Neurotic behavior

[merryblueeyes]

My friend's little Sheltie is well trained and not at all aggressive, but the moment someone comes into the house, it starts running in circles wildly. She makes it lie down and stay, but is there a way to train the dog out of such behavior to begin with?

[KOPcaroline]

Really, the only good way to train out of this behaviour is to keep doing what your friend is doing.If the dog has to sit and stay until she calms down every time she gets worked up over visitors, she'll eventually learn to be calm with visitors anyway. Making her sit and remain calm teaches her that if she behaves a certain way, she'll be made to stop - so she should pick up pretty quickly that getting too excited is a bad thing.

Make sure your friend keeps her in a down stay until shes actually calm - and the dog can only come out of it when your friend says ok. It shouldn't take too long to see improvement