I let puppies be puppies kind of. Reel the little guy in till he is acting how you want , then let him meet people. DON'T use a harness, it plays into the pulling later on and adds corrections the dog never needed to get.

 Quote: mike arbelaez

Barbara, thanks for the encouragement and I'm definitely going to take your advice in using the place command. I do happen to have a question about that, as well. Is the place command the same command that I use to tell the dog to go into her crate? I noticed you placed it in quotations as if that could be any phrase. I have been working with my pup in getting her to enter her crate by taking advantage of her inability to do math. I'll have her enter the crate by saying "Go to bed" in a cheery voice and when she enters I mark it. Then I'll have her leave the crate and do it again. I've only been doing this for about 2 days in very short training sessions. If she doesn't see a treat in sight she will not enter the crate (which happens rarely). She is really smart!

I suppose I should increase the distance in which I tell her to go to bed. distance in the house.

For us, the place command is different than "kennel". The kennel command is obvious - get in your kennel. (And I do use this at times when someone comes to the door just for variety.) The place command was trained to send him to another spot/area which can be moved from room to room; it can be a small rug or in our case, another dog bed. Sometimes the "place" is moved to the sunroom, in front of the fireplace, etc... Falcon knows that where ever the bed is - he is supposed to go there when given the place command. I think you will find it nice and easy to train, especially since it doesn't require your pup being in a room by herself - she stays with you guys but has to stay in that spot.

Crate games are GREAT! If you do a Yahoo search you'll find lots of sites which show how to make the crate a fun place for the pup to be.

Labs are such friendly dogs... we used to have a sweet, yellow lab named Jenny. Sweet, sweet dog and so great with kids. I know she'll be a great addition to your family. It won't be long before you have those cute gals marker training with you!

 Quote: al curbow

.... DON'T use a harness, it plays into the pulling later on and adds corrections the dog never needed to get.

Yeah, I know people who use harnesses with their pet Pugs (that harness-on-Pug-delicate-trachea-thing). I don't! As Bob Scott has pointed out (100% correctly), the harness is actually a trigger to pull against it .... Even Pugs need to be loose-lease trained just like "real" dogs.

Quote: I know a Lab who greets everyone in a very friendly but 100% sedate manner and almost never jumps up on people. end quote

I note the qualification, almost never jumps on people. lol

Only 17 heh? Very unusual, it generally takes a little longer with labs.

I wish you could meet my Lab mix. He ignores people unless they are offering treats, and even then he refuses the offer pretty often. I don't think I'd enjoy having a dog who slavishly fawned over everyone. I appreciate Ripley's discretion.

My first two dogs were naturally a bit aloof - which is my preference! My third is a social butterfly. I'm working on training her to ignore the huge distraction known as "people". But I also know that it's in her nature to love just about everyone and I'm not going to cut her off from polite greetings. It would like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

Instead I have her settle and give eye contact before greeting someone. She also needs to sit before getting attention from another person. Interaction is a huge motivator for her so I use it to my advantage and reward her with it. She is learning to focus on me when I ask her to and that that calm focus is rewarded with what she wants.

I've been trying to soak in all the great information. This web forum is incredible.

I plan on going out today to purchase a dog bed so I can start immediately on the place command. I've let Jasmine simply be a puppy and pull on the leash, if she wants. Surprisingly, armed with a new leash philosophy, on our walk yesterday she hardly even pulled and felt content to walk beside me and look up. Of course, I had my little bag of treats which I would drop every now and then.

In addition, by learning the leash is only a cord and not a training device--at this stage--I've had to use more of my voice tonality. The results have been immediate. I had Jasmine off the leash and she went to run off and after a stern "NO" she stopped and came back. Boy, how I showered on the praise!

In summary, I've learned the following things about puppy training (from various sources):

• Using a leash for correction desensitizes a dog in later life. (I wish this was stressed more in Ed's video, but maybe I didn't catch it.)
  
• Socialization is simply letting the puppy become acquainted with strangers. A reactive puppy becomes a passive puppy.
  
• Remember: Let a puppy be a puppy.
  
• Did you think you were patient? Your patience needs more patience.
  
• "Use your voice as a training tool." - Ed
  
• Have two different commands where you want your dog to go. A "Kennel" command and a "Place" command. The "Place" becomes like a mobilized spot you can tell your dog to go.
  
• When you aren't thinking of constantly telling the dog "No" you find more ways to say "Yes". (I really like this one)
  
• 
  

I'm what is known as a "list person" because I need to summarize everything into a short concise list. There is a lot more, of course, but those were the important things I learned concerning leash/socialization.

She is absolutely adorable!

Can you make sure she gets a good play session, or upbeat marker training before she meets new people.

A tired puppy is a good puppy!

It won't totally solve the problem but it might take the edge off a bit.

I also like to ignore things like jumping or overly happy greetings. I just fold my arms and turn my back until they calm down. Even pups get the idea pretty quickly.

Can you instruct guests to ignore her until she has gained a little bit of control over herself?

 Quote: mike arbelaez

Socialization is simply letting the puppy become acquainted with strangers. A reactive puppy becomes a passive puppy.

Well, I might confuse things a bit here, but some folks would say that socialization is more about getting the dog comfortable with a lot of different places, situations, items, noises, but not necessariy people. Folks who have working or personal protection dogs need their animals capable of being out among different people in a lot of situations, but may not want their dogs friendly with everyone.

It is FINE to have your dog be friendly and able to be approached by strangers, but just want to point out that you can have a dog who is perfectly happy with strangers coming up to him/her, but who is completely "unsocialized". That same dog, in a situation where a baby stroller came out unexpectedly around a corner, could freak out from never having seen/smelled a baby stroller. Does this make sense?

Perhaps it is better said: Socialization is simply letting a puppy become accustomed to different situations, people, and places. A once reactive puppy becomes a passive puppy.

I often use little catchy phrases in order to remember something and the way I meant it was in the way you described it. Brevity seems to have allowed meaning to be lost. Reactive--jumping and pulling--to passive--just hanging out and taking in the atmosphere. Either way, I appreciate that you didn't want me to misunderstand a very important point. My general understanding is much better concerning how different people want their dogs to behave. I just know that some people are afraid of dogs and don't want them jumping on them. I would rather have Jasmine happy to be around people, but not pulling on the leash in order to jump all over them. Basically, I want her to have good manners, just like my children! LOL.