Okay... so this is really about two things in particular, but they mesh together.

Koda is extremely well-behaved at our house (normally-- it's a rare occassion we can't at least control his behavior here). However, we're having major issues controlling him when we take him to visit our families. When he needs to go out or he needs to play, he'll come right up to you, stare at you, and then bark in your face (often times getting his mouth/teeth very close to you. Most people think he's going to bite). He ALSO does this when he wants attention, and he like almost jumps AT you. It scares a lot of people and what concerns us most today is that he did it to a 3 year old girl. She was fine with it cause she was in love with him, but he gave me a heart attack every time. He does it without warning and because of her height, his teeth come VERY close to her face.

I'm at a loss for how to train him out of this. I don't have small children at my beck and call so I can't really train with kids. When he does it to us at home, I try and get John to ignore him (but in his defense it is REALLY hard to ignore because it's loud, annoying, and obnoxious) however John can't really do that. He ends up getting mad and alpha rolling him or putting him in his crate to calm down. This only works temporarily.

Any ideas? I really don't want this issue every time we're around kids and my best friend is having a baby. I need him to be able to be around small kids without giving me agita!

I do believe that's a humdinger. With our dogs, I do not tolerate any sort of hyper or possibly dangerous behaviors around children. But if you've ever followed any of my training, you know I fall somewhere between Cesar and Koehler. My approach would be to muzzle him for a few moments, so you're not totally hands on with him. Then when the muzzle is removed he will likely protest a bit more, and the muzzle goes back on for a few more moments tying in a command for settle down. The first time the muzzle is removed and he's quiet for even a second, praise him heavily but not in a way that excites him. Usually a nice rub around the eyes and ears is what I use. Then build up the time span slowly.

I think the muzzle is a good idea, but make sure you tell the people at the house that the muzzle is not because you are afraid of him biting and that he is not a "bad" dog that you are just working on training him. you do not want you friends to be afraid of him which might make him try even harder to get their attention. we have been thinking of getting Jack a muzzle for car rides as you have all seen the video he just whines and gets really loud and for long car rides it is not tolerable.