Jumping Up at Visitors

[BlueBear]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hello !

Blue is 9 months now and 50Kg. A big floof indeed and normally a calm and happy dog. We are still (after a year) renovating the house so tradesmen come and go all the time and need to walk past Blue to get into the hallway and up the stairs. Normally, Blue is fine but if either me or Bev enter the room with the tradesman and the dog, Blue starts jumping and mouthing, running through legs etc and being generally badly behaved.

If we leave Blue on his own with the builders he is usually quite calm and just lies on the floor watching people walk by.

I think that we have, (without meaning to) train Blue to misbehave like this with strangers. So far when I'm in the room with visitors I put him on his lead and control him (by sitting and rewarding) when he is good, but it's very hit and miss.

Is there something else I could try please ?

Thank you !

 

[JoanneF]

It's the sort of thing that takes time, and also remember you have to un-train a bad habit as well as train a good one, it will take even more.

I usually say to get the dog into a really well-rewarded sit, because he can't sit and jump.at the same time. It had to be really well rewarded because you need it to be his behaviour of choice, and that means your reward is competing with the fun and excitement of jumping.

However somebody I know suggested that when a dog is excited, a sit is a bigger ask than a more dynamic activity would be. Whatever activity you ask for, it would still need to be incompatible with jumping, but asking maybe for a spin clockwise then one anticlockwise before a sit might be more successful.

 

[BlueBear]

It's the sort of thing that takes time, and also remember you have to un-train a bad habit as well as train a good one, it will take even more.

I usually say to get the dog into a really well-rewarded sit, because he can't sit and jump.at the same time. It had to be really well rewarded because you need it to be his behaviour of choice, and that means your reward is competing with the fun and excitement of jumping.

However somebody I know suggested that when a dog is excited, a sit is a bigger ask than a more dynamic activity would be. Whatever activity you ask for, it would still need to be incompatible with jumping, but asking maybe for a spin clockwise then one anticlockwise before a sit might be more successful.

OK thank you. I'll give that a try, although I'll have to teach him to spin round first.

 

[JoanneF]

That's always a fun thing to train. Of course, it's only an example, you can train him to do anything along as he can't jump at the same time he is doing it.