Hello All, Brody is coming up to 6 months and recently since our holiday back in Scotland he has now developed a habit of jumping up at strangers he was so good up until then but now he is a real handful. No doubt we have reinforced it somewhere but any tips or tricks to train it out of him? As always, any advice is greatly appreciated! Stu
A good start is not to greet Brody until he is sitting quietly. If he jumps up turn your back on him/ignore him whichever you prefer and find easiest. He will soon offer a sit at which point you can make a big fuss of him. Once he's quiet when you return home, come down in the morning you can ask visitors to the house to do the same. if Brody jumps up, they ignore him/turn their back on him etc. once quiet he is rewarded by the attention. Brody should soon stop jumping but you do need consistency that no-one allows him to jump,up
Hi Stu, I know exactly how frustrating this is Mabel's 8 months now and she had stopped this completely apart from one couple. In a nut shell they reinforce the jumping with treats. I've offended them by telling them not to do it, they won't listen! at the end of the day she's my puppy and I don't want her doing it. Unfortunately since restricted exercise she has started jumping up at strangers. I've gone back to training no jumping as though I've never trained it before. (Frustrating as it often feels like 2 steps forward 1 back). Basically I politely ask people not to fuss her until all her paws are on the floor. Then she is allowed a fuss. If she is particularly bad e.g when my son comes home I'll drop treats on the floor which keeps her on the ground. Which focuses her on something else at the same time as being rewarded for 'paws down', I have also taught a counter cue, which is 'sit' 'watch me' I use this in a situation whereby someone may be on crutches or less mobile and wait until they had passed. It had worked she passed her KC Bronze after 3 lessons and no jumping is one of the criteria. I think the key is be consistent. I always think a cuddly puppy is no problem bouncing about but a fully grown Labrador is. Good luck, and I hope that helps a little.
Hi Stu, I'm trying to teach Ella some manners too! Like Mabel's mum (sorry, can't remember your name) I've found when we're out and about that most people ask if they can say hello (some just wander over and do what they like but that's another story) so I say yes but I'm working on stopping her jumping up so if she jumps do you mind not patting her. Some people look at me like I'm an alien but most are great and only too willing to help. She's still jumping at the moment so no guarantees that it will work but fingers crossed! Emily
This is a problem most Lab owners encounter. The are good looking dogs with a good reputation, what's not to like. I bought a bright blue lead with the word "Training" woven along the length of it. Most people got the message.
molly I had the green friendly lead, it made matters worse. I recently bought no dogs for after Mabel's surgery and some asked me if it was a trendy brand . The training one is a good one to have I like the idea of that. Emily my real name is Claire, Mabel's mum is just fine though
I adopted 3 strategies: 1) When off lead, it was easier to train my dog to stay away from people than it was to stop him jumping up when he was some distance from me. 2) When on lead, I have a knot in his lead at the right length (just long enough for him to stand comfortably but not get his paws off the ground more than 1inch) and if people approached us, I laid down his lead and put my foot dog side of the knot. He then could not jump up, no matter what the mad people did - I think it is pointless asking strangers to co-operate with your dog training, they always get it wrong. 3) I roped in helpers to walk towards him while I held him on lead and if he moved a paw upwards, they would walk backwards, if he kept still he got treats and people came to say hello. He soon learned that people approach only when there are 4 paws on the floor. He still does jump up time to time, but not all that often. Just be determined that he never, ever, gets to jump up and give him lots of treats for the right behaviour.
Thanks all for the advice. This will be our next steps adopting a "paws on the ground" mentality and try and treat. We also have friend that seem to encourage this behaviour so it's also a bit of training for them needed!
I am an awful person. Today my neighbour's one year old Golden Retriever was outside when I went to get in my car. He bounced over to me , all good humoured, then forgot himself and put his paws on my chest. And what did I do, this woman who has pleaded with people to ignore her dog when it jumps up? The idiot stroked him.
I have a friend who has a GR. When she was a puppy, she was a horror for jumping up, and he didn't want it for all the normal reasons but also because he's physically compromised, so couldn't have a full-grown GR jumping up at him, because she'd just push him straight over. He said that most people got the message, but this one Spanish girl was a nightmare. What made it worse was that she had looked after the dog a few times when she was very young, so the dog was really attached to her. Every time she encouraged the jumping up, my friend would tell her not to. Then, one day, they met in the street and this girl was dressed up top to toe in white, obviously on her way somewhere fancy. GR rushes up to her, to much frantic arm-flapping and "no, no, no, no, no!". The dog, having just come back from a walk, was suitable grubby. It did not end well. All my friend could do was shrug and say, "Well, you did encourage her..." Fast forward a few years to just the other day. He was sat outside on a bench in the sun and Willow ran up to him. She put her paws on him for a cuddle. He gave her lots of strokes and rubbed her ears. Me: "Willow, get off. Nigel, behave!"
You see, when it's not your dog and they jump up it just seems sensible to cuddle them back. Who cares if they jump up anyway.....
I feel your pain, Myles at 8 months is awful for this. i had to tell a neighbor to ignore him as he kept sticking his hands in Myles mouth, taunting and rewarding all kinds of lunging and jumping and obnoxiousness. So I finally told him, "it would help me a lot of you would ignore him until he's calm". He agreed. Fast forward a few weeks and Myles and I are on a walk. Neighbor sees us and is talking from afar. Then looks at Myles and says "Are you gonna be a good boy? Sittttt." So Myles sits for 1 millisecond then promptly gets up to resume obnoxious body wag/pull/lunge/jump (all at same time). Neighbor thinks his 1 millisecond of a sit was enough to reward him by letting Myles jump all over him and mouth him and he's just full on getting him all riled up. I just walk away thinking "great we just took 2 steps back". But in all seriousness, it's my fault. I haven't worked on with Myles on this with people willing to do what I say. He won't get past it until I find/hire people to practice with. Ugh. These labs, just so goofy and friendly!
Ah but it's so much better when you do it to someone else's dog . They should have trained their dog not to jump
