Jumping on people and barking

[Nadia]

Hi all.....I would like Bentley to stop jumping on people when they come to the door or just come in the house. How do I go about training him not to do that. I also would like him to stop the constant barking when someone knocks or rings the doorbell. I'm not sure how to approach those two problems. Any suggestions would be a great help :)
Oh and Bentley is 11 1/2 months old.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I came in to read the answers....alas....there are none yet!  I resort to the "Sit" and "Shhhhh!!!!"  command a lot when Kona won't listen to "Down" and it works about 75% of the time, but I'm open to cementing "down" better! 

 

As for the barking....Kona waited until about 10 months old to start barking for attention.  The coins in the can trick didn't work on him when he was really young, but with this new round of barking, he is FINALLY starting to stop barking to see why there is the obnoxious coin sound.  It's only been about a week, but I would say that it is cutting back the durations by over 70 % and cutting back on the initiation of new barking episodes by about 30%...still some work to do, but at least he if finally being interrupted by the shaking coins in a can.  (I actually use a hard plastic empty vitamin bottle with lots of coins in it)    The last 3 days, it is even working to get him to stop when he is in another room and I catch it immediately.  That one stunned me!  When the mailman came and he was on his window sill perch, he did his usual loud fit which is usually followed by running to the door and jumping and trying to open the door and then destroying the mail that goes through the slot.  But for 3 days now, even with him in the living room in the window and me in my office or bedroom, I shake the can the second he starts barking at the mailman and he actually stops!  And he doesn't run to the door.  When I peek in on him, he is standing up staring in an alert pose on the window sill, but not barking and not jumping at the door.  So there is progress.  And note that I haven't even mentioned his adopted sister Maggie who has been with me since late July.  She was a barker, but I corrected her once with a spray of compressed air (sounds like a snake to them) and she immediately stopped, went to her bed, and hasn't barked since!  Some dogs are much easier to train than others!  (Kona loves the sound of the compressed air and comes towards it for more, so it was completely useless on him)

[Nadia]

I will definetly try the coins. Hopefully it works. Maybe it will even help with the jumping.....I will keep you posted. Thanks!! :)

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I will definitely be making about 3 more of my noise maker "coins in the can" to have around the house because I forget to carry it around and it's less effective if it's not immediate.  You want them to believe that the initiation of the barking or jumping is what is causing the obnoxious noise. And the stopping of the behavior is what is stopping the noise.  It's best of they don't associate it with your hand so I try to be sneaky with it when possible. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

My first question is what overall obedience training have you done with Bentley and what method did you use?  I think it's important to be consistent in your approach.  With the jumping you need to teach him what you WANT HIM TO DO INSTEAD.  I want my Doods to lie down in the living room (not the foyer where people are entering) and wait until I release them to calmly greet the visitor, so I have taught them to have a reliable down/stay.  If I know people are coming I put them in that down/stay in advance of their arrival.  If I don't know I don't open the door until the dogs are placed in their "down".  As to HOW to teach that reliable down/stay it will depend on the methodology you are using for training in general.  Make sense?

I think the barking when visitors arrive will take care of itself once you teach the "down/stay" for visitor arrivals.  Once my dogs are in a "down" command they do not bark....it's kind of like the command itself implies that they need to lie there in a calm state of mind.

[Shanen Sadowski]

I should really post this as a new discussion but I would suggest checking out "Sharon Lesner" or "Serenity Farm" on youtube.  This woman does an amazing job training and her videos make it simple.  There's one in particular "basic distraction work" that addresses this more.  I know there was another one out there but I can't find it now! 

Personally, I'd use the "On your bed" (Or "Kennel") command to have her go to a spot and wait to be called over, then have guests wait until she sits before petting.  I ask my neighborhood kids to help with this.  They BOTH love it. :)

[Nadia]

We use go to place ( the ottoman) and he goes....but only for about a second. He gets so excited when people are here or at the door that it seems he can't contain himself.
The coins sound seems to work 70% off the time with the barking. We have only tried this for about 2 days.
I have no idea what we are going to do for Halloween and the trick or treaters.

[BG and Gavin]

I agree with Jane's method above.  For Halloween I would put him in his crate somewhere out of the way.  I think it is too soon to expose him to the onslaught of door traffic and you would not want him to practice the negative behaviour when you will not be in a position to enforce the rules.  Give him a nice stuffed kong or something else to chew on.  My rule of thumb is always to try and give a competing response - show him what you want him to do instead of the negative behaviour (you can't jump if you are sitting, you can't bark if you have something in your mouth).  I know of a dog owner who distracted her dog with his favorite toy and now when the door bell rings, her dog runs to get his toy.

[Lynda Kamrath]

My jumper is three years old and we have still not broken him of the habit.  We put the dogs down in the dog run when we have company but Harpo has also learned how to open the gate (hits the latch with his paw) and it is the old "Who let the dogs out?"  Yesterday, his exuberance came in handy, however, when a lady was driving slowly up our road while I was out walking Harpo.  She was stopped and I asked her if she was looking for somebody and she said she was trying to get her dog but every time she got close he would run away.  I asked if she would like Harpo to help and she said sure.  We could see her dog about 50 feet up the road, so I told Harpo "Let's play" and he got all excited and down in the play stance and her dog came running.  We were all jumping around and playing and she got his collar and a leash on him.  Harpo settled right down after they left in the car.  So, it does come in handy once in a while.  He definitely knows the down command, but sometimes he just can't resist jumping on another dog or friendly person.  He just gets so excited that somebody is there to play with him.