Ellie is SO excitable !!

Ellie will be 2 in November and like most Cavvies she just loves people.
I have two concern's h*lp.. She gets so excited when people come to the house and loves being made a fuss of.. She settles down once they have fussed her. The problem is some people just dont like dogs, but try telling Ellie that . In every other respect she is a very good dog, and she will sit/ stay when told. ( I can put her food down and she wont touch it before I say OK )....But I can't make her sit when anyone arrives. We have an open plan house so I can't close her in a room...... I can put her in her cage, but she creates such a fuss ..
My second concern is that we are expecting a grandchild in 4 weeks, Ellie loves chrildren but I am worried she might try to jump on my knee while I am holding ther baby. I can't keep her in the cage all the time the baby is here.......
Any advise anyone please ??

As for the jumping up on people, I have two Cavs that I bring to work with me every day so it was very important that they not do this. Your dog needs to be conditioned so that she knows she will not get attention UNTIL SHE IS CALM. She excites easily when people come over because she is being doddled on and babied and now expects that.

When people come in the house, tell them "do not give her attention yet; please ignore her until she calms down". This is important because most people will say "oh, it's okay- i have dogs" etc. But it is NOT okay. This is rude dog behavior that needs to be corrected.

When she jumps, take your hands and place them on her chest and gently push her down and say "down". When she begins to jump up on you and you can catch it before she jumps, lift your knee so she can't get her paws on your thighs. Then say "down" and gently push her down.

My pup, Ollie, is very high energy and this took months to perfect. Now, when a client comes in, he walks over to them, sits and looks up at them and waits for them to approach him. It takes work, but you can do it!

Great advice from Trisha. Dottie was a little wiggle-butt excited jumping bean when anyone new came to visit also. I always instruct visitors to ignore her and turn their back on her until she is in a sit-stay, and not to pet or talk to her until she has calmed down. I can tell it is just killing her to hold all that excitement and joy inside, but she knows that the affection and greeting rewards will not come until she is acting like a lady.

My husband and I always allow her into our laps or alongside us on the couch, as this is our joy. However, as you mentioned, some people are not as crazy about dogs as we are.

We have trained Dottie to wait until we are seated, and use a hand signal (an outstretched flat hand) to let her know that she must sit quietly until she is invited up. I wait a minute or two, then say "okay!" and she is up in my lap where I like her. Since she is trained to be invited up, if my guests would rather not have her up, I instruct them to give the hand signal, then she will just quietly lie on the rug next to the couch while we visit.

I do keep her brushed and clean, but I always cringe when my guests show up in all black. I keep the sticky roller ready for quick cleanups in case they want to love on her.

and say "down"

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Just a reminder -- don't use the word 'down' if you also use it to mean 'lie down'. Use a word like 'off'. Otherwise the dog doesn't know you mean off rather than down. I use 'off' for furniture and down for 'lie down' but you can use any words as long as they are different.

Really all you need is to have a good, trained sit-stay. I don't like doing things like pushing dogs to where I want them to be -- I feel it is better to simply body block them from being able to go where they are trying to go and ignore the behaviour. Behaviour that is rewarded, even by negative attention, gets repeated. Body contact could be a self-rewarding result for the dog.

A dog that knows a sit-stay will stay seated until invited to come over. But you have to put a lot of advance time over many weeks into the training, first when no one is there, and then by introducing more distractions. New people arriving is a MAJOR distraction -- so you cannot expect a dog that will sit-stay or down-stay when it is just you practicing, to do this when a massive distraction is also there. You need to build towards it.

Having a baby around *will require you to take more serious management steps*. Not all dogs like children, some are fearful, or overly enthusiastic, and if you cannot manage both the dog and the baby at once, Ellie needs to be put away when the baby visits. She either needs to be crate trained, in an x-pen or to be trained to relax in a room on her own. You absolutely cannot put a baby into a situation where a dog could try and jump up on top or worse to snap. A baby can also make sudden movements and slapping motions with a hand or leg that could harm a dog, overexcite the dog or scare the or startle the dog into biting. With a baby, toddler or any child under 10 around, you have new responsibilities for both child and dog. Keep the baby and dog totally separated unless in extremely controlled situations. If Ellie cannot reliably downstay then she needs to be managed so she has no access to you or the baby during visits.

Info on managing babies, kids and dogs:

http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=9729

Like your cavalier, Holly LOVES people. While this is a great thing, and something I worked to accomplish with her socialization, I'm now working on the not jumping up to gain attention.

We're in a puppy kindergarten class that has been wonderful. Like Karlin mentioned, the first thing is to get a really good sit-stay. I've worked on this for a few weeks and am gradually increasing the amount of time she "stays." The "watch me" command has been crucial for this. I put a treat to my mouth and have her watch me (while in the sit stay) until she is released. In class, we've started a "sit for exam" exercise where Holly is in a sit-stay and remains there while people approach either myself or her for a greeting. I still have to do a watch me command during the initial approaches, but she is doing really well staying in her sit-stay. Now we've "graduated" to a sit-stay (without the watch me) when people approach and talk to ME. My next goal is for her to get the sit-stay without the watch me while people are greeting HER.

I practice this with everyone who'll let me. I do it at home, the vet's, on walks, etc. I tell people what I'm doing, then put Holly in a sit-stay and have her watch me. Then I ask the person to greet her briefly while she's sitting and watching me. This is really brief now, but I'm hoping to increase the periods of her sit-stay. After she watches me and sits for her greeting, she gets a little treat. I've had my kids and husband do this at the door after ringing the doorbell. Holly and I wait (she's still doing this on lead) and then do our thing. It's working so far and I'm hoping to get this down off lead soon. It seems that after she's had her initial greeting, she's much calmer with people. I've also noticed that she's catching on that in order to get attention, she must be in a sitting position.

I'm no expert, but I hope this helps a bit!