Hello,
My 5 month old berner is nuts!! Jumping, jumping, and just plain out of control happiness!? Anyone have any tips?? She comes with us wherever we go at least once a day and she gets soooo excited like she never goes anywhere!

My 9 month old Berner does the same thing when I get up in the morning. She just goes crazy jumping and barking. It was super cute when she was little. Now I have 90 pounds of crazy Berner first thing in the morning.

Our girl Shady was also a crazy puppy, jumping and hyper-excited if we'd been out of sight only a few minutes. But, I decided, after reading a bit etc, that it was not a good thing at all, so here's how I handled her. I ignored her, even turning my back to her, except to say in a very quiet, calm manner "sit" and when she sat fairly quietly, I would then praise and pet her. Eventually, she came to realize attention came at the price of being more calm although I will admit, she still gets a bit crazy for the first few minutes (she always greet us with such a a huge happy grin, sometimes it's a bit hard to tell her to "sit" before we greet her!) In the long run, it's been the best thing for her - she never jumps up on guests, only sometimes greets famiiar people at bit too happily for their liking. We're still working on that!

It's tough, because they do get sooo excited when they meet new people! They are just big friendly goofs! lol

Another good tip is to put the dog on a short leash, so that when company comes you can pull them down if they jump up.

Making them go lay down when guests first arrive is a really good thing too. The dog only gets to greet company when he is calm. It's good to ignore the dog if he is excited. No eye contact especially. I like the advice above. That's pretty much what we did from the start. Toa learned "off" means don't jump up on furniture or people.

My then berner is WAY better than she used to be, thank god! She is going to be 1 on the 12th and she continues to get better and better. I never thought I would be happy again with another dog after our old dog passed away but I see now that it is so untrue. My old dog had great qualities and so does this one