We have an 11 month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and she LOVES people and other animals, but because of this she gets way too excited when we take her to public places and whines and barks and can't settle down easily and we tend to have to go home, which isn't solving the problem.
We often take her to two of her "grandparents" homes and she does fine there, but I wondered if anyone had any tips for how we can work on socializing this very excitable puppy. :) I didn't know if maybe there were stages we could work her through and/or tips on how we can train her to calm down in these situations.
Thank you for any tips!
Listen, my dog is way different, but anyways, you should just try to almost ingnore it. If it jumps on you, turn your back. If she runs around and you don't like it, ingnore her and she'll stop, that is what my grandmother did, and now her puppy is as calm as anything. It's amazing. I hope you find these tips helpful. Bye!
Thanks so much to everyone! These are great tips and I will start using them immediately. :)
Sometimes a little excitement or anxiety can be channeled if you give your dog something to do: i.e., commands like sit. If she has something to focus on, such as doing what you've asked and pleasing you, it can help her keep her wits. Get her to sit, lay down, stay, etc. and reward her when she does this behavior, slowly lengthening the time you wait to provide the reward for staying calm. You want to ignore her friskiness and reward the behavior you want. Good luck; my Molly is super wound up, too, and it takes a while. She's especially crazy when I come to get her from her yard and I have to do this and what others have posted here: I tell her to sit and I ignore her unless she's done what I've asked.
The dog needs to get the message that being calm gets you good things and being excited gets things taken away. Start now only giving treats, food, pets and loving only when calm. If she gets excited, jumps on you etc. simply turn around and ignore the dog. When she is calm give her the treat, loving etc. Repeat, repeat, Repeat. Once she gets the calm message, go back to the public place. Before you get out of the car... start the process again calm treat excited ignored. Continue the process throughout the visit to the public place. Because King Charles Spaniel puppies are so cute you will have make everyone who wants to pet her to wait until she is calm. I have 4 little excitable dogs. 2 are good at this, one less good and one is still a work in progress. Good Luck
You can bring her to a petsmart with a Petshotel in it to play in day camp. You can call your local one and make a reservation but please make sure her shots are up to date & you can download your paper work off the website...you will need the Master Boarding Agreement(MBA) & Pet Assesment.
A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was in Bear's puppy class. It was my first experience with one... She was quite shy at first but when she got over it.. what a lovely fun dog. You just got to be having fun with her.