with age, but I guess not? The funniest thing ever is when she gets so excited about meeting someone, and they are not dog people and they just ignore her and go the other way. She always looks at us, crestfallen, afterwards!
 
#30 ·
Chester definitely fits in here. Maybe not that extreme, but he loves to jump when greeting people. He's just so happy to see anyone who walks in the door that he loves to jump up and give them hugs.

Even though I don't mind him jumping up on me, I don't want him jumping on visitors which is why we don't even let him jump up on us to be consistent. We're still working on it.
 
#32 ·
OH! Thank you! This thread makes me feel better and not so alone.

Cody has EGD. I have worked SO hard for 7 years but he still cannot do a polite greeting with company when they walk in the door. He gets overexcited, wiggle squiggles around, and does that high pitched excited yip bark thing and will sometimes jump no matter what I do.

He can walk by strangers in the street on a leash now OK but can not stand around politely if you talk to a stranger. He'll do EGD with the neighbors he knows will give him attention. One neighbor has completely ignored Cody from day one and really that has worked the best but you can't tell people, NO talk, NO touch, NO eye contact. In the pet store I have said, "Ignore my dog" and Cody behaves so much better! Just the slightest bit of attention sends him in overdrive.

I knew nothing about temperament 7 years ago when we picked up Cody at the breeders. 4 little words changed our lives forever. DH said to the breeder, "a male 'with a little edge'". :doh: She immediately said, "Oh, this one then" and picked up Cody placing him in his arms. Cody melted on Matt's shoulder and that was that. Very often over the years one of us (me) brings up the 'with a little edge' comment. ;)

A friend of mine went to visit her mother at a nursing home today and they had a 1 year old female Golden therapy dog loose roaming the halls greeting all the visitors carrying a toy. That's what I wanted to do with Cody when I got him. HA! The best laid plans...

Cody is our first Golden. I thought at that time that basically all dogs were the same and if you trained hard enough you could do anything. Wrong. They all have such different personalities.

Cody gets a lot of exercise off leash running in a field by our sub and that does help, but energy and excitement are too different things. You can drain energy but you have to train calmness. I just really would like people to come right up to Cody, pet him gently and he stay calm. If it ever happens I'll let you know. :crossfing
Connie and Cody
 
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