Hi everyone, My 5 month old used to be great at walking, would always be well behaved and never really pull. Lately, he has been jumping up at me randomly on walks and biting my arms and stomach. I'm really at my wits end it's making me not want to walk him which I used to enjoy so much ... he's really damaged my skin. Sometimes I can not even get him back home due to it and have to get a lift back from the park etc from family members. I've seen different advice online saying to just freeze up and stay still, which I did today but it's just made it worse my skin is completely broken and bleeding a lot. Please help if you know what I can do... He does not jump up at strangers or anyone else on walks just me. He also doesn't jump up at home - he is usually very well behaved. I thought he was maybe just getting over excited but he does it completely randomly and out of the blue. The only way to stop it is to get treats out and get him to sit and try to tempt him back home with them but I don't want to reward this behaviour!
Bailey went through this phase. It was when he was on lead and bored. All I could do was turn my back on him and keep doing it each time he jumped. He caught my arm and hand several times so I know how painful this is It was a phase and Bailey seemed to grow out of it - sorry not much help to you but I folded my arms so nothing for him to latch onto and turned my back on him - sometimes several times before he got the message and settled down.
We had this problem starting at about 5 months. We worked out it always happened in the same place, and he was scared of some other dogs that lived close by (lots of smells and noise). We started giving pieces of cooked boneless chicken thigh, every 5m or so when walking in that area. The problem got fixed in a couple of weeks. Does this jumping always happen in the same place/area?
I will try turning my back on him, thank you for the advice! I'm glad someone has gone through the same thing x Majority of the time it is in the same park but different areas in there... there have been occasions where he has jumped up just walking around the block. I can tempt him with treats which I end up doing to get him home. Thanks for your reply x
Hi @Rae, I had this with Cassie --back in the early summer, when she was 13/14 months old, so she was full grown and it was pretty horrid. I think it is a good idea to keep a note of when it happens and possible triggers. In the end what worked for us was no reaction at all, standing on lead so she couldn't jump, even then she nipped my ankles. I too posted on here and had lots of support and advice which helped so much. It is hard to ignore when they hurt, but I just had to wear stuff that meant less damage was caused, and stuck it out until she realised it was not a good, acceptable thing to do. Also I have done a lot more things on walks to help her focus on me all the way, on/off lead, hiding treats etc. Good luck
@selina27 thank you so much for your reply and glad I'm not the only one - it really is awful! I will try stepping on his lead and see how this goes. His lead is attached to his harness will it still have the same effect compared to if it was attached to his collar? Thanks again x
It's better on a flat collar really, you want it so that he can't jump up but not so it's too tight round his neck. I did consult a behaviourist and this was her advice, you have to persist until they get the idea. For Cassie, this worked rather than trying to distract her attention with toys or asking her to do something else, those things just escalated the situation.
@selina27 Yes I think with Tom it would escalate also as I really struggle trying to calm him down once he starts he definitely gets himself into a frenzy. I will try this when it next happens and on a flat collar, thank you again I really appreciate it!
I also had this problem with my dog when I got him at 7 months. Standing still and ignoring him worked for me - but really hard to do because I found he got more persistent and bit harder before he started to give up! Eventually he grew out of it. He tended to do it towards the end of the walk - maybe because he was tired or had too much stimulation. If that's the case for you, making your walks a bit shorter might also help.
@lucky_dog thank you for your reply. It does usually happen when Tom has been out for around 20 mins or so, I will shorten the walk to 15 mins and see what happens! Hoping he will grow out of it like yours did
