Argh....Ignore the PEOPLE!!!!!

I am sure your going to hear from the board that "you" have to be more interesting than his distractions.  When you clicker train and expose him to these situations do you use high value treats? 

I bet you would like the "It's Yer Choice"  method from Say Yes! dog training. It's all about impulse control which is great for any dog, but especially those who are very interested in the world around them.

It starts with treats, but basically translates to a dog who sees everything as "off limits" until Mom says so.
 

Here's a great video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipT5k1gaXhc

He does know "leave it" and will follow the command in many situations, but wants to see people more than he wants to listen to the command most of the time....

Sometimes, all this means is that he hasn't been proofed in enough situations with gradually increasing levels of distractions.  It's hard for a dog to go from doing this behavior in the living room to doing it at an event - you have to do all the steps in between;-)  That means you start with *one* person as a distraction, and build up to many.

 I was going to say proofing, too. He should be able to still watch you while a strange person is touching his body, and with food being thrown at him. It takes a while to get there, but it can be done, positively, even with an attention whore You just have to work the distractions up VERY slowly.

One thing that helps me is at least controlling the human.  We ask people not to pet or to stop approaching until the dog is sitting and waiting.  Sometimes it's easier to ask this of the human than have to struggle with controlling or redirecting the dog.  Jumping on strangers is just so self-rewarding b/c so many people say "oh that's OK I love dogs!"  I'd rather say "I'm training my dog not to jump, can you wait until he's sitting and then pet him?" rather than have to pull him off after the stranger is already loving him up.

Liesje

One thing that helps me is at least controlling the human.  We ask people not to pet or to stop approaching until the dog is sitting and waiting.  Sometimes it's easier to ask this of the human than have to struggle with controlling or redirecting the dog.  Jumping on strangers is just so self-rewarding b/c so many people say "oh that's OK I love dogs!"  I'd rather say "I'm training my dog not to jump, can you wait until he's sitting and then pet him?" rather than have to pull him off after the stranger is already loving him up.

I agree, but I find that it is hard to control humans you don't know until it's too late.  I have no problem being assertive enough to stop them before they even get to me and my dog, but many people don't want to be "impolite" (who's really impolite, you or the person who is basically accosting your dog without asking your permission???)  So, the easiest thing to do, at least in the beginning, is to enlist some help from some dog savvy, or at least cooperative, friends, to help you set the dog up for success.

This isn't a recommendation per se, but if you want to avoid punishing him for something that is really a great behaviour skill set (love of people), you could try using either a head halter or a front-clip harness (depending on what your dog likes) so that when you are having trouble getting his attention, you have a mechanical advantage to prevent him from doing as he pleases. It's more of a management thing, but it may help while you are trying to teach new behaviours at other times.

But a huge part of it really is in the teaching and the proofing. Decide what behaviour you want, teach that behaviour, reinforce the wazoo out of it, and then put it on a variable reinforcement schedule until it becomes routine (but it will likely always need to be rewarded on occasion...otherwise it will probably fall apart).

My Zipper was once quite like that. He thought that because he liked other people and dogs, he could go and meet and greet anybody he wanted. He didn't over-react in any way but he pulled on the leash and stopped paying attention to me. I taught him that just because there are people and other dogs, it doesn't mean you get to say hi to every one of them. It's actually one of the behaviours I really loved teaching though, because it's really hard for a dog to control the impulse to go greet, and I like knowing that I can call him off other people and dogs easily, and that we can walk down the street and he'll basically ignore other dogs and people unless we actually stop to "say hi".

I decided to teach two main behaviours:
1) Ignore other people and dogs while walking on leash, unless
2) he is cued to "go say hi". If he hears that word, he knows he is allowed to go meet and greet people as he pleases.

The two cues paired together gave him a very clear, black and white understanding of what was going on. If mom or dad are "walking" and he is on leash, then he is to walk nicely within the limits of the leash length (I do not make him walk right beside my leg) and keep up with us without getting distracted.

And yes, that includes preventing people from altering your training goals. More than once I have outright turned into "traffic cop mom" and said that we were in training and my dog either could not say hi right now, or had to perform a certain behaviour before the person was allowed to greet. Your dog, you can decide what you do and don't want your dog to do. But the biggest thing is you have to make it black and white, with no grey areas. Make sure Jack knows precisely what is expected of him.

Using a clicker would be a great way to teach this too. One game I really like is the Look at That game (LAT). If you google it you can find just how to teach this, but it's a great way to teach just what you are looking to get Jack to behave like in public.

Kim_MacMillan

I decided to teach two main behaviours:
1) Ignore other people and dogs while walking on leash, unless
2) he is cued to "go say hi". If he hears that word, he knows he is allowed to go meet and greet people as he pleases.

I did the same, with the same cue It works great, the majority of the time. Occasionally, something is a little too exciting, but it happens.

 I know this is going to be one of Zoey's weaknesses!! she LOVES people. I use hot dogs as a high value treat.

let us know how it goes!!