Remedies Needed for Jumping UP

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

My husband and I are about at our wit's end with Lucy's jumping up this past week. Ever since last week's Puppy Romp, where Lucy got TONS of attention for her jumping up on people, she's been just terrible. We cringed when we saw how much love and attention she got at the puppy romp when she'd jump up, knowing full well we'd have our work cut out for us. We turn away and ignore her, put out our hand in the stop-sign signal, say, "OFF", walk into her as she's jumping, nothing works! Lucy will even jump up with my back turned while cooking dinner. She starts puppy classes next week, but in the interim, are there any other tricks I can try? Thanks!!

[Julie B.]

Try grabbing ahold of her paws when she jumps up and then casually with no emotion walk her backwards until she becomes off balance and falls. Make it NO FUN to have her paws off the ground. Don't forget to praise profusely when she has all 4 paws on the ground.

[Noble Vestal Labradoodles]

leave her leash on her and when you see that she is starting to jump step on her leash and then give her a treat if she sits and only if she sits.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Turn. Just turn, It does not work with Spud, but it works with every other dog I have met. See the group http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/doodlewhisperers

I think there are many posts and suggestions in this group that will help you with puppy behaviors.

[Karen & Lucy]

You know what, I have tried EVERYTHING in the book and my Lucy still jumps, not as much, but still does and she will be 4 in April. SO, if you find a solution, please let me know too. I use a lot of treats and that works better than anything. When I know someone is coming to the door, I call her back and give her treats for "being a good girl" and not jumping, but it doesn't always work! GOOD LUCK

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

to Karen and Lucy from Maryann, Tigger and Roo Me too. At 2+ Roo knows what to do, but just can't help himself. Tigger is better, but must compete with Roo. I have tried everything, even separating them to meet people - it is just a no go they love everyone and just cannot stop jumping. Yhey jump on everyone, except me. I have no idea why they no longer jump on me. Have decided that I will just wait for age and wisdom - them age and me wisdom May be a while.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

http://www.doodlekisses.com/profiles/blog/list?q=jumping+class

Check out this blog. They attended a class on jumping and this is what the instructor said to do. I have the same problem, and intend to give this a try the next time my mom comes over because that is when our girls are the absolute worst.

[Lorraine Bromley]

my trainer said to bring up your knee into the chest when they go to do that. It will hurt them and they will get the idea very quickly. Instead of waiting to be shocked set them up with leaving yourself wide open and ready for it then bam react with the knee. We didn't have the problem as off worked pretty well. Also we taught the jump up command and treated for it. As well as treating for the off. Not treats for them doing either of it with out being told to.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Lorraine, I used to do the " bring your knee up to your chest" technique. The dogs I did this with were 140 and 100 lbs and this is what I was taught by the trainer at the time. It works .................. :(

It works, although according to my vet it caused the extremely large fatty masses later found in the chest area of the dogs.

Please be careful using this technique. It seems harmless enough. Even with no force the constant trauma a big dog gets from slamming into a bony knee does eventually take its toll.

Love the idea of teaching the jump/then the no jump commands.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.. I really appreciate it! I like the idea of grabbing her paws and walking her backwards, or as I read on the doodlewhisperer's group (thanks Joanne for the link!), DANCING with them when they jump. We haven't tried anything remotely like that, so that is what we'll try next.

At the puppy romp there was probably 100 people and Lucy is one of those dogs that goes to EVERYBODY for loving. If we were close to the person she was jumping on we'd ask them to encourage 4-on-the-floor, but it just wasn't practical for everyone she visited. You would think that people with puppies would know better than to reward jumping with attention, but we didn't find one person who did. My DH says we should put a sign around Lucy's neck saying, "Hi, my name is Lucy. I know I'm cute, but please encourage me to keep 4 on the floor!" Again, not very practical...

Thanks again... I'll report back on how the dancing goes :)

[Natasha]

Hi Debb - as tough as it is, you may want to avoid places where Lucy will be encouraged (treated) for jumping. In most cases, it won't take more than 2 weeks to break a pup of this habit with consistent behavior modification. Important - remember that being consistent means picking the one tactic you are going to use and sticking with it (and everyone in the family and who visits the family has to do the same).

We had this problem coupled with nipping. Our vet told us to make a loud yipping noise while turning our backs and discontinuing ALL contact or acknolwedgement. She said that closely proximates what dogs in the pack would do. By loud, she meant loud (she demonstrated) and it really made us feel silly. However, it only took 3 days for Rouser to understand that if he jumped up or if he nipped at us, he got zero attention for several minutes. Funny thing was, he looked SO CONFUSED when we would do it.

We went to the local coffee shop after he had learned not to jump on us and he jumped up on someone who approached him saying 'oh, he's so cute" in a really high pitched voice, so we had to stop taking him out for a week or two. Instead, we invited friends over to the house to practice. We taught them to enter and kind of crouch down and use that high pitched voice like strangers would and then had them turn around (we didn't make them yelp). If he didn't jump on them and instead sat when they gave him the sit command, he got a treat from them. That worked! He's never jumped on anyone since.

[Eva (Lilo and Rocky)]

Most dogs jump when they are little; that's how they got attention from the mommy dog. I cured my dogs' jumping up on strangers (and on us) by using my all-time favorite dog training gadget: the remote controlled citronella spray collar. It's expensive but can be used to cure many different problems, including running after strangers, garbage can demolition, barking at the tv, ripping out grass in the lawn etc etc (one problem at a time, of course, or dog gets seriously confused). Your dog may be too young to be subjected to this treatment though; mine were at least 6 months old when we decided that we'd had enough (as far as I remember, it's been awhile).

[Adina P]

You've gotten several useful ideas. But whatever you do, a key ingredient is repetition and sticking to it. If sometimes you hold her paws and other times you tell her "Off" and other times you ignore her it will not be as effective as if you just choose one and stick to it for a time. If after a couple weeks you see NO improvement and you're sure you've been consistent then perhaps a different technique is called for. Personally, I see "OFF" as useful instruction early on, but after some time you don't want to have to tell her to get off of you...you want her to not even attempt to jump on you at all. So maybe start with OFF and something that will deter her and then move on to just the detering thing on its own.

But with other people it will take EXTRA work and many, many, many planned practice sessions until she generalizes from your practice friends to everyone. It is way harder teaching friends/strangers to respond to her appropriately than it is to teach Lucy to greet politely.

Speaking of 'greeting politely' -- that is the one thing missing from your repertoire (based only on your description above). You've done several things to try to get her to stop, but haven't YET (she's young, it will take time to get to the 'yet') worked on HOW TO greet politely. So in the meantime, while you are doing things to discourage jumping, she will need hard work on 'sit stay' and other commands that require her to be polite. Pups need to learn not only what not to do but also what TO do =)