Jumping Up

[flux]

I'm not too proud of this topic and have come back to the DOL forum for some help.

I have a rough collie (4yrs) and G.retriever x Border Collie (3yrs). My G.RxBC STILL JUMPS UP ON PEOPLE. He doesn't jump up on me, but he has worked out that he can basically get away with blue murder with any human in the dog park, and any other person out of my reach. I have family members and friends that DO NOT understand he is very easily hyped up and they all do the typical "laughing" "hands flailing" "oh! oh! ha ha! get down! now now!" which, well, you can imagine the result. I have tried to say polietly, please just ignore the black dog until he calms right down, but it seems to have little effect on the people - seriously, to the point that they think ignoring means holding their hands up really high and staring at him. In these instances I usually have to pull Riley away, which I know he gets more excited if you pull him back on his collar. He also barks and carrys on with excitement. I keep him away from small children or on his leash, but even then he has terrible manners - he will bark, cry (kind of half excitmenet, kind of half tantrum) and still try to jump up from his "sit" even though I have the other end of the lead.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can better train him not to jump up? I feel like I have got "don't jump on me" down pat (I firmly ignore him, stop all games and look away), but I'm really failing here in some aspect. I feel like I have only barely got a handle on this. If I had trained him right, then surely the don't jump up would apply to other humans too. We are currently walking him twice a day, normally it's once a day but I'm upping the anti. These are 40min to 60min walks each. He is allergic to some protein which we haven't isolated yet (lamb is definately one!) so we can't give him a bone to chew on (sorry i mention this because I really think this would help his energy levels so much). But again, I guess the real help I need here is how to better train him not to jump on other people. Any advice, criticism or sharing of experience would be much appriciated!!

thank you!

Faye

[persephone]

Frozen turkey necks to chew :) or Deer antlers.

start practicing N I L I F

Don't let him run free in parks until he has mastered the manners ....

lots of calm practice ..

and educate your family/guests ;) Also keep dog away when visitors come .. introduce him on leash maybe ..and tell people to play like a dead tree ;)

[luvsdogs]

I have this same problem with my 5.5 y/o Border Collie. She was doing it at the breeders who said she was working on it & it had improved. She won't jump on me either but everyone else. At my obedience club it's worse as she jumps up on all her 'friends'. They know it's a problem, when I tell her not to jump on them. They usually say, oh don't worry I'm used to dogs, or she does it so lightly I hardly feel her. Even the instructors who give advice on not jumping up will at times give her attention when she jumps on them. I have given up trying to stop her. Family members encourage her to jump on them too.

So some solutions is to totally ignore her as you are doing & try & get other people doing it. I know it's a loosing battle. Other methods is if she jumps on them while they are sitting is to instantly stand up, don't look at her or push her off, it's all attention.

Good luck. :)

[Simply Grand]

Oh I sympathise! My almost 2 year old Aussie Shepherd is naturally a jumper and she loooves people so jumping all over people is her favourite thing! It's still very much a work in progress but she's starting to get better.

I'd suggest clicker training. If you don't already use a clicker there is plenty of info on DOL and the web about how to use it, but basically you teach your dog that when they hear the click they will get a treat. You then use the click to mark a specific behaviour that you want the dog to repeat. You can do this from a distance (as long as you have a loud enough clicker) and can mark a precise moment so the dog learns exactly what it is that you're rewarding with the treat.

If you're like me with my girl you can probably see when Riley is getting ready to jump on someone so you'd want to click the split second where he is close enough to the person to really want to jump on them BUT before he has actually launched.

For it to be effective you'll need to make sure he has a really strong association between the clicker and the reward so practice lots in easier situations first, then start with "less exciting" people rather than Riley's friends or exciting new people at the park, and start from a really close distance so you can get the reward to him quickly. You'll also need to use really high value treats while he's learning so he values them more than jumping plus lots of happy praise when he comes to you to get the treat.

Once he's responding to the click you can add a cue word like 'down' or 'off' just a split second again before you're about to click and once he knows that you can tell him as he gets to a person that that's what you want him to do.

My girl is at the stage now where she purposely runs up to someone, deliberately doesn't jump on them then runs back to me for the treat :laugh: That wasn't really what

I was trying to teach but it's better than the jumping! More work to do still obviously, hehe.

[melzawelza]

Leash only introductions.

Teach a very very solid sit, and practice it in many locations so she generalises it.

When she approaches people, ask her to sit. If she sits - they pat her. If she jumps up or doesn't sit, leash correction.

You can make it very clear to her in a binary fashion that jumping up = not great, sitting = awesome.

[flux]

Thanks all,

we suffer with chewing animal parts and high reward treats, as he can only eat his super hypo-allergenic dog food and carrot lol. But the other suggestions seem alright, I think it's back to firm basics of "sit", and I'm just going to lie to my friends and family and say he knocked over a pregnant woman or something so they really pay attention!!! Thanks again x

[BC Crazy]

Stella was a shocker for jumping on us when she was a puppy just out of sheer excitment . Teaching her a very strong sit soon fixed that. They can't sit & jump at the same time. But you must be extremely consistant.

With visitors I would keep her separate from them till she calmed down. Then sit & then greet :)

[Staffyluv]

My boy loves his tennis ball - he sees it and plants his rear end on the ground.. It is a very conditioned response - until he knows what we are doing, his butt stays down..

We use a tennis ball to train - any one will do but the ultimate reward ball is the squeaky kong tennis ball..

I agree with Melza - all meetings should be on lead, sitting..

Some family and friends make it hard with our training.

[persephone]

I'm just going to lie to my friends and family and say he knocked over a pregnant woman or something so they really pay attention!!!

They may pay TOO much attention, and if someone gets hurt , and has to have attention - then council may be told :"he's done it before ..and she was pregnant! "

NOT good publicity for your dog

[Steph M]

I feel your pain, drives me mad. We're the same, wouldn't jump on us, knows he gets kneed gently off and ignored until he settles but any other 'friends' are fair game. No one stops him when I ask, it's NOT cute, please don't reinforce my dog's bad behavior. You're making more work for me and will be sorry when he's full grown.

I would hate to have to not take him places, thank Dog he's stopped jumping on kids. There was about a week of that before I was on it like a rash and would grab him and grumble if he looked like it, might have to start the same thing with adults...

[DobieMum]

Set up the situation with some friends who you know will listen and do what you want them too. Bring them in the house the right way, and distract your dog as they're doing it. Then really heap the praise on the dog for doing the distraction rather than the problem. Send the visitors outside and start again. Do it 4 or 5 times in one session and then organise another session another time soon. Keep giving him rewards when he does it right, so he starts wanting those rewards more than he wants to jump on people. When he's hitting it on the head every time, with the sensible visitor, then introduce one non sensible visitor and go through the process again, but be further away, so you can do the distraction more easily than the nonsensible friend can. BIG heaps of praise for this!!

[Leah82]

As far as the extra walks go, I have heard people mention that you more you exercise your dogs the fitter they get and the more it takes to wear them out. Maybe alternate one of the walks with mental exercise instead with some obedience or trick training.

[Steph M]

As far as the extra walks go, I have heard people mention that you more you exercise your dogs the fitter they get and the more it takes to wear them out. Maybe alternate one of the walks with mental exercise instead with some obedience or trick training.

I can vouch for this! Rosie will run around the park at full pelt for 2 hours to wear herself out, but nothing beats half an hour with a puzzle ball or a cardboard box nest with her lunch scattered through it.. Haha. She's a freak.

We haven't done much training yet, other than her recall. But I expect that will be the same.

[Erny]

Work on your recalls and strengthen them with motivation techniques. Advance your recall training to include distractions from low-intensity to high-intensity (ie the intensity you're having trouble with at the moment) and do not permit her off lead (long-lines are fine) and out of your control until you know you can recall her away from these triggers/distractions.

And "intensity" isn't just about the level of distraction the stimuli is creating. It's about distance from and proximity to the stimuli as well.

For family and/or friends who won't listen and respect your requests for the sake of the training you are seeking to achieve ...... crate training. One crate per person.

Seriously though (although I was semi-serious .... I think it is extremely rude and disrespectful not to observe reasonable request of others in these sorts of situations), crate training your dog and then using the crate as a training aid is such a boon. And it can help with stopping people from being able to undo your training and confuse the dog.