dog gets too excited
- Thread starter youngr51
- Start date
I'm sorry, I don't have any suggestions, because I'm in the same boat 
My mom has been the guinea pig that we have been practicing on. My dog does settle down after a couple of minutes and the new wears off, does yours? I was going to try to give her a treat when I tell her to get down and she does. The only problem is I have to make her get down, she doesn't do it on her own.
My mom has been the guinea pig that we have been practicing on. My dog does settle down after a couple of minutes and the new wears off, does yours? I was going to try to give her a treat when I tell her to get down and she does. The only problem is I have to make her get down, she doesn't do it on her own.
This may sound harsh but it isn't... And it doesn't harm the dog in the least.. Let your friends and visitors know ahead of time that you are trying to train your dog not to jump up on anyone.. If they could help you'd appriecate it... Ask them to raise their knee up so that when your dog jumps up it will stop them cause it applies pressure to their midsection.. It doesn't hurt the dog in anyway.. At the same time say no or down either one of these commands will work.. When your dog does as requested then offer a treat so they know that the right thing to do when greeting someone is to stay down.. Once they have gotten good with this and the treat then begin to cut back on the treats so that you give a treat everyother time. To eventually end up with only verbal praise and some petting... Hope this helps... It worked well with both of my shepherds... And they love to greet people... They everyone and want attention... But they have learned that they get just as much attention on the floor as they did trying to jump up on everyone.... lol
I have heard to try that, queennvisa. I'll give it a whirl, as long as it doesn't hurt her, I'll try it. I've also heard when a dog is getting ready to jump up on you to step forward and this "throws the dog off" of their jump (you don't necessarily even touch the dog, but it throws off their timing and aim).
A lot of people don't like the kneeing thing. How old is your dog? Old enough to learn down and stay? Time to teach it if it doesn't. New people in the house is a huge distraction for a dog so teaching a reliable down/stay and increasing the amount of distractions it can keep the position with is important, and will take time.
You could try leaving a leash on. When someone comes over, before they come in, take your dog and put it in a down position, then stand on the leash giving the dog just enough room to not be able to jump up. It won't take long for it to realize that jumping no longer works, and they will calm down after a couple minutes. I saw this work great on a dog in one of my obedience classes, he jumped all over the place, and the owner was told to stand on the leash, and the dog stopped jumping up all the time.
Have your guests ignore the dog completely. Once they are inside and the dog is calm, then they can approach it. If it doesn't get calm, it gets no affection. You'll be standing on the leash and he'll learn that being calm lets him have priviledges. Take the dog over to your chair, sit down, have the dog between your feet and stand on the leash until he calms down.
You could try leaving a leash on. When someone comes over, before they come in, take your dog and put it in a down position, then stand on the leash giving the dog just enough room to not be able to jump up. It won't take long for it to realize that jumping no longer works, and they will calm down after a couple minutes. I saw this work great on a dog in one of my obedience classes, he jumped all over the place, and the owner was told to stand on the leash, and the dog stopped jumping up all the time.
Have your guests ignore the dog completely. Once they are inside and the dog is calm, then they can approach it. If it doesn't get calm, it gets no affection. You'll be standing on the leash and he'll learn that being calm lets him have priviledges. Take the dog over to your chair, sit down, have the dog between your feet and stand on the leash until he calms down.
Good Lord people! Kneeing your dog in the chest is about as outdated an anti-jumping technique as there is. And sorry, you cannot state that `it does not hurt the dog at all'. How would you know? You are not the dog, you DON'T know, simple. DO NOT do that you will teach your dog to be apprehensive of strangers which is NOT what you want.
Stepping on the leash will stop your dog from physically being able to jump up but won't cure the underlying problem. These are band-aid solutions and if you want a reliable cure you have to address the reasons your dog is jumping up, not the behaviour itself. And do you want to get the dog's leash on every time someone comes over? Wouldn't you rather just have a dog that didn't jump, period?
Here is what you do. (And DanL has the right answer, by the way!) First, the dog is jumping up because that is how it greets people. It is a natural response and you need to understand it to work out how to stop it. You gotta think like a dog, not a person, to fix this.
Secondly, and I guarantee this is the case without even seeing your dog in action, you are positively reinforcing and rewarding this dog every time it jumps up. You are yelling `No!' or `Stop!' or `Sit down!' or `Get off!' every time the dog jumps. You are looking at it, talking to it (or yelling at it) - in essence, you are paying it a ton of attention. And why is the dog jumping in the first place? For attention. It is getting exactly what it wants and therefore you are reinforcing its behaviour every single time it does this.
Remember, to a dog, being yelled at or pushed or looked at or scolded or anything is attention. It just doesn't differentiate between good and bad attention - its ALL attention. You telling off your dog for jumping is actually rewarding it for jumping.
This is what you do. Every single time you come into the dog's presence after a period of being away - even if only in another room for a minute - you ignore the dog completely. And by completely I mean COMPLETELY. No pat, no sound, no eye contact, no anything at all. Most people fall down in this part because they cannot bear not to greet their dog. This is vital to your success though. Go about your business. Make a cup of tea. Call a friend. Get on the computer. Your dog IS NOT THERE as far as you are concerned.
It will do anything to try and get you to notice it. It will jump, it will stand in front of you, it might bark. Remember, as far as you are concerned it is not there. NO attention at all. Even if you have to turn your back on it to avoid its efforts. Eventually (and this varies with different dogs, and particularly if they've been getting attention all the time for a long time) the dog will give up and go lay down to think about what just happened. That is your cue. Call the dog to you (do NOT go to your dog) and give it a calm cuddle, nice words and eye contact. If it arks up again, ignore it again.
This will take about a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. Everybody who comes in contact with the dog MUST do this or it all goes out the window. And it must be done EVERY time you come back in contact with the dog after any period of absence.
If you have guests and the dog is going nuts and they are completely ignoring it, you can put it in another room until it settles down - again, no eye contact and no speaking.
Pretty soon the dog will cotton on to the fact that unless it is calm, quiet and peaceful it will get ignored and no attention whatsoever. Its hard to do and its even harder to do properly, and you may have to do it for a few months for it to really sink in, but as time goes by you will need to spend less and less time ignoring your dog on first sight and you will have a happier, calmer more peaceful dog with much better manners!
It took two days for this technique to work on Ruby - the dog that was so bad people just stopped coming over to our house. It works, it fixes the underlying problem, it does so in a way a dog can relate to and understand, and it does not physically harm or correct the dog in any way.
Stepping on the leash will stop your dog from physically being able to jump up but won't cure the underlying problem. These are band-aid solutions and if you want a reliable cure you have to address the reasons your dog is jumping up, not the behaviour itself. And do you want to get the dog's leash on every time someone comes over? Wouldn't you rather just have a dog that didn't jump, period?
Here is what you do. (And DanL has the right answer, by the way!) First, the dog is jumping up because that is how it greets people. It is a natural response and you need to understand it to work out how to stop it. You gotta think like a dog, not a person, to fix this.
Secondly, and I guarantee this is the case without even seeing your dog in action, you are positively reinforcing and rewarding this dog every time it jumps up. You are yelling `No!' or `Stop!' or `Sit down!' or `Get off!' every time the dog jumps. You are looking at it, talking to it (or yelling at it) - in essence, you are paying it a ton of attention. And why is the dog jumping in the first place? For attention. It is getting exactly what it wants and therefore you are reinforcing its behaviour every single time it does this.
Remember, to a dog, being yelled at or pushed or looked at or scolded or anything is attention. It just doesn't differentiate between good and bad attention - its ALL attention. You telling off your dog for jumping is actually rewarding it for jumping.
This is what you do. Every single time you come into the dog's presence after a period of being away - even if only in another room for a minute - you ignore the dog completely. And by completely I mean COMPLETELY. No pat, no sound, no eye contact, no anything at all. Most people fall down in this part because they cannot bear not to greet their dog. This is vital to your success though. Go about your business. Make a cup of tea. Call a friend. Get on the computer. Your dog IS NOT THERE as far as you are concerned.
It will do anything to try and get you to notice it. It will jump, it will stand in front of you, it might bark. Remember, as far as you are concerned it is not there. NO attention at all. Even if you have to turn your back on it to avoid its efforts. Eventually (and this varies with different dogs, and particularly if they've been getting attention all the time for a long time) the dog will give up and go lay down to think about what just happened. That is your cue. Call the dog to you (do NOT go to your dog) and give it a calm cuddle, nice words and eye contact. If it arks up again, ignore it again.
This will take about a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. Everybody who comes in contact with the dog MUST do this or it all goes out the window. And it must be done EVERY time you come back in contact with the dog after any period of absence.
If you have guests and the dog is going nuts and they are completely ignoring it, you can put it in another room until it settles down - again, no eye contact and no speaking.
Pretty soon the dog will cotton on to the fact that unless it is calm, quiet and peaceful it will get ignored and no attention whatsoever. Its hard to do and its even harder to do properly, and you may have to do it for a few months for it to really sink in, but as time goes by you will need to spend less and less time ignoring your dog on first sight and you will have a happier, calmer more peaceful dog with much better manners!
It took two days for this technique to work on Ruby - the dog that was so bad people just stopped coming over to our house. It works, it fixes the underlying problem, it does so in a way a dog can relate to and understand, and it does not physically harm or correct the dog in any way.