8 month old still jumping

[francesb]

Hi everyone
My 8 month old rotti bitch still jumps all over everyone - particularly visitors. I CAN'T let her near kids because she will flatten them. She's very excitable and over- friendly. She's been doing this since a small pup and I have tried everything (ignoring, water spraying, distraction) to discourage this but nothing works. She has gone through lots of training and is relatively obedient, but pushes her luck a lot. All the trainers say I should ignore jumping behaviour and turn my back on her, but this has never worked and the jumping is understandably irritating for visitors to have to deal with (she's a big dog now!!). I now keep her on a lead when visitors come, otherwise she is completely uncontrollable. But, she still doesn't calm down and I eventually have to put away in another part of the garden which doesn't solve the problem. Will she grow out of this excitable/exuberant stage or do I find another home for her?
Thanks, Frances

[Paxx]

I am moving this to Training.

------------------

[K9-man]

She’s at a wild age right now. She should out grow this exuberance but it could be a couple years. Now’s a good time to correct this behavior.

Put a choke or prong collar on her the next time a visitor comes over. When she starts to jump up on him/her give her a firm correction saying “no jump” or “off”. You may need to correct her firm enough to get yip out of her seeing that she’s been doing this for a long time. Consistency is the key. From now on jumping on people = correction. She’ll learn. Rotties are smart.

[Judi W]

And do this every time. Jumping up to greet people is great fun, and it will not go away overnight. Just keep your leash and collar by the door.

[DELILAHS MOM]

My Delilah is 5 months old and I have the same problem. She jumps on everybody and anybody, when I go to correct her to tries to bite me and I tell her no bite and she ignores me. It's very embarrassing when I have company and she just jumps on everybody. I can't even let me little 2 year old niece play with her because she's just to rough and I'm scared she'll hurt her. I need some suggestions please!

[syd]

my 11 month old female has that same problem! She is so lovable, but it is so embarrassing since I probably look like a real idiot trying to keep this dog who on its hind legs is almost my size. You might try using a shaker can that might startle her. I am so glad when i correct her she has never tried to bite. For the person who said she has that problem, you might try to squeeze her muzzle not too hard and look the dog in the eye and say firmly no bite.

[mscez]

I haven't tried this one myself, but this was suggested by my daughter's trainer:

Carry a small choke collar around in your pocket. When the dog jumps, toss the chain at the face. (Try to correct with a NO JUMP, too.)

The surprise and startled effect is supposed to make them stop. He demonstrated this technique with a dog during class -- one who was a known problem jumper. My daughter said it seemed to work -- at least for that particular man and that dog.

I've been keeping a choke collar with me since she told me about this technique. Usually it just stays in my pocket. I don't have it ready when the dog jumps.

(Seems I found the flaw in the plan, huh?)

Anyways--just another suggestion.

[SarasMom]

Since she jumps on everyone, I assume that means you too. Here's a solution that I 've found very effective.

When you girl jumps up on you, grab hold of her paws. Hold on tight for a few seconds. Don't pull! She will squirm, and maybe even cry out a little, but hold on for several seconds. Dogs hate to be restrained like this. If you have a big, strong, friend that doesn't mind helping you, they can do it too. One thing, very important- If your dog is a serious biter, do not try this. (not talking about puppy nips here)
My rescue, Kai, was a jumper when I got her, and she stopped within 3 days using this method.

[This message has been edited by SarasMom (edited November 05, 2000).]

[FredAl]

There are several ways to correct this behavior. One is to ask a friend to be your "guest" so you can induce the behavior and correct it. Make sure you attach a leash on her pinch collar before this exercise.

When your guest knocks and your dog goes near the door to greet him, command your dog to sit. Once she sits, step on her leash to inhibit her from jumping. Ask your guest to come in (since you're stepping on the leash, you can't go over the door to let him in). When your dog moves to greet him, she will be instantly corrected by the leash you're stepping on. Tell her No, and give her another sit command.

Your guest should just stand there calmly and not even give her any eye contact (initially). Only when she sits will she be praised and patted by you and your guest.

Do this a few times until she realizes that she gets the attention only when she sits and waits for it.

The key to understanding this behavior is that the dog has experienced pleasure and motivation in jumping up on people. This can be corrected through compulsion (punishment) and unpleasant experiences associated with the behavior.

Some of the suggestions will work, but the others might induce aggression from the pain or the punishment. The correction should be quick and effective that the dog will have no time to resort to another behavior but to stop his action at that instant (jumping up).

Kneeing the dog to fall back or stepping on his rear toes when he jumps up are methods that have also been employed to correct this behavior.

[gerald]

Hi,
My 11 month old Chewy does that alot when he was younger. But he stopped doing it now because my trainer gave me an advice that works for Chewy and maybe you might like to try it out.
Everytime when your doggie is about to pounce or jumping towards you or your visitors, Lift your knee up in an 90 degree angle and that will prevent him or her getting his/her paws on you.
It is best that you have to keep continuing doing it everytime your doggie pounce. The knee will block him/her from getting near to you and if he/she cannot get to you, he/she will give up because it sorts of blocks him/her from jumping on you. In this way, your doggie will not ruin your white colour clothing or your visitors clothing too ...
It is best if you can teach your visitors the tactic too so he will not pounce on them too. He/she will give it up in no time.
I hope this works for you.

Good luck

[luvarott]

Well said Fred!!
Dog can't jump if she is given the alternate behavior of sitting. You have to enlist enlightened assistants to get rid of the highly reinforcing behavior that she has already learned and that is so much harder than never having allowed it in the first place.
Behavior ignored is extinguished. No one pats or praises her (even inadvertently by squeeling etc. who really knows what reinforces a dog's behavior??). But she gets lots of praise and pats and cookies while in the sit. A good sit/stay is resistant to temptation, so what you really need is some more obedience training.
I detest the knee in the chest/squeeze paws type aversive training, especially in such a young untrained dog. Dogs jump up cus they are happy to see you and just don't know any better. Would you greet an overly friendly person with a slap in the face, figuratively speaking? Do you not think that those sort of aversive training techniques will have long lasting consequences in her relations to people??

[Dogfolks]

I agree with Fred - we also have the same problem with Linda and we ignore it and tell her to sit, when she does she is praised. Well, it's slow going and she still jumps up but it seems to be getting better. In all of her training we have used positive reinforcement, no pinch/choke collars, no stepping on paws, squeezing them or hurting her in any way. Not even with a rolled newspaper when she was being potty trained - and yes we have the alpha roll, I don't believe you need to use negative corrections with any dog. Only once did I shake her by her scruff because at 3 mos she would not stop antagonizing our 15 year old blue heeler, all it took was that one time ( I guess she was pretty surprised since that was the first time my husband or I had ever done any physical correction)

She is just 5 1/2 mos old now and starting her "adolescent" phase in that she sometimes refuses to obey but thankfully does not bite when she is corrected. We just keep reminding ourselves she will be going thru stages and that she is still a puppy regardless of her size.

Sorry this is so longwinded