My 18 month EM male is a little too social, please help!

[Gideon]

I have owned EMs for 15 years. I used to breed and train them, I've trained 3 mastiffs for diabetes assistance dogs. My current EM is an intact 1.5 year old male, he is a seizure alert dog for my husband and he does a wonderful job keeping him safe. Gideon grew up traveling and has spent a good portion of his life in hotels. We were in hotels on an extended trip from 6 weeks of age to 3 months and the hotel staff adored him. Every time they saw him they would talk in loud baby voices and scratch him and he would freak out and roll around and just go crazy. I was laid up in bed with an injury so my wonderful husband who knew very little about dogs allowed this to go on without correcting the problem. Gideon then went about 6 months without being around any other people that weren't in our home. Now he is 150 pounds and still tries to roll over and freak out when he meets new people. The way I have been working on this is to just walk him away from people as soon as he starts acting up. I am concerned he is going to hurt someone by either knocking them over or scratching them during his excitement.

Gideon has 0 other behavior problems, he knows all basic obedience, heels on slack leash, opens fridge, opens doors (including sliding glass), no chewing, no nothing. We love him dearly and he loves people, especially new people and we don't want to have it be such a big deal every time he meets someone. I'm usually very good at fixing problems like this but it just seems to be taking so long and the progress seems so slow. If anyone has any ideas on how to solve this please let me know. Thanks!

 

[PuppyPaws]

Could you describe a little bit more about what exactly he does when he meets someone new? Maybe that would help us understand a bit better what you are dealing with. I understand the rolling over bit, but what else happens when he "freaks out"? Is he jumping up, running around hysterically, barking excessively, pawing at them?? Is there a certain trigger to the behavior? Does it happen when the doorbell rings or there is a knock on the door (before the people actually enter the house)? How do people generally respond? Are they inadvertendly reinforcing the behavior? Sounds like you have a wealth of experience with the breed. I have always admired medical alert/assistance dogs.