KA-ZAP!! In a flash of insight
I figured out the reason Spider is still jumping on people after 4 months of people turning their backs on him when I’ve taught insanely joyful shelter dogs to keep their feet on the floor in like 3 repetitions.
He takes rejection too well. He launches, people turn away, he doesn’t hang around to figure out how to talk to them, he just shrugs and goes off to do something else instead. A real gentleman: “Wanna go back to my place and get it on?” No, get lost. “OK, have a nice day!”
So this morning he launched at my neighbour, I gave him a 1.6-second NO and finger-tip fwapping all over his body and walked away. I called him back, he looked over at me and said “Are you stupid? You were finger-fwapping me! I’ll go find a toy!” I called him again (cheerfully) and he came and we had a nice (calm) little cuddle. He’s still here an hour later, walking around the house doing stuff, and he’s taking a nap.
SO glad I figured this out! First because nobody likes a 65-pound puppy flossing their teeth, and second because I don’t have my new shoulder yet and I can’t afford to keep holding him down. Now to show him that people DO want to talk to him and tell him how cute he is as long as he stays glued to the ground.