Jumping when people come to house

[dal]

Hi all!  Cooper, my 9 month old goldendoodle, has always been a jumper.  When we first got him, him and my 6 year old son could not be in a room together because he would jump on him constantly and try to get his hair, glasses etc.  He was bigger than my son pretty quickly.  We trained non stop on that by having him on leash whenever my son was in the room and telling Cooper to sit and rewarding with a treat.  One day, Cooper just got it.  Went towards my son, sat down and looked at me for a treat and that was that.  It was SO simple!  Took 2.5 months but it was done.  They are best buds now.  He never really jumped much on me, my two daughters (10 and 12) or my husband.  BUT when people come to the house, he is insane.  We have finally gotten him to a point where he will run to visitors (on leash) and sit (super squirmy but will sit) but as soon as they give him some attention, he can't help himself and starts jumping up to give kisses on their faces.  (The only people he does not do this to are little boys and I think it's because of the training we did with my son so Cooper knows he will never be allowed to jump on the boys).

I usually have the person turn around and ignore him when he goes to jump.  This sometimes works within a couple of minutes and I can take off the leash and he's pretty good.  But if the person leaves the room and comes back, we start all over again.  This happens when the kids have friends over.  We do have indoor invisible fence units and so when kids who are a little afraid go across the line, he will bark at them because he wants so bad to be friendly to them.

A friend told me about a bottle that sprays just air that was effective with her jumping dog.  Anyone use this?  I was hesitant only because the treat reward system worked so well with my son but it is months later and we are still not making much progress.  I would like to solve this rather than just find a place to put Cooper when visitors come.  He is super friendly, it's just that he's too friendly with new people!

Thank you in advance!

[Butch and Michele]

That's hilarious. I'm 60 years old and still hold my breath when I'm around a jack in the box. Scares me every time

[Laura and Angus]

Ugh same! I hate those things! 

[dal]

Ha, me too!

[Carrie Shepherd]

We have used the Pet Convincer Air Spray on Lucy for Jumping.  She is very much a happy greeter.  I have found it hard to use it since she is so scared of it when I air spray her with it.  Lucy has such a great disposition that I don't want to squash it.  I need to follow Angus's moms training techniques and see if that would work on her but I will admit I'm not good at following through:(((

[Laura and Angus]

I hear ya...we wouldn't want our crazy boy to change either. But I promise you that it hasn't hindered his spirit in any way. But it really has taught him the rules of the house. He still tests us out occasionally, but most of the time we are now able to say, hey! or uh uh! and that will make him stop what he's doing. However, when other things won't work...we have to say "No!" and then, calmly and without emotion, we spray him with a puff of air on his back hip, and then ignore him completely for 30 seconds. Of course with our happy-go-lucky guy, he's back up and bouncing around all goofy 30 seconds later. 

It's not about punishment..it's about teaching him what is and is not acceptable. Our trainer says that for each punishment we should be shooting for 3 treats showing appropriate behaviors. So if he grabs the leash on a walk and we have to spray the air, we should then get him up and walking appropriately and give treats for attention and walking calmly on the leash. Angus is only a year old and he is generally well behaved these days, which I think is really because of all the training we've worked on. You can do it!!

[dal]

I, too, get worried about squashing Cooper's happy disposition!

[Carrie Shepherd]

So when can I hire Laura and Angus to come over and train Lucy and myself, lol

[dal]

I'm wondering the same thing lol

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here's how I feel about jumping up on people. Either it's allowed, or it's not. It can't be allowed sometimes, like when you're playing with the dog, and then not allowed other times, like when people come over or you're out on a walk. 

If you don't want your dog jumping on people, from early puppyhood on, you don't play games where you hold a toy or treat over the dog and encourage him to jump for it. Ever. Any time the dog moves his front paws from the ground to any part of a person, all games/playing ends immediately, and all attention is withdrawn from the dog. 

My dogs are always taught that all four stay on the floor, always, when dealing with people. From day one. If the dog stands up on his hind legs with his paws on a person, ever, the person turns their back immediately and ignores the dog. Persistent dogs can be gently pushed down with a verbal correction (Off!) You are all teaching "off", aren't you? If not, start now. "Off" is as essential to living with a dog as "sit", "down" and "come". 

For larger, persistent jumpers, my favorite moves include stepping forward right onto one of the dog's back paws, or taking hold of those front paws that he's so rudely placed on your body and holding him in that upright position as if you're dancing together. It will take about 5 seconds before the dog starting squirming and tries to get his paws away from you and get down. Give it another 10 seconds to make sure the lesson is clear. 

No water bottles, no air bottles, no treats, no shocks, etc. This is part of basic training if you want a dog you can live with, IMO. 

[Laura and Angus]

While I completely agree that your strategy will work, it doesn't necessarily teach the dog how they should greet. It teaches them how not to greet. We want Angus to know how he may go up to people and visit with people, so we run through that scenario with him over and over again until he gets it consistently. Then we have him do this in different situations...out on the street, with people coming to the door, on walks, in the park, etc. until he generalizes. You can also have them on leash and just step on the leash to stop them from jumping, but again it just physically stops them, it doesn't teach them how they may appropriately greet friends and strangers. 

I also think that working on training (with treats) helps you to bond with your dog and BONUS tires them out. Angus is very quick to learn new ideas, but training requires mental energy that makes him tired and from our experience in the last 10 months...a tired doodle is a well-behaved and happy doodle.

That being said, I don't think everyone enjoys training like I do (a large part of my job is behavior management - for humans), so everyone figures out what works best for their lifestyle and their dog. IMHO

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Praise, attention, and rewards for good behavior, corrections and loss of attention for bad behavior are very effective tools in teaching a dog how they should greet, and how they should do everything else, lol. Of course you want your dog to know how he may go up to people and visit with people, and I don't disagree at all with the methods you described above. When the dog is calm and behaving appropriately, he then gets to greet the people, gets praise & affection, gets a treat, etc. I'm not saying you shouldn't use treats when training, I'm only saying they should be used as a reward when the dog makes the right choices, not as bribes or distractions to prevent him from making the wrong ones. :)

[Laura and Angus]

Very true. It has been quite the journey for us to say the least! Haven't owned a puppy in 15 years before our lil monster.