jumping on people

[Jen W]

I have been working with my 1 1/2 year old doodle on not jumping up since the day I got her but I am still struggling with this.  It is the only thing we can't break through on because she loves people so much.  She simply cannot contain her excitement when new people are around. 

I've tried telling everyone who comes over that they are not to pet her, talk to her or even look at her if she doesn't have "four on the floor".  I've tried keeping her on a leash when people come over and say "uh-uh" and pulling her away as soon as her front paws come up to jump on them.  I've tried having people give her treats as soon as she sits in front of them.  Nothing works.  Eventually she will sit, but first she jumps.  I think she knows what she is supposed to do because sometimes she'll do a half jump without landing on them (just to get the jump out of the way) and then go to them and sit but it's like she simply can't control herself.

She never jumps on me.  When I walk in the door she comes up to me and sits, tail wagging, waiting for a pet.  This is probably partially because I have been consistent with not engaging her if she's jumping and partially because I'm just not as exciting as a new person.

She's been through Obedience 1 and Obedience 2 but I haven't had her take the CGC test b/c I know she will fail the "sitting politely for petting" element.  We've had private training sessions to deal with this but haven't made much, if any, headway.

More than looking for new approaches to training this out of her (I doubt there are any) I'm wondering if other people's doodles outgrew this as they got older.  She is still very much a puppy and though she is 18 months old she has all of the enthusiasm of a 4 month old.  I won't stop working with her on it, but I'm just wondering if there's some hope that it will get better as she gets older.

[Patti and Bosco]

Here is a good video about jumping up on people and how to get an alternate behavior.  I really like all kikopups training videos.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC_OKgQFgzw&list=TLxRTFFoe1eRfr...

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

I love the kikopups videos and have done lots of her training with my boys very successfully. I have trained my boys to go to their crate when the door bell goes and even though they are so excited they go into their crates and are only let out when they are calm.

[Tait & Finn]

We are dealing with the same thing. Finn is 16 months old. He doesn't jump on us but any new person, even if he knows them, he's jumping. I can't figure out how to break him of this either. Would love to hear some tricks.

[Adina P]

It is ENTIRELY possible to train her to sit politely for greeting.  I think part of the problem is how you've framed it.  You are trying to train her 'not to jump.'  But teaching 'not to' is really hard.  It works much better to train her to do a specific thing.  One of the main points of obedience training is teaching a dog to respond to commands reliably...even in the face of distraction.  There are different things you could train such as 'go to your mat' in response to a knock or door bell ring.  Or you could just teach a 'go to your mat' in response to your command or you could train a very solid sit stay and down stay and use those in those times.  But....BUT you can't use those commands if you haven't practiced it 100 times with people arriving or strangers walking up to her because she won't have had enough successful practice.  When a dog hasn't had enough successful practice doing something, expecting her to do what you command is like going from the speed of 0mph to  80mph in 2.5 seconds!  0 being nothing going on and 80 being "OMG THERE's  A FRIEND AT THE DOOR...THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING THING EVER!"

What you need is baby steps. 
How is her sit stay right now in the face of nearby distraction on leash? 
How is her sit stay in the face of a far away distraction on leash?
How is her sit stay in the face of very low distraction on leash?
Can she hold a sit stay for 3 minutes on leash without distraction?
Can she hold a sit stay in the house for 3 minutes (no leash) while you leave the room?
Can she hold a sit stay while you toss balls around/past/near her?
Can she hold a sit stay on leash on your front porch for 3 minutes?
Can she hold a sit stay outside a pet store or Wal Mart, on leash, for 3 minutes?
Can she hold a sit stay in a park while watching squirrels on a long leash for 1 minute?

As you can see above some of the sit stay possibilities are easy and others are much harder.  Is greeting people more exciting and distracting than the above?  If so, she must master the above before she can move on to The Most Exciting Thing.  Just like a child must learn his letters before he can learn to read "DOG" and he must learn to read "DOG" before he can learn to read Shakespeare (with lots of in-between steps).

I'm going to go look for the videos of how I taught Rosco to sit stay for greetings and post soon.

[Adina P]

Here you go:

The point is to take it in baby steps and do A LOT of practice. Give her lots of chances to get things 'right' before you up the ante and make it more difficult. Then give her lots of practice to get things 'right' at the new level and so on.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can TRY all you want to get people to 'behave' a certain way around your dog. But people don't visit you to be trained. They visit to visit and aren't in the 'training mode'. When it's all said and done it's your dog's job (because you've done your training job) to obey your commands, not the job of other people to act in a certain way so they don't get jumped on. If you want helpers in training, you'll need to invite them over just for that and instruct them before doggy has a chance to greet them.  Then they know that they are coming by only for that purpose and are prepared.  You can also feel better focusing completely on your dog and training rather than feeling apologetic to your visitors.  You can even plan to tell your visitors that you'll spend 5 min at the beginning of any visit training your dog.  Then spend at most 5 minutes practicing with each guest and then put your doodle away in her crate to absorb her learning and get calm while you visit and don't have to worry about her behavior.  Later when the visit is almost over you can bring her out again for one last review of training and then after the guest leaves set her free.  The point being that she can NOT have the opportunity to jump...at all, not without correction.

And speaking of correction, I use a method of training that employs collar corrections.  I think it makes it much clearer to my dog the difference between a correct response and an incorrect response.  It provides an immediate consequence for the 'wrong' response and lots of praise for the 'right' response.  But even if you do NOT use corrections, taking small steps toward the right behavior is what it takes along with managing your dog so she does NOT have a chance to practice the 'wrong' behavior.  Good luck!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I know you are not asking for training tips, but I'm going to offer some anyway, lol.

It's really important that nobody ever encourages her to stand up on her hind legs for any reason, and that includes "begging" for treats, "sit up pretty" tricks, and playing with toys. Never ever hold a toy above her and encourage her to jump for it, ditto a treat. The dog must be taught that standing on hind legs is not allowed ever, whether greeting a person is involved or not. 

Also, rather than saying "uh-uh", use the word "Off!"

In addition to people not petting or talking to her unless she has four on the floor, they should also immediately turn their backs on her if she does jump up. 

I personally can't stand it when someone's dog jumps up on me. What I will usually do is take hold of the dog's front paws, which clearly he has offered to me by placing them on my body, and keep him in that upright position. It looks like we are dancing, lol. It doesn't take very long for the dog to start struggling to get down. Dogs really hate to have their feet off the ground involuntarily, so this really works for me, and it is in no way cruel or harmful to the dog. 

I adopted JD as an adult, when he was 14 months old. From day one, he has never jumped up on anyone, so it is possible for a young doodle to keep their feet on the floor when greeting people. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I think how you handle the jumping is tied into your broader training approach.  I really like the kikopups video and I think it's perfect for anyone who is using a positive reinforcement/clicker training approach.  I like that it is giving very specific direction and that it emphasizes the importance of proofing around real life distractions.  I also like Adina's demonstration which I think is also perfect for someone using a training method that employs collar corrections. 

Here are a couple of my thoughts on how I've approached this with my two Doodles.

-I do not ask the "stranger" to dispense the treats.  I am the leader and I'm the one telling the dog what I want them to do, so I correct or reward.  The "stranger" is nothing more than a distraction that we're proofing for.

-Guinness is my mini Doodle and he has been the most difficult to train not to jump especially on walks.  In the house he's in a down/stay when people arrive until he's calm, so that's not much of an issue.  He's excitable and loves everyone.  He's also small and lots of people don't necessarily want to bend down to pet him, so he thinks jumping = petting.  I don't use collar corrections for Guinness, so I have to carefully watch for his excitement level to build to the point where I know he's planning to jump...then I verbally correct and tell him to sit.  When he's sitting his reward is either affection from me or the stranger....I usually have treats with me, so if it's a particularly difficult (lots of excitement) greeting I will give him a treat if he doesn't break the sit.  If he does break, I we turn around and walk away quickly.  We take a few steps and try again if it's a "stranger" willing to wait to complete the exercise.  I do like the idea of putting the treat right on the ground and that's something I will start doing with Guinness.

-Murph is a completely different dog.  He is wary of anyone he doesn't know so his excitement is more fearful and even "confrontational" around strangers.  If it's someone he does know...like the grandkids or neighbors...he does get excited but will respond to a sit/wait command.  When he's calm he gets to greet the person.  I don't allow him to greet strangers outside the house.