Advice needed!

Molly is a lovely and slightly mad Irish Setter, 5 years old, on the whole well behaved...apart from a bit of deafness on walks,ie. when there are interesting smells around to sniff than coming to me when I call.
My main problem is that she goes berserk (sp?) when I get ready for walks, or even when she thinks that I getting ready. Brushing my hair or teeth can set her off! She runs madly around the house, barking, sending things flying, bouncing off my stomach, jumping up and at me, basically going berserk! Unfortunately due to shift work they have no real set walk routine. They do get two 45min -1hr walks/ day. But they are at a variety of times. Do you think it is a lack of exercise problem? Or is it behaviour?
They both rely on me totally and do not leave my side. Dad calls them 'my red necklaces'. They will not even sit in garden for 10 minutes if I am not with them. I have tried in the past to put them out for 5 mins at a time, they just run around barking and scratching at windows to be let in etc. Potter just barks pre walk, but does not go mad. I do not mind a little bit of madness pre walk, it is nice to see them happy and excited, but Molly takes it a bit too far. NO or quiet does not seem to work.
Any help or advice appreciated.

Hi Miss P Molly is very excited at the thought of going out and that is normal, and it you went for ten walks a day she would probably behave just the same. Dogs observe every little detail of your behaviour..it is their 'language' they know what you always do prior to going out..combing hair/change of shoes every tiny little thing,the only answer is to not let her see but that is is difficulty if she is constantly with you. What do you do when she gets excited? You should ignore her when she jumps up and not reward the unwanted behaviour by talking to her, turn away do not speak to or look at her . The other thing to try is desensitising her to your predictable behaviour, but that takes time. So when you do the normal preparation prior to going out do not go , not straight away ...go and do something else..read a book/go on the computer/anything but ignore Molly..don't do the same thing all the time or she will learn what to watch for. If you go out at the same time each day she will know anyway so it will be even harder .

Will give that a go.I am sure she is psychic! She can tell even if I think about a walk whilst watching TV! Will get shoes on etc and then sit down or do something else for 10 mins or so. Try to send her off track a bit!

Thankyou!!!!!

agree with mini completely - good advice

bruno is the same - you cant say the words wee, pee, garden, walk, car, go or anything else as all of the above basically mean - a chance at being outside - he runs up and down the stairs coo-ing when he knows we are going out and wags his tail so hard his whole back end moves from side to side !!

good luck with the above though

Amy is exactly the same..
she watches me like a hawk..
if it is past 'walk time' and I am on the PC she will come and sit and place a paw on my foot.. she knows making a fuss will be ignored but it is a gentle reminder...just so I don't forget!!

Snap, all you have to do is say 'right' and Cassie's off and nothing will stop her until you open the front door.

I have seen some very scary situations in the past with dogs who literally climb the walls when they think its time for a walk - amazing

We have always had simple rules in our house: the lead is only put on a quiet, sitting dog and the door is only opened for a quiet, sitting dog

It can take several weeks to get to this stage with a dog that has got into bad habits though - it took 6 months to teach our previous rescue dog these rules

Every time she jumped, or barked, I stopped putting the lead on, and stood silently without making eye contact. At first, she went loopy, but as soon as she was quiet and still I carried on; it didn't take too long for her to work out what I wanted, but it took a lot longer for her to learn to control herself and do it

Tma & Jas used to be like that, they jump about like things possessed. I found that putting the leads away and doing something else calmed them. I did teach both of them to sit and wait for me to put their leads on. It got to apoint where as soon as I opened the cupboard door to get t he leads they would trot up to me and sit waiting for their leads to be put on. I taught Jas this in a matter of days and Tam took a couple of weeks but she soon learnt. If they pulled to get to the door then their leads were taken off and put away for 5mins and then we started the whole process again. Didn't take them long to learn

I am glad there are some others the same! All the other people (non DW) I know look aghast at Molly when she goes mad like that!

One of the most valuable things you can teach a dog, can also be one of the easiest, given time and patience.

"SIT,STAY"

Most people can teach a dog a to sit with in minutes given the right technique, then you just build on what you've taught.

If you can take the time to teach Molly the sit stay, then you can use it in all kinds of situations, meeting people, sit quietly while you attend to something important, and use it as a wait while you get ready to go for a walk.