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!

[sandy b]

We have a super excited jumper too so will be interested in comments!

[Laura and Angus]

Ha! I just mentioned the air canister spray thingy in another one of your discussions! We use it! It's called a Pet Convincer II and it's the only thing that's really worked to discourage inappropriate behavior with our puppy Angus. But we didn't use this for jumping. We have been working with our trainer to practice scenarios when Angus jumps and use clicker training to help him understand the expectations.

Here's what we've been doing (and it only took like 3 attempts in our training class before he didn't jump on the trainer):

You set up a situation (on-leash) where a new person comes to greet Cooper.

You slowly approach the new person. If at any point Cooper's paws start to come off the ground, you need to turn around and start the approach again. You basically do this until Cooper can get all the way to the person with feet on the ground and give treats. 

Then you'll work on actually greeting people. So having the person greeting Cooper verbally with all paws on the ground and treats. Again, if at any points any paws leave the ground then you go back and start over until he can do it. 

You keep upping the ante - aka doing things that make it more exciting for Cooper - until he's able to come say hi to new people even when they have an excited voice. 

We're still working on the last part. Angus usually gets all the way up to people and then when they use a high-pitched "Oh! You're so cute!" voice, he jumps. Womp womp. But we're getting there. Tonight I'm going to be practicing this activity with Angus at my parents' house because my mom's visits always get Angus in a tizzy - read: high-pitched greetings. 

It's a lot of work, but doodles are so smart. It hasn't taken Angus long at all each time we do a training session and I'm sure Cooper will pick it up too!

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

You've given great advice- I really need to practice this more. Winnie is usually fine until she hears the high pitched voice- either an adult swooning over her or a child squealing "PUPPY! My mom is the worst- she practically sings when she greets Winnie. Once that happens, I'm dealing with 55 lb bucking bronco! I finally told her to lower her voice about 3 octaves when she sees Winnie. :-) But, that doesn't help me when strangers do the same thing.

Thanks for the incentive- I'm going to set up some practice sessions with friends/family this weekend instead of complaining about Winnie being such as "wild child." She is 1 1/2 years now, and I sometimes forgot how I still need to have some treats in my pockets at all times. And, she really IS a quick learn if I work with her enough.

[Laura and Angus]

Thanks! I tell ya...the trouble with doodles is how cute they are haha. Everyone reinforces their behavior when we're out and about, so we try to plan times we can practice these skills by asking someone to work with us. It's a ton of work for sure. I will say that we see a faster response to training when using a clicker than without. It is a really good way to immediately reinforce when you don't have a treat in your hand - and something about pairing the sound with the action is very helpful for our little guy. My boyfriend and I have actually started taking a pack with us on every walk - it's a larger bag that clips at our hip and we can bring the air spray, clicker, treats, poo bags, and keys. We probably look silly, but it has made a huge impact in terms of training on walks. This way we're training every single day (a few times a day). 

Good luck with your training sessions! Hopefully you have as much success as we do :) 

[dal]

Thank you so much!  You are so right, they are smart and with consistent training they will get it!  Sometimes I forget that and just get frustrated.  Also, yes, when people reinforce the behavior, it sets us back.  I am going to try your method!  What do you do when you get to the person and then Angus jumps?  Do you just start all over again?  Also, you said you slowly approach the person - Cooper is running towards them always but then will sit quick (until they give attention and then he jumps).  Do you think your method of turning around when he starts charging the person will work to get him to slow down?  Thanks again!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

How can Cooper run towards someone when you are holding the leash? You're not using a retractable, are you? 

[dal]

No, not a retractable but clearly I need to work on leash training!  I actually switched to the easy walk harness for walks because while we were making some progress leash training, it was very slow going and as he was growing, it became difficult for me to control him on the regular leash.  He does very well on walks with the easy walk and very rarely pulls now but with people visiting, this is part of the problem!  Any tips on how to train him from pulling towards people who visit?  Just stand and wait till he calms?  I have done that and then as soon as I take a step, he is pulling again.  He will wait and let the person approach him which is fine but I don't think teaching him not to pull towards the person - will he eventually be able to be off leash while greeting or some dogs always have to be leashed when visitors first arrive?  Sorry if these seem like silly questions!  This is all new to me as he is my first dog ever :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm at a loss on this one, because I used the Easy Walk harness to stop the pulling when I first adopted JD, and he was 14 months old and already weighed 75 lbs. Prior to the harness, he'd literally dragged me across a street, that's how strong he was. The harness stopped the pulling immediately. You do have to stop when he pulls, and then stop again, and stop again, until he is walking calmly. As Laura said, it does take patience and consistency, and lots of time. 

All of this is part of a lifelong, on-going training program. Eventually, the dog knows "go to your place" and "down stay", and doesn't have to be leashed when visitors arrive because he's holding that down-stay on his mat, or rug, or bad, or whatever, until you release him. But that takes lots and lots and lots of time, practice, etc. 

[dal]

Often when the kids' friends come over, I will quickly attach the leash to his regular collar instead of putting his harness on.  I started putting the harness on before kids come recently and that has helped some.  Would you suggest using the easy walk in the house with visitors since it greatly reduces the pulling?

[Laura and Angus]

If you take a step and he is pulling, then I'm guessing he's not all that calm. Training can only really happen when the puppy is not hyper. Ugh when are they ever not hyper?? This will seem weird, but I would say have Cooper run around like a madman off-leash for 10-15 min before you even attempt to do this type of training. Once he is tired (aka calm) try having a family member who has been there come in the front door to practice this. Can he walk to them calmly since he knows they've already been there? If not, then start with a family member standing at the door who's already in the house. You gotta gauge what Cooper can already do, so he can get some treats/praise. 

If he can do this with a family member, have them enter the house or knock on the door or something..whatever you can do to make that a little more exciting for Cooper. Then start by having someone come in and hang around the room for a while until Cooper is calmer..then work on this with going toward them (not at the front door if that's too exciting), but randomly in the middle of the room. Take the exciting factors down a notch in the beginning and then slowly add on.

[dal]

Cooper is ALWAYS hyper with visitors.  He could have been playing with other dogs all day and asleep in my house but if a visitor comes, he pops right up, hyper as ever.  We do not live near any family but my daughter has a friend who is also our neighbor and is here a lot.  He is calmer with her but still goes initially crazy when she comes in.  I can practice with her.  He is completely calm with the five of us who live here.  He is crated when we are out and is unfazed when we come home.  He is also unfazed when any of us come home and he is out of the crate.  He may get up to greet us as we come in but it is non event.  I guess that's a plus, right?!

[Laura and Angus]

Well this is good! Because if he's calm with family members (immediate family) like you or your kids then one of you guys can simulate entering the house like a stranger and praising him for approaching appropriately. Then maybe try having one of the kids' friends come over and hang out in the house for a while and then greet once Cooper has acclimated to their entrance. You could even have the friend greet Cooper and then leave and come back in multiple times to see if Cooper can practice greeting appropriately at the door. And I would DEFINITELY use the Easy Walk harness when training if that's effective in stopping the pulling. I will tell you that for a while we would just step on the leash when visitors would come in and wait until Angus laid down and settled before letting them say hello. You could try that - if you step on the leash giving Cooper maybe six inches of leash, it will force him to lay down (otherwise they have to stand with their down, which they don't like). 

Angus is a year old now, but he was not really manageable when he was too excited - so we used the leash tactic for a long time. Also before we got the Easy Walk harness. I would try the Easy Walk first and if that doesn't work maybe trying the leash thing to help calm him, so he can focus. Test it out and see what works for your guy.