Curbing the returning home chaos!

Cain is driving me nuts when I get home with his attention seeking. He seems overally attached to me, probably because we are the first stable nice thing in his life and also it seems to be a very Shepherdy trait.

He is home with my mum all day (she currently off work on sick leave) and he is very good with her. He's calm and quite except for the odd bark at the postman and a few fun play sessions. He never jumps up on her, doesn't bother trying to climb on the sofa (which he is not allowed to do) and is getting better at not following her around the house and upstairs every time she moves. However when I get home all hell breaks loose!

He jumps up on me something chronic. I don't believe this is "dominant" behaviour or anything of the sort, I'm sure it's just pure excitement as I've been out at work all day. I've been trying to ignore this behaviour by crossing my arms, turning my back on his and waiting till he calms down. At this point he'll usually sit, then I will calmly pat him and say "good boy". The problem with this is that he will shortly get excited againa nd start jumping up. So I then tried the "ignore him for 5 full minutes until he's fully calm" which was worse. When he realised jumping up wasn't getting anything he'd start bombing around the house like a banshee and flinging his toys around for attnetion. He'll also start deliberately jumping all over the sofa to try and get attention.

Once he was calm I would reward him with a calm pat, but once I sit down on the sofas he can't help jumping all over me again. Again I stand up, turn my back and ignore him until he calms down. If I sit down, he does it again! I spent half of last night on my feet!!!! He doesn't really seem to be getting it.

I've tried rewarding the good behaviour, waiting till he goes and lies quietly and then giving him nice calm attention, but it just makes him excited and start him off again. Even after he calms down, like 30 mins later he'll suddenly decide to start jumping all over me on the sofa again. He did this repeatedly last night, he just seems to desperately want my attention. He also follows me all over the house and when I go up to bed he follows me up. We've tried to make him more independent, and he will sleep in the kitchen alone at night without too much fuss.

Any ideas on what I can do to make him react better when I come home from work? My job finishes this Friday and I have a few weeks at home between starting my new job, so we can go into super training mode for a few weeks and try and sort this out.

The enthusiastic greeting is pretty natural at this stage.
Personally, I`ve never found the ignoring thing works that well - I`d rather teach them an alternative behaviour.
I know you`re tired from work, but how about sitting down quietly with him and teaching him Give paw or something - to let his adrenalin levels drop and make him feel rewarded? (and give you a chance to rest your feet )
I know the usual advice is not to respond, but I think this tends to make an anxious dog worse.

It takes a little while for them to realise they are not going to get their attention for jumping all over you

With Ben I ignored till he did something I wanted even for a slpit second then I praised him for that
Jumping on me on the sofa I taught him 'off' (he is alowed on the sofa) and when I sat I just tucked my arms in and turned away from him when he jumped until he was on the floor (even if it was just getting ready to jump up again) and I praised and rewarded for the 'off'

With Mia we were a little more proactive cos she jumps as high as your face to get attention
I taught her a pretty solid 'sit' and ask for a sit when she wants a fuss, ignore any jumping and lure into a sit

With you having some time off work you can get some major practise going
I would practise going in and out of rooms without him following and making it no big deal when you come back in again
Then build that up to you just walking out the door and back in again, no big deal, its just something that happens loads of times during the day
even put your coat on like you are going out properly

Mind you the thing is we were too good with Mia, she greets other people when they come in, she dosent really bother at all when I come in, she is too calm Ben is more excited with me but he has learnt to run off and get a toy to hold in his mouth when he greets me so he isnt barky

Thanks a lot guys How would I achieve him not following? Physically shutting doors to stop him or do you mean another method?

Yup I just shut the door
Also if you walk out facing him that tends to prevent them following
Dont make it a big deal - just like you are putting something out in the bin or something

Does he follow you to the loo??

Sorry don't really have any advice, I believe this is typical of a young dog, it gets better as they get older

Many years ago our beloved Labrador used to take a run at me as I opened the front door after work, on some occassions she'd have all four feet off the ground as she landed on my chest like a demented Exocet missile

At least it shows he loves you - I hope you can calm him down a bit and I'm so pleased he seems happy with you.

I can`t help feeling that shutting an anxious dog out will make him more stressed - sorry. (JMO and not wanting to start a dispute, Ben )
Have you tried other methods of calming? DAP diffuser or collar / massage / calming signals etc?

This sounds very much like my dog Tia except she doesn't just display this behaviour with me - she is the same with anyone that comes into the house!

I find that this is the only time that she will not respond to commands

I'm a bad owner I love nothing more than returning home after a tough few hours at work to Keisha galloping, skidding, wiggling and waggling around, at and behind me! (Zeke just stood howling in the background) I never did manage the 'stay calm when you come home and act like nothing's happened'

She's calm around everyone else, I have to say, but not me or Paul when we return home.

Although we did teach her not to jump up, just by having a toy to hand to distract her, getting down to her level and fussing her, she's not rude enough to push us over or barge us!

[QUOTE=akitagirl;1902410]I'm a bad owner I love nothing more than returning home after a tough few hours at work to Keisha galloping, skidding, wiggling and waggling around, at and behind me! (Zeke just stood howling in the background) I never did manage the 'stay calm when you come home and act like nothing's happened'

I always feel excited to go home and see my babies. This probably doesn't help