Changing Behavior: Jumping Part 4

Part 4- Anti-Jump training when visitor’s are over

  • When someone comes to the house, place your dog on a leash before you open the door.
  • Open the door and invite the visitor inside, if your dog jumps, just walk away (with your dog on leash). You don’t have to say anything. Once he is calm, try again.
  • Leave the leash on your dog during the visit. You don’t have to hold the leash the entire time, but if your dog jumps on your visitor, take the leash and walk your dog away from the visitor.
  • Remember to reward your dog when he keeps 4 paws on the floor around your visitor… these can be with treats, pets and/or praise.
  • Work on sitting to greet with your visitors as well. See part 2

Changing Behavior: Jumping part 3

Dog’s jump to tell you something.

Ex: When my Aussie was a year old, I was taking him for a walk and there was a house being built… he started jumping on me… now why would my dog who I have positively trained not to jump, start jumping? I 1st looked at my dogs body language… his body language told me he was nervous about something. Then I looked to the environment… something new and noisy was occurring (construction). So I used “touch” to get his mind focused on something else, while we moved past… using treats and praise for doing what I asked. Once we got far enough away, he had calmed down and was good. When we had to walk by again (we live on a cult-a-sac and the new house was at the end of our street) he was a lot calmer and was not so anxious (no jumping).

With this post… I really want to challenge you to pay attention to your dogs body language and see if your dog is trying to tell you, “Help! This thing in my environment is making me nervous!”

Changing Behavior: Jumping part 2

Jumping to say HELLO!

Anti-jump training inside your home.

  • Get your clicker and treats
  • Spend some time clicking and treating your dog for 4 paws on the floor or for sitting.
  • Start adding in walking towards your dog, if he sits, click and treat. If he jumps, walk away without saying anything. If he just stands, then ask for a sit after you stop, if he sits after you say “sit”, click and treat. And practice this a few more times. Then see if you can walk up to him and stop and see if he’ll offer a sit on his own.

Start working with your dog that when he wants something, he sits. So if he wants to eat his dinner, ask for a sit before your place the bowl down. If he wants your pets and love, ask for a sit before you pet him. This is like teaching your dog to say “please” so he can ask for things politely before you give him something.

  • If you have a persistent dog who continues to jump, no matter what and you are turning your back and he is still jumping on you, walk away and put a barrier between you and your dog (this could be a baby gate or a door, walking into another room). If you are consistent with this, dog will learn very quickly that jumping on my owner means they leave me… they stop offering that.

Behavior Change: Jumping Part 1

Why do dogs jump anyway?

Dog’s jump to say hello! And to tell you they are worried about something.

So knowing there are multiple reasons why dogs jump, we will look at the 1st reason today and work on the first steps of how to change the behavior.

Anti-jump training when you arrive at home. Dogs are so excited when their people come home (whether from work or from a grocery store trip… doesn’t matter… you’ve been gone, they’re happy to see you!)

  • Go outside or behind a door (you can practice with all the doors in your house before working on the front/garage door… OR just jump right in at the main door where you are experiencing the most jumping)
  • Open the door a teeny bit. If the dog jumps, shut the door.
  • Repeat until you can step through the door without your dog jumping up.
  • If he jumps on you, walk back outside and start again.
  • Whenever your dog keeps 4 paws on the floor, reward him (praise or treats-I find dropping treats on the floor helps drive the point home faster than when I deliver the treat to the mouth of the dog).
  • Practice this when you are home (not coming home from somewhere at first). Once your dog can do this really well just in a training session, then try to do it when you come home from being gone a short period of the time. Then practice it when you get home from longer trips away.

There is more tips and tricks – come back for more!

Behavior Problem: Jumping

Jumping is a common complaint owners give regarding their dogs.

This is a 2 part process:

  1. Don’t allow the unwanted behavior to pay off.
  2. Reward for behavior that is incompatible with the undesirable behavior.

Pay off may mean something different to you than to your dog. For instance, jumping is a behavior to get your attention, so even looking at your dog is a reward all in itself. Shouting, pushing, and even bringing your knee up into their chest is giving your dog attention.

THE BEST thing you can do is ignore, turn your body and walk away.

ALSO, you will need to reward for behavior that you want instead. Reward for 4 paws on the floor. Practice (with another person holding the leash, or your dog on a tie down) when you approach, click and treat (C/T) BEFORE your dog attempts to jump on you. Practice this a few times at home for a week or so.

Then take him to the park and practice there. If you have family or friends who are willing to help you, it would be great to get it generalized with as many people as you can because if you are the only one practicing with your dog, he will learn not to jump on you, but other people may be fair game.

We hope this helps you with curbing your dog’s bad habit of jumping 🙂

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