Positive reinforcement – Delightful Dogs

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!

Make Learning A Regular Part Of Your Dog’s Life

Dogs are smart and always need something new to learn or at least build on a previous behavior.

A good place to start is focus on 10 min AM and 10 min PM for the 2 days that you’re off and have time to dedicate the time to teaching your dogs. Once they know multiple behaviors… then work 5 min AM and 5 min PM each day.

A list of behaviors to start with are:

Build On Your Dogs Success

Add new skills as your dog masters old ones.

Ex: When your dog sits every time you say “sit” in your bedroom, kitchen, and living room (etc), take it to the backyard and practice in the back yard, then front yard. Practice with different family members in different locations. Then take it to the park, Home Depot, a family or friends house… practice in as many locations as possible. Do this with all the behaviors your dog knows inside the house.

Then go back to your house and work on distance… can you tell your dog to “sit” from 5 feet away? 10 feet? 20 feet?? You may need to break this up by foot… start small, but figure out YOUR goals… how far away from you would you like your dog to respond and work towards that goal.

Work on each behavior in the same formula 🙂

Practice, Practice, Practice!

Practice often. If you can practice multiple times a day, GREAT! But I understand that many people work all day… if that is you, even 5 min in the am and 5 min in the pm is better than nothing.

Depending on your dogs attention span, you can work with him for 5 min or 30… or anything in between. The BEST thing tho is to keep it short, so he ends on a successful note.

Keep it Simple

We want to see your dog succeed in every training session… so make it easy. Lower distractions, up the value of the reward (especially in a new location).

Distractions- Always start out in a low distraction area (usually your home, in a room with no other people or animals). As your dog understands the behavior your teaching, you can up distractions, just know that sometimes behaviors fall apart in the beginning… just know this is totally normal. Just stay patient and don’t move too fast with the distractions.

Use Good Rewards

A reward is defined by the DOG, not the owner. Some dogs LOVE cherrios, other dogs won’t take it, they prefer cooked hot dogs.

Using food is a great way to TEACH behaviors, but once your dog knows the behavior, start mixing up the rewards, like; toys, walks, access to enjoyable things. Please see my blog on REWARDS. This is an extensive list on different rewards you can use during training.

Reward Good Behavior

This is especially true for new to you dogs. Keep treats out of reach for your dog around the house, so you can reward at any given moment. Anything you see your dog doing that is a behavior you want to see again, reward him/her for that behavior. You can use those treats you have on hand or you can say “good boy/girl”, give a gentle (calm) pat on the head, etc.

Ex: taking treats out when you take your dog out to potty, is a good idea so you can reward him for going in the place you want him to go.

Plan Ahead

Identify behaviors you want your dog to know – I have a list for each dog I own, that I want him or her to know. Then I plan what behavior we are going to focus on each session.

If I want to TEACH a NEW behavior, we focus on JUST that 1 per session. If we are practicing old behaviors then I’ll practice multiple behaviors.

It helps to write out a goal for each behavior so you know what you are working toward.