The first few times we took nine-week old Nala out around people she was fine. She would get a little bit excited, jump and yelp a bit, but generally acted normal. The past two or three times we have taken her for walks, she has completely freaks out. She yelps, cries and howls uncontrollably, especially when a person is walking away. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this and, if so, what did you do about it.

Thanks for your advice!

It sounds like she's getting to excited about other people.

You could try to distract her with treats or a toy when people are walking away, or you could even walk in the opposite direction so she has to focus on walking when she starts to act up.

You could also teach her "watch me," where she has to make eye contact with you to get a reward. You could do this in a calm setting first, like the home, and then try to work it up to a place with new people since they excite her so much.

Do you have her sit before people greet her?
Preventing the excitement is the best way to prevent the escalation that you're experiencing when people walk away. If she jumps up or breaks the sit, the person greeting her should stop approaching/interacting with her until she sits again. When they walk away, reward her for sitting nicely, I like to incorporate "watch me" with the sitting here so my dogs don't fixate on the people walking away. However, do not force her into a sit, she's still young and physically manipulating puppies can cause joint damage.

Most importantly, be consistent, especially if you choose to have her sit before people greet her.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

Thanks so much for the advice. We are trying to work on getting her to sit when she greets people, but she's very hard to control as she freaks out, squirms around, barks/whines/cries incessantly.

I have tried walking away or in the other direction and she continues to still bark and carry on...

She'll stop barking eventually. She's being a brat, like when a child starts screaming about a toy they want in the store that they aren't allowed to get.

Is she good with sit when there aren't new people around?
If she isn't, then work on that in the home, but also out on walks.
Have her sit several time during a walk out of the blue so she gets the hang of it, dogs don't generalize like we do. Just because she knows how to sit and listen in a home setting doesn't mean she'll understand that she also has to listen outside of the home. By working with her in multiple places, you're teaching her that good things come when she pays attention to you, and that she should pay attention to you.

House=fun and listen, new places/experiences=excitement. She's still learning that she still has to listen when there's new things.

If you know someone is going to come over, meet them outside first and give them a treat for them to give her when she calms down. If she acts excited when they come in, have them completely ignore her: no eye contact, no touching, no talking to her. If she jumps up, they should not back away from her, they should either stand still or walk into her. She should calm down eventually. When she does, have her sit and let the person reward her for being calm. She'll associate being calm with attention and reward and she'll eventually start to calm down faster. If she doesn't calm down, she doesn't get the reward of them interacting with her. She might get frustrated at first and escalate(yelling louder, throwing herself around), because that's what has worked for her in the past, but once she reaches the climax point, she'll calm back down.

You can also set this up by asking someone to help you. If you decide to set it up/know someone is coming over, try to tire her out with a fun game first.

It's very important not to yell, chase, or amp her up more. Be calm and breathe, she'll get the hang of it. Don't let it turn into a game of chase and don't let it frustrate you.

It sounds like normal puppy behaviour where new person = new game, but it will only stop when she learns that it isn't appropriate and that she can't get what she wants (attention from new person) from it.

How old is she?

She's almost 10 weeks old.

She's still young :]

As long as you keep working with her, she'll get over it.
Nunya was very jumpy as a young pup, but now he's an angel haha
Snoopy still has his moments, but I got him at seven months and he needs work.

Sounds like typical puppy behavior. Our puppy was the same way. It seems that the more we socialized him with people and dogs, the better he has gotten. He's just over a year old now, and still gets excited to see people, but he doesn't freak out anymore.

Cash is the opposite-he freaks out when he sees people and wants to run away. I keep trying to take him places but it's hard, he isn't even great with my mom and dad and they live here!