Hi guys voice from across the pond we have a pug who gets really over excited with people but weve done obedience to kennel club diamond standard off lead recall heel silent commands tricks all that but he's just daft with people found the podcast great so thought we'd drop you an email. By the way our pug is the third dog weve owned 1st dog pitbull x for 9 years then dobermann pincher for 10 years as we have a 3 year old daughter and a seven year old son we thought a small dog wouldnt be as challenging ( the way i see it is if he was a 2 year old german sheppard jumping over people it wouldnt be so cute. same behaviour different size) any ideas please help...................

Thank you for your question! Have you listened to our podcast on training a calm dog in all settings?

It sounds like you have done a great job training this dog. You will find that using sit stay is useful for greeting new people. Play the ‘get excited-settle down’ game. Encourage your dog to become slightly excited for a brief period. Then ask your dog to ‘settle down’. Gradually increase the intensity of the excitement over several sessions. This gives your dog experience with calming down quickly. You may need the leash at first to help your dog understand.

Make a list of all of the situations that might cause your dog to be accidentally rewarded for being excited. This list might surprise you. Dogs tend to become good at what works for them. Teach your dog that being calm earns the rewards that he wants.

Please let us know if this helps. Thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcasts! Margaret Davis