Pleased with Progress

Today, we had several visitors come to our house. We are trying to stop Earl from gettin so ridiculously wound up at guests when they arrive. We will allow a few barks fo security reasons and then I will say 'quiet' and Earl will obey. Its like an off-switch which can be taught with time, patience, and dedication.
So today. Just as a visitor pulled up in their car outside our house, and Earl was not yet aware of this, I calmly slipped his lead on and took him to the kitchen. He made a fuss when he heard the keys rattle, door open and visitor's excited greeting voice. I got him focued on me and we did some training, When the visitor entered the room we continued, even though Earl was getting a little distracted. We worked until this stopped, and he was locked into my commands. I then took the lead off. I wasn't expecting perfection but I was impressed. Earl went up to the visitor wagging his body, rubbed up against their legs and then lifted his front paws; and before I blinked again, he ran off, had a drink, and chewed his marrow ring in a contented manner! I was flabbergasted and OVER THE MOON with how fast he was 'getting it'! He used to bother the vistors in such an unacceptable, in-polite way for so many minuets before. He would just launch himself as close to their face level as possible, so he was almost in their eyeline (!) then make whiney noises until he was fed up of waiting. Now it took less than 10 secvonds. I am hoping that Earl will, as the last, finished, and perfected result, bark a few times when istor appraoches property, wait calmly for them to enter house, then wag at them and maybe trot over and leave them to peace. I am not at all trying to take this human-loving way out of Earl, I just want to make it so that humans can love Earl back and enjoy his greeting which unfortunately wasn't the case beforehand.Very pleased with our work and training paying off, and looking forward to the finished result in the future. There's nothing like dedication! Well done Earl!!!

Earl and I.