Hi,

I was looking at the forum and someone had talked about their poor dog getting kicked and the general abuse that went along with their dogs behaviour. It has worried me somewhat.

Luna is now about 7 months old and adorable. She hasn't a bad bone in her body and is taking to training very well. However she is VERY FRIENDLY. She loves to greet everyone she meets and jumps up at them. Now I know she is just trying to 'kiss' them and people thought it very cute when she was small, although we did say to many not to encourage her. But now she is alot bigger and I am concerned she will meet someone who would not understand.

I certainly wouldn't want a large dog racing and jumping up on me so the question is how do I stop her from doing it.

If I spy people in time I try to get her on the lead so as to have control over her excuberance but sometimes she spots them first. Most of the time she will come when called but it is that ONE time that scares me.

She just loves everyone and I would hate to think I would be enhancing the view that our dogs are dangerous.

Faith, Moray

I understand your concern. The best way is to teach here that she may not run to people and jump. And yes that is easier said than done. I think the best way to start is at the training. Ask some to help you whit that and if she's jumping to them that they puss here away. Or a bit harder technique is to pull op your knee(only pull it up nothing else,just hold the knee still) and if she jumps on them then she will jump on the knee and she wont find that pleasant so after a few times hopefully she stops

I say hopefully because in some cases they can be very stubborn and hard on themselves( I have one like that )

Okay, I don't claim to be a dog trainer but this is a good way to teach not jumping up, and has worked on our dog:
(and this is straight from "The Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training")
"Avert your eyes and turn sideways as she's about to jump-you can always see the signs in their little eyes or in their bodies! If you miss the signals and the dog jumps, still turn sideways to deflect the dog. Then once she has four on the floor, wait passively for five seconds and ask her to 'sit' and then reinforce.

you can also walk slowly away (a calming signal and reinforce the dog for staying on the ground. throw treats on the floor to further reinforce that 'down there' is better.

become a tree stump. don't move. after all, how reinforcing is a tree stump? don't look at the dog and don't talk to the dog or push her away. trees don't have eyes, ears mouths or arms. just stand there. she'll eventually get down. wait for five seconds, ask her to 'sit' and then reinforce.

teach the dog to jump on cue by encouraging her to jump and saying 'up' when she does. give her a quick pet and murmur 'good'. then look away and become a stump. When you feel the dog get off, say 'off' and have a party! Give her the jackpot of her life--tons of food, calm petting , praise, and lots of attention. (jackpot is treat, treat, treat...one after another--not bunches all at once.) repeat a billion times. she'll soon learn that the reward for not jumping is infinitely better than the reward for jumping.

teach the dog to 'go visit'. 'go visit' means that on your cue only, the dog goes up to the person you're pointing to and lies down!

If your dog jumps wildly on people coming to the door, make the doorbell a cue to go to her crate. Or teach the dog that a person approaching is a cue to sit or lie down, and heavily reinforce it.

and one last one...can't remember where I read it...

have a dog training party where you invite friends over to help. Ask your guests to each arrive 5 minutes apart (or wait outside). have each person ring the bell, and go through the training with your dog to not jump up on the new guest. Teach to sit at the door, well back from the door and treat when she does this. After about 20 minutes of this activity, and all the new people coming in your dog should get bored and the lesson should sink in.

hope this helps. I have to disagree with kneeing your dog in the chest...sorry

Disclaimer: I don't claim to be a dog trainer either! The techniques I'm detailing in this post is what worked for "my" dog and her jumping problem. (Now, she has a slight mouthing problem even though she's nearly 2 years old.) I tend to be verbose...sorry.

coyotegyrl wrote:

I have to disagree with kneeing your dog in the chest...sorry

I must agree with this part as well for the sole reason the dog may hurt itself in the process - in the chest/head; sorry, but I think it is not much different than kicking a stationary dog with a little bit of force. A certain person I know (whom I will not name their relation) tried kneeing Abby ("my" yellow lab) to get all 55lbs of her to stop jumping at them. I strongly discouraged it, but this individual is a stubborn one and does not take well to advice. Eventually, it took a private trainer to get this one resolved with our lab. She doesn't jump as much anymore and if Luna is one of those individuals who will jump relentlessly as our dog used to, then no amount of sidestepping away or turning away from the dog will stop him/her from giving you a good (unwanted) scratch/nail massage on your backside, arms and legs. The technique that worked with Abby is walking into her in a confident, assertive stride...it was very difficult to ignore her enthusiasm and cuteness, but I guess the idea of 1 foot welts from scratches on the skin (and highly possible bruises) triumphed. Haha. If the person who the dog is jumping on can read the body language and step into the dog's path right as she's jumping or preparing to jump to throw her off balance, then great. Otherwise, step close enough to her in to soften the blow to yourself - you want her paws to land on you with as less impact as possible (if she uses your body as a spring board, be prepared. it will hurt a little bit as the nails dig in a tad.) Even if she already has her 2 front paws on you, don't look her in the eye; raise either arm and point to a direction behind her but away from other people/distractions perpendicular to your body and say (not yell!) in a gruff manner, "Off" or "Back off". Your arm will make yourself look bigger and it'll serve to give her the impression that you're towering over her. By pointing in a direction, you use your body language to tell her which direction she should go. Finally, by avoiding eye contact completely while she is jumping and before she has gotten off of you, you deny her the attention she wants. Plus, don't look at the dog until she can greet you with all four paws on the floor nicely. If you absolutely need to look at a certain object, then pick one in the direction where you want the dog to go. If it is a dog that responds well to your body language, then he/she will follow both your gaze and your hand gesture. Repeat this as many times as possible. With this technique, you not only reclaim your space, you also discourage the jumping behavior - much like the tree stump analogy. Haha.

Another technique to couple with the one described earlier will only work if the dog is on a leash with enough slack for her to try to jump, but her front legs will not be completely off the ground. I find this a little bit forceful and I tend to avoid this one as much as possible as it involves what the trainer calls a "self correct". You step on the leash giving the dog enough slack to jump up partially, but not completely - you want to entice her to jump on you but not fully allow it - she'll be stopped short by restriction on the leash you're stepping on and the collar/harness that the dog is wearing. This one is a little bit difficult for me to describe, but I more or less summed it up in the beginning of this paragraph. Just stand there on the leash and wait until she stops trying to jump. The only trick is to step on the leash and actually staying on it before the dog jumps - if possible, get someone else to help you step on the leash. The dog may quite possible be smart enough to try to get the person stepping on the leash to stop by shoving their leg, but stand your ground - think: I'm just an immovable object that's on your (the dog) leash OR just act like you don't know you're standing on the leash.

I hope this helps! Oh yes...rule of thumb: stay calm! If you get scared/frustrated/anythingbutcalm when the dog jumps at/on you, then you've lost in terms of confidence. Don't be afraid of the dog, maintain a calm assertive demeanor. To attempt to achieve this, repeat this mantra: "Dog will not jump on me. I won't allow it." Be more stubborn than the dog...you just have to be. If you're a stubborn person by nature - even better.

I have to admit I have never had the problem of my dogs jumping up on me as all I say is a loud no and they all scurry off to the settee and just sit and pant at me.
However I have used the knee approach when going into other peoples houses who have jumpy dogs as ignoring them and turning sideway does not work on them at all.
I will put my knee forward to discourage jumping then lean down to the dog and hold it by the collar and stroke it on the floor in a sit or stand position, then let go and stand up, if the dog jumps up again I will give it a firm no, get hold of the collar and repeat the process until he/she calms and you can let go of the collar without him/her jumping up. Of course none of my friends ever keep this training up and so when I return to visit weeks later I have to do the whole thing again.

None of these dogs ever looks upset after I have raised my knee, I am not 'kneeing them in the chest' mearly forming a barrier between myself and the dog and causing the dogs attention to be diverted from jumping up and down and give me time to lean down and grab the dog by the collar without having my face and chest scratched as well. Of course some dogs are so highly strung that they will ignore the knee and move around to jump on your back instead.