jumping rottie

[sin3589]

I am the proud mom of a seven month, 98 pound rottie male who loves to jump and greet you. I've tried to break him of this habit by using a technique suggested by his obidence teacher...grabbing his front legs and lifting him off the ground (after three months that got extremely difficult because of his weight). He did pass his first level obidence class but his one bad mark was the jumping.

Help!

[cpalenchar]

I would suggest you do a search on this subject (top right corner). There have been many methods posted on this subject.

My personal favorite is to withdraw any attention until the dog has all 4 feet on the ground. *Then* and only then pet the dog. These pets will almost certainly make the dog jump again so you have to be prepared to immediately withdraw attention again. Repeat this many times and I think you will find the dog will quickly stop jumping to get attention. Also, make sure everyone in your household, and those who visit your household work with the same rules. The dog should never be given attention while jumping on someone.

-chloe

[spidey]

I don't agree with the "hold the front legs" technique - it can train the dog to think that someone holding his legs/paws is a bad thing. I agree with chloe, dogs jump up because they want face-to-face attention, if you turn your back and completely ignore them until they have all four on the floor (as soon as you see they're getting ready to jump, turn your back on them), then praise them and give them attention ONLY when they have all four on the floor, most dogs learn pretty quickly that if they want attention, they can't jump up.

[Carina43]

Here's another vote for the method Chloe & Spidey describe, it works very well. I'd wonder about your trainer, if that's the best advice she can give you for a large young jumping dog....especially since it didn't work in three months! That should tell you something. :)

[alexav]

I'm surprised the trainer didn't tell you to step on his back feet or knee him in the chest!

I like to do a few sessions with a collar and leash. Hold the handle of the leash on your hand but loop just enough under your foot so that when the dog is on the upside of the jump, he corrects himself with perfect timing. Ideally, you should say "OFF" just before the correction happens. As soon as the lightbulb is flickering on, tell him to SIT. As soon as his butt is on the floor he gets lavish praise. Repeat as necessary.

A dog that learns to sit to be praised has a hard time jumping at the same time.;)

[Wrath]

Attention from hands (grabbing legs) and vocal attention (even yelling 'GET DOWN!') can be inadvertant positive reinforcment for jumping behavior. You've gotten solid advice from everyone and I can attest that it does work (we've used it for both our dogs). Ignore the jumping, cross your arms and turn your back and only return your attention when they have all 4 feet on the ground, then lavish the little furbabbies with pets, skritches, and doggerel praise. =)

Our rescue dog was VERY bad about jumping, it's taken us 2 months to break her of the habbit (mostly) but we haven't had to do anything more than what I outlined above.

[chuss]

Lift your knee and don't give attention, they soon work it out.

[alexav]

Originally posted by Wrath
... it's taken us 2 months to break her of the habbit (mostly) but we haven't had to do anything more than what I outlined above.

2 months, huh. I'm glad you have enough patience that you think that is successful.

Causing a behavior to extinguish and TRAINING for a more desirable behavior are two totally different things. I prefer, and recommend TRAINING rather than to just "ignore" the undesirable behavior and hope that the dog doesn't jump on Grandma and break her hip in the meantime. ;)

[MontanaRott]

Our trainer demo'd the method AlexaV mentioned in class on a really wild lab, 2 times, the 3rd time she had the owner "set up" the pup for a jump. NOTHING! It works. She has the woman and the pup do it every class and still no jump. 2 corrections in one class problem solved.

[Judy Chrusch]

Put him on a leash and stage an incident, works all the time. It may take a couple times but even if he attempts or looks like he's gonna jump, correct him with a quick snap and release. That of course will only work like that if you have the proper collar. Stay with it and be consistent and before you know it he won't jump:), but you can't let him do it sometimes and not others ;) .


If he's 98 pounds at 7 months, what will he be like at a year or two ?

Judy

[Judy Chrusch]

you have to know what you're doing if you use this method and also use a command right away such as, "OFF" or "DOWN":) . If you're not comfortable using this method then you'll have to find another that works for you.

Judy

[cpalenchar]

I would have to say I would go to alexav's method if the ignoring the behavior method didn't show results quickly.....

I personally favor the idea of letting the dog choose which behaviors to display and rewarding the right ones. with *my* dog this is extremely successful. but-- if it were not successful we'd be on to other methods.

another trainer recommends teaching the dog to sit when greeting someone. Idea being you train them to do a behavior that is completely incompatible with jumping. Have a solid "sit" first. Then set up a greeting and issue the sit command before they can jump. Idea being they will learn to associate greeting with sitting. Never tried it myself but makes conceptual sense. :)

-chloe

[MontanaRott]

Thats good advice too Chloe, that is what we did with Guerin off the bat, trained him to sit then when he comes up to us or strangers he had to sit. Now 90% of the time if he comes up to a stranger or us he sits before we even tell him too. He is gonna be a big boy and I sure as heck dont want him jumping on me, much less a kid in Petsmart!