5 1/2 month old Boston Terrier training questio

Question:
 Hello everyone. My name is Wayne and I am brand new to this board. On May 3 I picked up a wonderful Boston Terrier pup whom I have named CHLOE. She's a joyous addition to our household. I was wondering if anyone might assist with some advice. Chloe seems to train relatively easy. She is currently 5 1/2 months old and is pretty well potty trained (about 85%-90% there - and is starting to sleep through the night without getting up to go potty); she has the "sit," and "down" commands pretty well down; and she is currently learning "come" "leave it," and she's doing very well with "stay." She is currently enrolled in a puppy obedience/socialization course...we are 3 weeks into a 6 week run. Problem is this: Although she goes on walks 2 to 3 times a day; comes with us to visit friends; she always seems to get over-excited in the presence of other dogs, sometimes other people, and her attention span is almost zero once we get her outside. It's almost like she doesn't hear us. (We have reward treats at the ready, but they don't work.) Indoors she's great. She listens and obeys. But when outdoors, her attention span is minimal. When other dogs come by, she wants to play - which of course is normal - but she is SO excitable...she goes up on her hind legs and tends to go at them with her front paws up. The other dogs look as if they'll have none of it. Is this just an age thing? 5 1/2 months is pretty young. And truth be told, she did get off to a late start. The second night in our home she started throwing up and had diarreah. The vet scared us, thinking it was parvo. But in the end it turned out to be coccidia...a bug she had already picked up at the breeders home before we got her. But, as a result, we were under instructions to keep her from most other dogs until her last round of shots. That was July 1st. Any words of advice would be appreciated. Hope yhou all have a great Thursday evening/Friday.
Answer:
 Attention soan and whatnot is an age thing and it will get better and worse through adolescence (she is entering the younger part of adolescence). The excitement with other dogs is also part being young but she will NOT grow out of it if not worked with. What will happen is if she is not properly shown (and this does not mean correcting her with a leash yank, etc when she does this), she can develop frustrations and the behaviors can worsen. I deal with this all the time in classes. I teach building up the dog's threshold of tolerance and thus encouraging the proper manners if the dog want to get what she wants. In the beginning: 1) LIMITED OUTDOOR DISTRACTIONS. The more you have to fight against, the harder it will be to properly teach manners. 2) REMEMBER DOGS DO NOT GENERLIZE. Any new experience is a new rule. Everytime a rule changes, the desired behaviors need to be reinforced until the dog begins to learn that she must behave and listen in all places. But they do not generalize "I behave at home and in class so I have to behave other places as well." And since they do not understand our language until we teach them what words mean, they have to be positively shown what behaviors apply in different settings. Leash lunging and behaving as she is is also a sign of stress and even anxiety. She wants something but does not know how to react and get it so she acts out. She does not have the confidence yet to know how to get what she wants so she acts out. Most folk think of lower confidence as a fearful, shy dog. Not always. Lowered confidence manifests in various ways. Managing this is very similar to how I suggested managing the "New Barking" thread below. Now, think of this behavior as a threashold to a door. You need to intercept the dog before he crosses the threshold and begins the barking. Once she does that, you will be fighting against a behavior in the process that you do not like as opposed to teaching him a better behavior before she acts up. Now, think of the threshold in a wall with wheels so it can move closer and closer to the other dogs or whatever she likes to lunge at and act up around. Your job is to watch for body language showing that your dog is getting ready to cross the threshold and act out. When you see the language stating and she is NOT acting out yet, redirect her anxiety to you and get her to ignore the dog (but if you are not fun, you will build up even more stress in her and make the issue worse.) When she is focused more on you and enjoying being with you than the other dogs, allow her to slowly appraoch - a foot at a time. As long as she focuses on you, keeps that leash loose and shows interest without lunging at the other whatever, keep approaching. Watch and when you see that body language start indicating she is going to break the desired behavior and act up BUT SHE HAS NOT CROSSED THRE THRESHOLD INTO ACTING UP, stop and redirect herin a FUN way back to you. You are going to teach her not only to tolerate other dogs but a better behavior when she does not know how to behave and is likely to act out. If she acts out you should NOT do anything to increase the stress she is already feeling - it could actually make her more likely to act out as she is if she starts thinking you are acting out against the dogs or that the dogs are associated with a negative response from you. Best to CALMLY lead her out and away from the situation and let him relax. Also, do not allow people to let her jumpand exhibit poor manners when greeting them. They can retrain her and teach her this undesired behavior is good and increase its likelihood of continuing. Hope this helps and makes sense.