He is three, pretty good at obeying commands most of the time
***Most of time is not acceptable, I would not accept it and you should not acccept it either. Sounds like your dog is wearing you out and taking advantage of the situation.

The problem arises off-leash, say at the beach, park or dog park.
***You have hit the nail on the head with this sentence. I suggest you do more leash training, and controlled leash walking.
Because it's someone else I can't knee him I can barely grab him - he goes a little ape.
**You should not have to knee your dog, putting him in a sit stay by using a treat, like Natural Balance meat sticks diced up, put the treat in your hand and put your hand in front of your dogs face and raise your hand up over your dogs head, he will naturally follow your hand, continue your hand towards the dogs tail up and over its head, your dog should naturally sit. Your dog might need a little extra touch, on his hocks and a verbal command.

obviously I am not handling it properly.
***MORE LEASH WALKING, everyday at least an hour a day at least once a day preferrably three times a day. This walking should be controlled, dont let your dog pull you around and sniff every bush, when you head out, make your dog come to you, and be in a sit and stay position before you leash him up, then before you go out, a sit and stay position before you go out the door (you first) your dog in a sit stay position when you lock up or close the door. You might find out if there is a low cost training class in your area. Good luck

The only thing I can think of that I haven't tried is to take a water spritzer with me. Any other suggestions?

You are right to be concerned because someone really could be hurt in a fall from your dog jumping on them, so this must be stopped. I don't know how to train your dog not to do it, but I hate it when dogs jump on me, and I am truly afraid of falling. So maybe an obedience class would help.

My neighbor has a very large golden, and I avoid running into her when she's walking him because she can barely control him and keep him from jumping on me. I think he weighs more than I do!

Good luck.

I agree with most of what was already posted, I'll just say it a bit differently.

First, you have a Lab, Labs are happy dogs, they love everyone. Untamed, their happy actions get out of control. This is not an uncommon thing with them.

Second. You have a "negative" action that you need to turn into a "positive" action, correctly. This statement really put's things into perspective. Lots of people with negative dog issues fail to realize this, they try correction the wrong way, and lots of people would do better with their dog's behavior if they realized it, and pursued it.

This is going to take work to correct because the dog has been getting away with this behavior for some time. You really do need someone to personally help you.

I suggest you call your local Lab Rescue League, you can do a Google search. Tell them your situation and ask for ways you can deal with it. Tell them you would like for someone to come to your house and show you what to do. Lots of times, these rescue organization will not charge, but take donations for the service, or do the service at a reduced rate. If they cant help you, ask for other sources. Without this, you could find yourself trying to correct things and making it worse.

SG

Hi novita !

Firstly, good for you for recognising that this is a problem ! I also have a 3 year old lab, so I most definitely understand your issue ! I only wish more dog owners were as motivated to work on this as you clearly are.

How do you interact with your dog when you are taking him to offleash parks ? Do you play with him and engage him, or is this "free time" for him to run around and sniff and entertain himself ?

Personally, I like to think of myself as FAR more interesting than ANYTHING else going on at the park. The park is "our time", not time for me to zone-out and chat with my dogpark buddies or talk on the phone. I control the resources, all the things that my dog most loves. His ball, his toys, his food. I am demanding, and I ask for certain things before I "pay out". For example, it's REALLY hard for my guy to walk nicely on leash when we are approaching the park. "OMG THE PARK ! WE'RE GONNA PLAY BALL !". But that behaviour is not acceptable to me. I don't use leash corrections or any physical manipulation, I simply ask him to control himself, or else he is less likely to get what he wants. If he pulls on the leash, then we either stop, or we back up a few steps, until he gets himself together, and then we resume the approach to the park.

I constantly play with him when we get to the park. Keep him interested and tire him out. Intersperse with obedience exercises ... clicker training is awesome, and the reward doesn't have to be food, I click then toss his toy. Pretty soon, you will have a dog that is focused on you, and has lightning-fast responses to your cues.

Make the games interesting, and challenge him. He is a Lab, he should innately be able to "mark" a fallen ball or toy, as if it were a bird. When his sit-stay is good enough, ask him to wait while you throw his toy, then send him for it. Throw it into challenging places (brush, long grass, down hill etc). Then make it REALLY hard, and cover his eyes so he doesn't see where it falls :-) Make him use his nose !

Maybe also work on impulse-control exercises, such as Leave-It. This is an unbelievably useful tool, and once trained properly can be used for anything from trash on the ground, to calling him away from people with toys. A solid recall is also very very important, even potentially life-saving. And every single time that your boy does the right thing (doesn't jump up on people, especially if you can see that he thought about it but decided not to), make a really big deal of it, praise, rewards, the full monty. "Anti-jump" training is a big focus of puppy-class, so maybe read the sections of Ian Dunbar's puppy books on how to work on this ?

Personally I would avoid the knee-in-the-chest school of thought. I want my dog to *like* strangers, not think that they might lash out at him. For now, is it possible to visit less-populated offleash areas, while you work on some of these skills ?

As others have mentioned, it might be good idea to find a good training class, there is no substitute for seeing how training is done in person. Personally I would seek out a class that relies mostly on positive reinforcement techniques.

Best of luck with your boy. Beleive me, I feel your pain, but with careful management and training, you can get through this !

It's difficult to train over the internet.

Your dog should be taught to sit when he meets people. Doing that requires lots of training (with positive reinforcement - treats, praise) and patience. Keep treats on hand, so when you meet stranger and your dog is on leash (because you have no hope of control at this point off leash) have him sit, and do not allow him to be petted if he is not sitting. You can step on his lead if he insists on getting up; in other words, put him in a sit, step on the leash, and if he gets out of the sit, it will not be very comfortable for him.

If he jumps on strangers, make sure they do not reward him by petting him. The can just turn their back on him.

Again, this is difficult to explain. You should try a good training school. Good luck.

Thanks so much for all these great suggestions! I am considering looking for a trainer for a few sessions. He has been to obedience classes and is really quite good with heeling, stay, leave-it, sit, etc. We both do leash walks every day too, and I use them as traing sessions as well. Great suggestion about working with him on off-leash walks - I do recall with him but I could do more.
He doesn't actually jump ON people , he just springs into the air! Toys and balls are the trigger.
Great suggeston about turning the negative action to positive also - it;s negative because I don't know what to do. All the other training I do is positive.
Anyway I will work on all these suggestions, and thanks, everybody. He's a lovely dog, and I want him well behaved so everybody else will like him too!

I watch a show on Saturday evening called "It's Me or the Dog." It's about a lady named Victoria Stilwell who is a dog trainer. Dog owners call on her to help with their dogs bad behaviours. One of the things I've seen her teach owners who have dogs who jump up on people is to have the person being jumped up on just turn around with their back facing the dog. After about 20 seconds the person can turn back around. If the dog jumps again, then the person turns around again with their back to the dog. This can go on for several iterations, but eventually the dog learns to not jump. Each time the person turns around and the dog doesn't jump, she rewards the dog with some tasty treat. I've watched this show enough times to see how she does this and the results she gets. The show is on at 8:00 pm PACIFIC STANDARD TIME on Animal Planet.