|
Jumping UpHere's an email I recently received - “Dear Andrew: I'm an owner of a Great Pyrenees. As a pup, "Bear" was a handful - HE wanted to be boss. He had a knack for chewing, especially the walls, the carpet, etc. He was a rather destructful little fellow. After some obedient training, he's better. He's over a year now, and he has calmed down quite a bit - taking him to the vet to remove the "naughty bits" helped, but he still gets a stubborn streak in him. The main thing is his jumping on people. Now that he's over 100 lbs., he still wants to jump up on company. We've tried the "knee in the chest and say 'no jump!'", but he's smart enough to hold onto your leg when you try to do it. He gets excited when we have company, and wants to "bum-rush" them and about knocks them down! Is there anything you suggest that would work? Thank you for your time and attention on this! Sincerely,
This was my reply - “Hi Diana, This is obviously something you have to sort out as soon as possible; a dog of that size is big and heavy enough to flatten all but the strongest of people and he could - albeit unintentionally - cause someone a serious injury. Like so many other things the key to changing this behaviour is a combination of split second timing and reward. You also have to make sure everyone who comes to your house is singing from the same hymn sheet so don't let anybody across the threshold until you've told them exactly how to behave with Bear. What I'm about to explain applies regardless of whether it's a guest or a family member that's the target of his flying greeting. Before you open the door have a treat in your hand and a few more in your pocket. Open the door. As he comes towards you get ready. The moment his front feet leave the ground towards your shoulders you must take a smart step backwards at the exact same time as uttering a loud, high pitched staccatto "ah ba ba ba" type noise. It has to sound really ear piercing and unpleasant. If you find it difficult to make a noise like that see if instead you can get hold of one of those cans of compressed air that you can let off that sound like a loud foghorn or klaxon. I'm afraid I don't know their proper name. Failing that if you have anything around your house that makes a loud unpleasant noise you know he doesn't like you could use that. The actual source of the noise isn't critical - what matters is that it's a really unpleasant noise he'll hate. (Are there such things as rape alarms? The type of thing designed for a woman to carry around in her purse in case she gets attacked. I would imagine something like that has a suitable noise.) Your blast of noise shouldn't last for much more than a second - just the length of time his front feet are off the ground for. The instant his feet are back on the ground and before he has a chance to try jumping up again your horrid noise must cease and you must instantly give him warm loving praise at the same time as giving him the treat. Quickly give him another treat provided his feet have stayed on the ground. Now just walk away into a different room and ignore him until he's calmed down. If you weren't quick enough to give him the treat as his feet touched the floor (because he jumped up again before you had a chance) you must repeat the process. So as he jumps again you must take a step back at the same time as making the horrid noise. It may be that with a big dog like him one step back might not be enough to get out of his way. If that's the case take two (or however many you need). When you have visitors before you let them in explain what's going to happen. All they have to do is take the step back as his feet come up. You must do the rest, ie be in charge of the horrid noise and the giving of treats. Just make sure you pre-warn your guests before they come in exactly what the routine is. I suggest in the early days you enlist the help of some friends who you know won't be daunted by what's going on and get them to deliberately call round to help you with his training. Otherwise you run the risk of trying to accomplish this with a visitor who's completely freaked out by what's going on and will probably only make matters worse! It's also important that none of your visitors make any sort of fuss of Bear whatsoever. If they do it will only reinforce in his mind the idea that visitors are nice and worth hassling. You want him to think visitors are boring and only fit for ignoring. The way you achieve that (once you're past this initial hurdle) is by making sure that all your visitors completely ignore him - they mustn't touch him, give him treats, play with him or even speak to him. The most difficult bit is going to be when you first start doing this. It's quite possible the first few attempts will be a bit bungled and won't quite work out in practice as seamlessly as I've described! If that's the case don't worry - just persevere. Once he associates keeping his feet on the ground with receiving a treat you should find things rapidly start to improve. So your goal must be to help him make that association. For it to be clear in his mind your timing has to be split second - the horrid noise is only when his front feet are off the ground and the very instant he has all 4 feet on the ground again the noise must stop and be replaced by the nice stuff. You have to make that demarcation line between feet on the ground and feet in the air absolutely crystal clear - that's the key. If there's any blurring of the line it's going to be sending out mixed messages which will only confuse him in which case you're not going to get anywhere. Let me know how you get on. Regards,
Jumping up is a common problem. All puppies do it. The trouble is at that age it's cute and most people don't mind. Their nails are still relatively small and soft and they're just so all round adorable they're hard to resist. But they don't stay that way for long! Before you know it even the smallest dogs have thick, hard nails that scratch painfully if they scrabble at your legs for attention. And the bigger dogs like Bear turn into such solid lumps that they're capable of sending grown men flying. So the key to avoiding problems in the future is to start as you mean to go on. The very first time that sweet little puppy puts its feet on you you must immediately make a sharp rebuke noise, put its feet back on the ground and instantly give it warm loving praise. Do this every single time it happens (and every single time it happens to other people too, not just with yourself) and I guarantee that within a few weeks the pup will make no attempt to jump up and what might have developed into a big problem will be nipped in the bud before it ever becomes an issue. There is another technique that's worth trying with grown dogs that have already developed the habit of jumping up but I didn't suggest it to Diane because Bear is so big and it wouldn't be at all pleasant with a dog of that size. You can turn your back on the dog and completely ignore him until he has all four feet on the ground at which point you turn round and praise. When I say 'completely ignore' I mean just that. So don't speak to the dog, don't try to touch it and deliberately avoid eye contact (so long as you keep your back to the dog that last point will happen automatically). But to get to that point you have to endure anything from a few seconds to possibly a minute or more of the dog scrabbling up your back. With a dog like Bear that would be unpleasant at best and potentially dangerous at worst as his sheer weight could cause an injury. But if you do try it the important thing is to keep your back to the dog. It'll almost certainly try to get round to your front so you'll probably have to keep turning on the spot in order to always have your back to the dog. Have a treat ready in your pocket and when it finally tires and drops quietly to the ground you're ready to reward it. P.S. Not long after I sent out this months newsletter I received this email from a subscriber and wanted to pass it on immediately as what she says about rape alarms is important. (Never having come across them myself I was making an assumption they made an unpleasant noise. It seems my assumption was only half right so based on what Kate says I do not recommend their use in the way I'd suggested in my article.) Here's the email I received - “Hi Andrew, Thank you for the advice about deterring dogs from jumping up in the latest edition of the newsletter. This is very timely because it's a habit our boxer x has, and one he is reluctant to drop. Your advice will be of great help especially the part about asking visitors to do the same because however much we tell Barney not to jump up, he is such a cute dog, other people can't resist his 'greetings'. Just one thing, you asked about rape alarms. There are such things - I have one, but I wouldn't recommend them for use in these circumstances. The tone/pitch of the alarm is extremely high and shrill, much higher than an air horn - the idea is it causes discomfort to an attacker as much as attracting attention. They need to be tested annually, I have only done this once with the dogs present, and I would say it was not just unpleasant, but actually painful. Thanks again for all the useful tips, Kate” Recommended reading - "Dog Training Blueprint To Success".
If you'd like to receive articles like this on a regular basis sign up for my free Dog Training Blueprint email newsletter which goes out once every month. Sign up now and I'll send you a free copy of "Top Ten Tips For Having An Obedient Dog". To join the list just fill in your name and email address and click the 'Send me the tips' button - (If you prefer not to subscribe until you know a bit more about what sort of dog training advice you're likely to receive, you're welcome to read a typical selection of comments from other subscribers first.) This is what other readers of the Dog Training Blueprint email newsletter have to say about it. Also read through some of my other dog training articles.
Return to the main article index Webmasters - If you have your own dog training site, you are welcome to reproduce this article provided you reproduce it in full, without editing it in any way. Furthermore, at the end of it you must also agree to put the following resource box (without the speech marks) with an active, working link back to this site. If you are not prepared to do this you may not reproduce any of my work. Here is the wording you must use - "This article is the copyright of Andrew Chastney, author of Dog Training Blueprint to Success. To read more of his articles and get a free copy of 'Top Ten Tips For Having An Obedient Dog' go to www.dogtrainingblueprint.com" The section to hyperlink back is www.dogtrainingblueprint.com as I've done in the example here. In case you are not sure how to do this, simply copy the following - (a href="http://www.dogtrainingblueprint.com")www.dogtrainingblueprint.com(/a) and replace the brackets with the 'triangular brackets' that are used to open and close html tags. |
