Max is 1 years old and pulls like crazy on his leash; and what about the jumping up on people!? HELP

[Kathy (Max's Mom)]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and this is my first post. I've read a bunch of others and have gotten some good ideas so far. But here are my two main issues: leash pulling and jumping up on people.

To start, let me tell you my leash story...Max (1 yr old black male labradoodle) is a petite (sarcasm) 80 lb dog! He constantly pulls on his leash and i am hardpressed on how to get him to stop. He's gone so far as to take off running on me and jerked the leash forward that i crashed (and burned) in my driveway that i broke my elbow, fractured my hand and got a small concusion!! - but i love my dog! lol

I've tried stoping in place and all that does is focus his attention on what is around him....he hasn't figured out to come back to me or focus any attention on why we are stopped...I figure it's more of an opportunity for him to sniff everything in his reach. Secondly, trying the "other direction" thing doesn't work either for him as he just takes off running to catch up and sends me flying if i can't stop him. Now mind you, I am by no means a small person and it takes all my strength at times to hold him back on the leash when someone he knows is coming up the driveway....he pulls like a mac truck!! - he is quite strong! I'm concerned about putting harness's on him as i've heard that only gives him more strength to pull, but the regular collar he has on now he choaks himself to gagging to get to where he wants to go without stopping....and the pronged collars and shock collars scare me that he'll get hurt with them. PLEASE OFFER SOME SUGGESTIONS WITH PROVEN RESULTS - I'm desperate :-(

My last (well, not really last, but one that I NEED to get resolved before any others) is his habit of jumping up on people...my once scratch-free dining room table :( ...the counters....whatever really. It's sadly to a point that he has to be in his crate when company comes over because he can't be a ''good dog''. The rear-end sniffing of ladies in my church group is kind of embarrassing to I have to put him away for that too. Please note, he IS in his cage a lot....and I truly would LOOOOVE to get to a point where he can roam free all day when we're at work, but I don't see that happening any time soon! If I have the gate up to go upstairs for something, he's at my heels and howling at the bottom of the stairs because i'm out of his site...then he goes quiet (which is never a good sign cause we all know that leads to nothing good) which means he's up on my dining room table (and by that i mean two front paws not actually ON the table) sniffing around for stuff and grabbing anything he can reach.

Any thoughts?

Thank you everyone,
Kathleen :-)

[Kyoko]

HI, Kathy!
I also use Gentle Leader. Some times it can be cumbersome, but it works really nicely for me and Charlie.
But, I think most important thing besides the types of collar and harness we use, is to train your dog to walk on loose leash.
I wonder if Max has been to obedient class or anything? At the training we attended, they taught the dogs and us human both on this topic. Because we have to be able to walk them on the loose leash while they have to be able to walk on the loose leash. ( Confusing... sorry) It was very helpful. For the longest time, Charlie and I walked and walked, carring her breakfast kibbles in my pocket, couple of steps at the time. It required some patience and committment from me, but she now walks beautifully on the loosh leash.
Good luck! I know Max can learn it, too.

[Adina P]

It's simple: Train him. I say that with a smirk because although it's 'simple' it takes a lot of time. Training is a long process...it's not just teaching him what "sit" and "down" and "heel" means...but actually practicing a TON in many places, with various distractions and lots of repetitions with clear consequences and reward. It sounds like you might be fairly knew to training and if so you will benefit GREATLY from signing up for some excellent classes and doing all the homework and sticking to training till you've passed advanced classes (not just puppy classes, not just beginner, not just intermediate...but go to as high a level as is available). Too many people make the mistake of teaching their dog "sit" , etc....and once the dog shows it understands how to sit on command...they STOP there. But if that's as far as you go your dog will only sit on command in your house when nobody but you is there. Training a dog to be obedient in many situations (when guests come, when you pass a dog on your walk, when kids run up and want to pet him) then you have to put way more work than that.

[Kyoko]

I absolutely agree!!

[Denise, Winnie, and AngelAbby]

I use a prong collar on Abby - she really never pulled hard, but now she walks so nice - loose leash all the way. A few good tugs and she figured it all out. It is a great training collar - and they have one that clips on at PetSmart instead of taking a prong apart. An 80# dog out of control on a leash is a scary thought!! wow!! Abby was bad enough at 50#
The jumping on people? We have that problem also - we usually kennel her up for the first 5 minutes - but she is getting better at plopping down at their feet instead of jumping. We just keep telling her "down". They get so excited that they forget all the training. They are such people puppies! I'm hoping that maturity will help this issue, too. Abby is 15 months right now. I would love to have her be a therapy dog but I know that that won't happen as long as she is so excitable.

[Dan, Judi, & Timbow]

Other people have recommended this already on this thread, but we use the easy walk gentle leader harness too! It has worked wonders for Timbow (65# 1 year old goldendoodle)!!! I think it would be worth a try. :-)

[Holly Doodle]

I just found this discussion, but thought I'd add in my two cents :). We used treats to teach Holly to heal. We found training treats that she really liked, and we walked her before meals so that she was hungry. We held a small treat in our hand, where she could smell it. She willingly walked next to us without pulling just knowing we had a treat in our hand. Every so often we would give it to her and get out another one. At first we had to give her treats very frequently, then we slowly faded them to the point where she'd get 1 or 2 on a 40-45 min walk. Eventually she started to heel without even thinking about it, like it had just become a habit to walk by our side. We started doing this as soon as we got her at 3 months, and she's now 8 months so it's taken a long time to get where we are. She does very good on her walks now, we still bring treats along in case she's having a bad day which we do still have. She still pulls if we see children playing or other dogs, but we're working on that with corrections. Oh, and I use a regular 6 foot leash but wrap it loosely around my hand so she doesn't have much slack. It's loose, but if she starts to walk ahead at all she feels the tension immediately.

As for the jumping on people, the thing that helped us the most was a training session at Pet Smart. All of the workers in the store participated. They would walk up to her and of course she would jump on them. They would ask her to sit and as soon as she did give her a treat and pet her. If she didn't listen right away they would cross their arms and ignore her until she did. This is a great activity that you could do at your house as people come over, or even have a bunch of people over at once just to practice this. We also tell all of our guest not to look, talk or touch until she calms down. Now she's to the point where she gets very excited but quickly sits because she knows she'll get petted or get a treat when she does. Again it has taken 5 months of consistent training to get to this point and she's still not perfect! Hope this helps :).

[Pat & "Tucker"]

I use the Gentle Leader head collar ( not the harness). It's wonderful. I tried the prong collars with no luck.
Training is most important and taking classes, I think ,is the best rather than going by a book or video. The dog needs to know the heal command and be attentive to you. Lots of exercise!! Nothing more than everyone else is saying here. Being consistent is key. There are a few short clips at this web site
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/its-me-or-dog-difficult-dogs/
Watch "Dillon" and "Roxy". Just an example of what you can get to with consistent training.

[Ronnie & Emma]

my 10 weeks goldendoodle puppy.. has been jumping on counters and people. i used the off command and praise her afterward. im just hoping she'll get it eventually.

[Kathy (Max's Mom)]

yeah well, max is 16mos old now and he still hasn't "gotten it" - still working on it. he just gets so excited when people are here....but as far as the counter goes, i keep his treats in this one particular corner cabinet and he knows it, so he's forever jumping up and leaning on the counter as if he's gonna open it himself.....i'm like, yes max, i get the hint, you want a treat/toy. ha!

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Kathy, there's one very easy FIX to jumping on counters. I used this technique ONE TIME and Lucy hasn't jumped on the counters since! I put a handful of pennies in an empty Altoids tin and hid the tin behind my back, while waiting for her to jump on the counter. Once she jumped I shook the tin vigorously. It scared Lucy so bad she went running with her tail between her legs! Hasn't tried it since even though she knows there's lots of yummy things up on the counters (this was months ago!) We're still working on the jumping up on people. We tried dancing with her when she jumps, which helped for a while, and turning our backs to her and ignoring her. Which also helps. But its a work in progress and will take lots and lots of repetition and consistency. Teaching self control with STAY helps too, I think. I tell Lucy to SIT and STAY and then proceed to play with one of her balls or stuffed animals. I keep her in a STAY the entire time, then I throw the toy and insist on a STAY. Then I release her with an OKAY and she runs and gets the toy. Its amazing the amount of self control she's learned with this game.

Do try the Altoids tin technique for the counters, though. It sure worked for us!

[Carol McCasland]

I'm new to this group and have the same problem with my Cody. He's not quite 2, and loves to counter-surf. I have tried the pennies in a coke can for months. He will jump down when he hears it, but it doesn't stop him from doing it next time. Any other suggestions?
And thanks for the other tips on pulling and jumping up on people. Both are problems, but I know I cold solve these with the gentle leader and the turned back solutions. Just need to be consistent!

[Camilla and Darwin]

I will put in my recommendation for the Easy Walk Harness. Darwin didn't like the head halter at all, but he's fine with the Easy Walk. It has completely stopped his pulling while he is wearing it. It won't train the dog though. We still train Darwin on just his collar, so that some day, we won't have to use the harness. The Easy Walk is kind of an easy fix, but it is definitely a fix!