Be Your Dog's Best Friend
Module 4- Section 2
Module 4- Section 2
PREVENTING JUMPING UP
Preventing Jumping Up
“a problem that the majority of my clients report that their dogs as being guilty of, but they do not see it as a major issue” John Fisher
The reason that puppies jump up goes back to their natural behaviour – as the mother approaches, the puppy will jump up as a greeting and request food. The pup is actually not jumping up; rather it is standing on its rear legs and putting the paws on the mother or person.
When our little ball of fluff is just that, it is lovely to be greeted in that way – but what happens when our little ball of fluff grows up to weigh 50 kgs or more? If you think about it, we encourage the behaviour of greeting us by allowing jumping up, and then cause total confusion to the pup when it gets a bit older and when one day we decide it is no longer acceptable, or if we are wearing a pair of white trousers.
Prevention
The easiest way is prevention, which is better than cure. Simply don’t allow your puppy to jump, get him into the habit of calling him and then getting him to sit in front of you. This is especially important if your puppy is going to grow to a large size. Even if your pup is not going to be large, it is still a good habit to get into as it stops dogs jumping on us when you have work clothes on or an armful of shopping or if there is a small child or elderly person visiting or staying with us.
Inadvertently Reinforcing the Behaviour
Many owners, inadvertently, make the problem worse by shouting or screaming ‘no’ at the pup. If the owner is a bit volatile they may excite the dog even more resulting in more of the undesired behaviour. Remembering that attention is attention to a dog, whether positive or negative, will give you an idea why this keeps on reinforcing the behaviour. Another reason that owners can reinforce this behaviour is by being inconsistent and sometimes allowing it, and at other times not.
One of the main reasons that dogs continue to jump up is because one member of the family allows it. With training, you have to be consistent, no means no, not maybe, or this time it’s ok. So please talk to all the members of the family, and friends, and ensure everybody plays their parts accordingly or else you will end up with a situation whereby the pup does not jump on you, but still does it to the other family members and visitors.
Intermittent Rewarding
Dogs work harder on an intermittent reward training system. This is simply because the dog does not know when the reward will be forthcoming, so it keeps on trying. Now if we look at the situation whereby an owner will greet a pup sometimes when it jumps up to greet, but other times will have on white trousers or an armful of shopping etc, the owner then shouts at the dog – the pup is totally confused and because it has not been taught an alternative behaviour, the pup will just keep on trying harder to get the reward of being greeted by the owner simply by continuing to jump up. We have a bad habit of telling our dogs what we don’t want, but seldom tell them what we do want!
Changing or Training the Pup not to Jump
The easiest and simplest way to teach a dog not to jump is to start preventative measures when it is a pup. Using the ‘work to earn - specific’ method.
We are going to use as much of the pups daily rations of food as possible to stop any unwanted behaviour. A good example of this is the pup that has already ended up with the habit of jumping up at people. Even through the ignoring pup when arriving home will assist with stopping the jumping up behaviour, often a little more is called for especially when the behaviour has already become an ingrained habit and this is where the Work to Earn - specific can be used.
For an example with a pup that is already jumping up, the owner feeds very little in the bowl, rather during the course of the day you use as much of the pups daily ration of food as possible and all they do is the following:-
This exercise to be done by all members of the family and remember that children may form part of a family. Where children are concerned, the parents would start with the work and have the pup proficient in the exercise, then show the child how to do same under supervision and by standing next to the child while demonstrating the exercise - next step would be that parent is close by and supervises child doing the exercise. As a matter of interest with children they have the tendency to lift their hands up very quickly while doing the hand signal which results in the pup jumping up to follow the hand with the food - just to be aware of this.
Once the pup was totally proficient in this exercise, fading would begin - notes are given on Fading in another section. With pups, we would suggest doing this exercise for at least a few days before Fading.
Jumping on Visitors
Another time when pups tend to get over excited and jump all over people is when visitors arrive, and having read all the notes on dog language now, you will understand that if a pup that normally never jumps up starts to do so when visitors arrive – the pup is not coping – it has gone into F=fooling around mode!
A way to easily stop this from becoming a habit is to invite several people over who arrive within about 30 minutes of one another which you have already told to please pay no attention to the pup at all – this is a training exercise. This is termed Visitor Exercise for Pups.
Have your pup on lead when you answer the door with treats in your hand or pocket. Holding onto the lead, ask your pup for a sit and reward. The chances are, initially; that the pup will not do this, so kneel down, lure the pup into a sit and reward, both with a treat and with your voice “good sit, good dog’. The pup has no idea of what to do or what you expect from it – therefore you are training the behaviour you do expect – the pup may even momentarily have forgotten what the ‘sit’ cue means as it is over excited or can’t cope.
Do this several times. During this time your visitor is paying no attention to what is going on and is not talking or interacting with the pup, and when the pup is sitting let the visitor give the pup a treat. At this stage, hold onto the pup by slipping a finger through the collar. If it stands up, just repeat the lure exercise and sit the puppy again. Your visitor will now walk into the lounge (you still have the pup on lead). You sit for a few minutes with the pup next to you in the sit position, and then the visitor calls the pup, asks for a sit, gives the reward, and then the owner calls the pup back and repeats the process. This same process is repeated several times with the same visitor going in and out the door, starting at the beginning each time.
Once the pup is proficient in this exercise, next step is to do it without a lead. We find that with a lot of pups, what gets them excited/not coping, is that the person offering the food will lean over the pup, so ask them to ask the pup to sit, then offer the treat without bending over the pup.
Don’t get despondent if the behaviour seems to get worse, this is called an extinction burst – a bit like a child throwing a temper tantrum, it will get better, just be patient. As soon as you have the puppy with all four feet on the floor, you can then progress to getting the pup to sit in front of you.
Another Exercise to Bring In
Another great way to train is for the whole family to take the dog’s daily rations and stand in a circle and call the pup from one to another requesting a Sit each and every time. This not only improves the Jumping Up, you are also working towards a great Recall!
“a problem that the majority of my clients report that their dogs as being guilty of, but they do not see it as a major issue” John Fisher
The reason that puppies jump up goes back to their natural behaviour – as the mother approaches, the puppy will jump up as a greeting and request food. The pup is actually not jumping up; rather it is standing on its rear legs and putting the paws on the mother or person.
When our little ball of fluff is just that, it is lovely to be greeted in that way – but what happens when our little ball of fluff grows up to weigh 50 kgs or more? If you think about it, we encourage the behaviour of greeting us by allowing jumping up, and then cause total confusion to the pup when it gets a bit older and when one day we decide it is no longer acceptable, or if we are wearing a pair of white trousers.
Prevention
The easiest way is prevention, which is better than cure. Simply don’t allow your puppy to jump, get him into the habit of calling him and then getting him to sit in front of you. This is especially important if your puppy is going to grow to a large size. Even if your pup is not going to be large, it is still a good habit to get into as it stops dogs jumping on us when you have work clothes on or an armful of shopping or if there is a small child or elderly person visiting or staying with us.
Inadvertently Reinforcing the Behaviour
Many owners, inadvertently, make the problem worse by shouting or screaming ‘no’ at the pup. If the owner is a bit volatile they may excite the dog even more resulting in more of the undesired behaviour. Remembering that attention is attention to a dog, whether positive or negative, will give you an idea why this keeps on reinforcing the behaviour. Another reason that owners can reinforce this behaviour is by being inconsistent and sometimes allowing it, and at other times not.
One of the main reasons that dogs continue to jump up is because one member of the family allows it. With training, you have to be consistent, no means no, not maybe, or this time it’s ok. So please talk to all the members of the family, and friends, and ensure everybody plays their parts accordingly or else you will end up with a situation whereby the pup does not jump on you, but still does it to the other family members and visitors.
Intermittent Rewarding
Dogs work harder on an intermittent reward training system. This is simply because the dog does not know when the reward will be forthcoming, so it keeps on trying. Now if we look at the situation whereby an owner will greet a pup sometimes when it jumps up to greet, but other times will have on white trousers or an armful of shopping etc, the owner then shouts at the dog – the pup is totally confused and because it has not been taught an alternative behaviour, the pup will just keep on trying harder to get the reward of being greeted by the owner simply by continuing to jump up. We have a bad habit of telling our dogs what we don’t want, but seldom tell them what we do want!
Changing or Training the Pup not to Jump
The easiest and simplest way to teach a dog not to jump is to start preventative measures when it is a pup. Using the ‘work to earn - specific’ method.
We are going to use as much of the pups daily rations of food as possible to stop any unwanted behaviour. A good example of this is the pup that has already ended up with the habit of jumping up at people. Even through the ignoring pup when arriving home will assist with stopping the jumping up behaviour, often a little more is called for especially when the behaviour has already become an ingrained habit and this is where the Work to Earn - specific can be used.
For an example with a pup that is already jumping up, the owner feeds very little in the bowl, rather during the course of the day you use as much of the pups daily ration of food as possible and all they do is the following:-
- Call pup, request a Sit - praise and reward with one piece of kibble
- Take a few steps away and repeat
This exercise to be done by all members of the family and remember that children may form part of a family. Where children are concerned, the parents would start with the work and have the pup proficient in the exercise, then show the child how to do same under supervision and by standing next to the child while demonstrating the exercise - next step would be that parent is close by and supervises child doing the exercise. As a matter of interest with children they have the tendency to lift their hands up very quickly while doing the hand signal which results in the pup jumping up to follow the hand with the food - just to be aware of this.
Once the pup was totally proficient in this exercise, fading would begin - notes are given on Fading in another section. With pups, we would suggest doing this exercise for at least a few days before Fading.
Jumping on Visitors
Another time when pups tend to get over excited and jump all over people is when visitors arrive, and having read all the notes on dog language now, you will understand that if a pup that normally never jumps up starts to do so when visitors arrive – the pup is not coping – it has gone into F=fooling around mode!
A way to easily stop this from becoming a habit is to invite several people over who arrive within about 30 minutes of one another which you have already told to please pay no attention to the pup at all – this is a training exercise. This is termed Visitor Exercise for Pups.
Have your pup on lead when you answer the door with treats in your hand or pocket. Holding onto the lead, ask your pup for a sit and reward. The chances are, initially; that the pup will not do this, so kneel down, lure the pup into a sit and reward, both with a treat and with your voice “good sit, good dog’. The pup has no idea of what to do or what you expect from it – therefore you are training the behaviour you do expect – the pup may even momentarily have forgotten what the ‘sit’ cue means as it is over excited or can’t cope.
Do this several times. During this time your visitor is paying no attention to what is going on and is not talking or interacting with the pup, and when the pup is sitting let the visitor give the pup a treat. At this stage, hold onto the pup by slipping a finger through the collar. If it stands up, just repeat the lure exercise and sit the puppy again. Your visitor will now walk into the lounge (you still have the pup on lead). You sit for a few minutes with the pup next to you in the sit position, and then the visitor calls the pup, asks for a sit, gives the reward, and then the owner calls the pup back and repeats the process. This same process is repeated several times with the same visitor going in and out the door, starting at the beginning each time.
Once the pup is proficient in this exercise, next step is to do it without a lead. We find that with a lot of pups, what gets them excited/not coping, is that the person offering the food will lean over the pup, so ask them to ask the pup to sit, then offer the treat without bending over the pup.
Don’t get despondent if the behaviour seems to get worse, this is called an extinction burst – a bit like a child throwing a temper tantrum, it will get better, just be patient. As soon as you have the puppy with all four feet on the floor, you can then progress to getting the pup to sit in front of you.
Another Exercise to Bring In
Another great way to train is for the whole family to take the dog’s daily rations and stand in a circle and call the pup from one to another requesting a Sit each and every time. This not only improves the Jumping Up, you are also working towards a great Recall!
