A few months ago, I took a new job which is about a 1&1/2 hr commute from my home and the work hours are long. Now that I get home late at night my dog has taken to waiting for me and then jumping all over me when I get home.

My wife is home with him most days, but before this job I worked a few blocks from home and I was the primary caretaker. I took him for long walks in the morning, came home for lunch and played with him, and I walked him when I got home at night.

Now that I am gone he waits for me eagerly all night and then explodes all over me. How can I stop this behaviour? Do I have to correct him for being so excited to see me???

Make him sit or lay down and don't give him the attention he wants until he does what you've told him to do.

Get your wife to walk his butt off just before you get home. That should take the edge off quite a bit. Or buy a treadmill and have your wife put the dog on the treadmill before you get home.

Ignoring the dog completely until they calm down helps. Just keep on walking if he feels the need to jump.

I tried putting him in a down (which he can do in the face of all kinds of distractions such as other dogs, etc.) but he won't hold it. He gets neurotic, whimpering, barking, wagging his tail, trying to find something (anything) to chew on. And, as soon as I start to open the door he breaks it. My wife corrects him and he goes back down. Same thing all over again. We did this like 10 times until he held it until I got all the way in, but as soon as I got inside he broke it and jumped up on me.

My wife won't walk him at night because we have had a lot of problems with loose and aggressive dogs in our neighborhood. I broke my ankle on a big mastiff dog's jaw that was about to tear my pup apart after hopping a 5 foot fence (there were 3 more of them behind the fence). Fortunately, he was the only one that was able to get over the fence. Ever since then, my wife has been pretty scared about walking the dog and we have had numerous other smaller incidents. In addition, we have this batty old blind lady with 2 aggressive dogs (have killed many neighborhood cats and attacked several dogs) that get loose on a regular basis. And she recently aquired a third dog (a pit pup).

So, I am the one responsible for his walks and training in the evening. In fact, she would rather not do it during the day either because some these dogs are loose during the day as well.

We have a seven month old who acts / acted in a similar fashion. I understand your problem - our dog will sit to meet other people when we are outside on the leash, sits/downs under distraction, but when one of us comes home or friends come to the door he suddenly turns into Bozo the Wriggling Spaz. The following has worked well for us:

Have your wife put a 5 or 6 foot leash on the dog while he is in the house, either all the time or at the very least before you get home (well before, or the dog will start associating the leash with your return which will set up a whole 'nother set of issues vis-a-vis the leash, and besides, it can't hurt to have a means of control handy for a puppy, which I think your guy still is). When you come to the door, your wife puts the dog in a down, and then she stands on the leash with a little bit of slack. The idea is that if the dog tries to jump, he gets about 4 inches off the ground and the leash goes taunt and the jump / stand up can't be completed. The dog is essentially correcting itself before the jump ever gets off the ground, because your wife is not holding the leash, jerking it, or anything else, just standing there. If your dog is anything like mine he will go into various histrionics like you described, chewing the air, wriggling on his side, etc.. You ignore the dog other than to put it back in the down. Once he finally quits acting like an insane freak, and is in the down, you give lots of praise and love and "glad to see ya's", all while your wife is standing on the leash. If he starts to freak out when you give the praise, stop, stand up, and wait for a good down again. If you are consistent, the dog will learn a) jumping for some reason does not work, and b)the fastest way to get attention from dad when he comes home is to be in a down.

My wife and I do this for each other and when guests come over, and Gus's behavior has very quickly improved when folks come to the door.

Another solution is to have your wife crate your dog before you get home, and then you go to the crate and do not open the crate and say hello until he is in a down. If you start to open the crate and he breaks the down, the door gets shut again. When we are both out, this has been our routine with Gus for a long time, and he stays in the crate now until we give him a release, even with the door open and both of us standing there. In both cases, the reward for the dog is the praise/attention he is craving, and he can learn quickly what behavior is necessary to get the reward. We still have to do the leash bit, however, because proper behavior from the crate has not translated for my knucklehead to proper behavior at the door.

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I tried putting him in a down (which he can do in the face of all kinds of distractions such as other dogs, etc.) but he won't hold it. He gets neurotic, whimpering, barking, wagging his tail, trying to find something (anything) to chew on. And, as soon as I start to open the door he breaks it. My wife corrects him and he goes back down. Same thing all over again. We did this like 10 times until he held it until I got all the way in, but as soon as I got inside he broke it and jumped up on me.

Why would you go through all of that to let him ignore your command when you came inside the house. Make him stay until you're ready for him to come to you and he's settled down.

Crate the dog before you come home. Spend some time in the house before you let him out. If he's visibly excited in the crate, he doesn't come out until he calms down.

Obviously the dog can't hold a sit or down while you come home. If you give the command, he must comply...so you're setting him up for failure from the start. Besides, in the dog's mind, I'm sure he thinks he's being corrected for being excited to see you, not because he broke sit or down.

Make coming home as routine and unexciting as possible. ONLY when calm does he get his reward....you.

Christian

Thanks, for the advice. He is a pup (8 months). We already have him in the crated and he only comes out on the okay command. At night, the routine has been that he waits at the door all night for me and any time a car comes by he gets alert and waiting for me. This obviously builds his anticipationb considerably.

Side note, he barks like crazy at me or my wife when he sees one of us pull into the driveway. I had him out in the front yard on his tonight the other night and my wife pulled up and he knows it is here so he starts barking like crazy.

Isn't that kind of a weird reaction? It's not an aggressive sounding bark of course, but it still a deep bark. He barks in excitement??