Something that has been on my mind.

Vince32

Just a few weeks ago I was walking my 18 week pup (Husky, on a leash), and we passed a middle aged women who was eyeing the dog, as we got to the contact point, my little one jumped up on her to get her head rubbed, and the poor lady jumped out of her skin!!. I apologised immediately, and told her the pup was just saying hello.
She said "that's ok for you, but I'm terrified of dogs!!!", again I apologised and assured her it wouldn't happen again.
She went on her way muttering about bad dog owners... I felt a bit put out by her comment, but from her prospective the dog was going to eat her alive or something.

The funny thing is I don't usually allow her to jump, but we had past several people who stopped to pet the adorable little puppy, and I thought the scared lady would too, and so did the puppy, by the way events unfolded.

I'm just curious how other posters would have handled that encounter, no one was harmed but the poor lady did get a bit of a fright.

Cherry Blossom

No jumping on people allowed, any sort of interaction with people is strictly on the basis that they start it only. I get loads of kids wanting to pet my dog which is great because I get to give them the 'lecture' which is - you should never approach a strange animal without asking permission from both the person in charge of the animal and the person in charge of 'you'. Nobody really likes a strange dog jumping all over them regardless of whether they are dog people or not. Its a bit like me walking along the street and stopping to clean my shoe on random peoples clothes or poking people in the ribs as I walk past them .

Vince32

Yeah I totally get the point, and like I said I don't usually allow jumping either, but 5 or 6 people stopped me on my walk, and just started petting the dog, the dog obviously loving the attention wanted more of the same. I thought to myself this is something I was going to have to get used to until the puppy stage is over, people will want to stroke the lush soft fur so I should be pleasant and just move off quickly.

To be honest I was a bit shocked myself when the dog jumped on the lady, and I understand her reaction completely.
I was just wondering if there is something else I could of said or done that would of made a difference at the time.

These days I distract the dog with a treat, until the other people pass me by, I don't ever want a re-occurrence of scaring someone half to death with a puppy:eek: and if I see someone walking 2 or more dogs I get completely out of their way.

Maybe it's nothing and my conscience is getting the better of me, but if it happens again (hopefully not) I would like to know I did everything I could to put the person at ease.

The Sweeper

By telling the lady the pup was 'just saying hello', you're making the dog's behaviour reasonable and the lady's reaction unreasonable.

Next time, simply apologise for your dog jumping and say 'she's a puppy and we're still working on her manners'.

JustAThought

I had the cutest puppy but it grew like yours will into a BIG dog!!!! After a few warnings from my folks early on who are not at all into dogs ( thou I think we've converted them : ). I starred to teach fido not to jump up... It really paid off .. Now she ll expect the love but won't jump up thank God!!! I meet as you might imagine a lode of dogs out walking & it really is beginning to wind me up the number if people with big hairy muddy dogs who let them run over & jump up on you knowing in advance that thus is what they do. It's cute with puppies & most people will understand & be reasonable with knowing the training us underwater, but with a five stone lab covered in mud it's a different matter!!!!
( thou to be fair; mud from small dogs over your clothes can ruin your day & wardrobe decisions almost as much too!)

I'd go with the above ; be nice, apologise & say it's in training & most people won't mind !!! Some folk just like any reason to whinge about dogs so don't be too upset by her... Puppy husky... Super cute : )

tk123

I would just apologise and tell them she's still a puppy - a lot of people don't realize they're puppies when they're that size they think puppies are all tiny - I had the same with my guy(retriever) when he was smaller. She'll grow out of approaching people anyways as she gets older. My guy is a bit shy but like the puppy - if one person pets him he trots along delighted with himself and kind of expects the next person he meets to pet him too lol So if we're walking say on a sunday when people are coming and going for mass it's jackpot time for him - they all stop to pet him lol

TooManyDogs

I agree with the others, jumping up is a no go, and +1 what Sweeper said, apologize next time rather than explain the pups actions. It could be the lady is simply genuinely terrified of dogs, not 'I don't like them' but bone rattling scared. I had it happen to me once when we moved into a new house, there were 8 little houses in a cul-de-sac but you weren't allowed walls and there was no footpath. I wasn't paying too much attention and heard "EXCUSE ME", turned around to see a lady pointing at my dog sniffing her grass!!! I called the dog away and muttered about the crazy old biddy across the road to my hubby. She called over later and I was ready for battle, opened the door and the dogs plottered out, she started screaming and screaming and screaming! I called the dogs in and eventually she calmed down to tell me she had come over to apologize for being so short earlier, just she was terrified of dogs and was so frozen with fear at how close my dog had been to her all she could do was snarl an "excuse me".

I don't understand fear of dogs but that neighbour, who we became great friends with, taught me that you simply can't guess at what's going on in someone else's life to make them react a certain way, so I always err on the side of caution now.

littlebug

We have a problem with this. If a person on the street makes eye contact at all she's up on the two back legs and all over them. Ruined my kids' headmasters nice coat with her mucky paws:o Sometimes I think we're safe but sometimes she'll jump at the last minute. If I'm meeting people on a footpath I have to keep the lead really short beside me and I'll take a step or two to one side (even off the footpath if I have to) so that any jump will be met with air and not person.
we're working on it with some success but as I said if the person makes eye contact at all she takes it as a signal. So matter how much we work to ignore the behaviour with us.... we can't stop random strangers making eye contact with her!

To illustrate how potentially dangerous this could be....on one of the rare occasions that I let my dog off lead at the lake (early morning no one around) when we eventually got her to come back to our car :rolleyes: she spotted an older woman coming walking in the distance and went haring towards her.... and I mean at full speed and though she's a medium sized dog she's really fast and really strong. In dogs head she's racing along thinking "YES>... IT'S A PERSON!!" As she got closer to her I saw the woman brace herself and just as she was about to jump the woman shouted angrily at her which she wasn't expecting so she stopped then but as I was chasing up the road after her I was seeing serious medical bills in my head.... I have no doubt that she would have knocked the woman over and caused some damage had she jumped on her at the speed she was going .

Similarly it would be easy for any dog to knock a child over, no matter what size the dog.... child bangs head...:(

Strangely mine never jumps on kids, only adults. When we're at the school she will sit quietly while kids pet her Random strangers we meet on the street are a different story altogether. I spend a lot of time apologising

tk123 wrote: »

She'll grow out of approaching people anyways as she gets older.

Mine's 3 and just never got the hint that not everybody wants a mucky slobbery dog jumping on them

dmg10

My pup, a very happy 18 month old collie/springer x, has been a terror for going up on her hind legs in greeting and sometimes makes contact. In her very young days, she would try jumping up on children but that was nipped in the bud pretty quickly. She still is a jumper by heart but she will if her excitement is contained by preempting the situation, now sit for attention instead. Doesn't always work mind you...but I'm incredibly conscious of it considering I've a mother in her late 70's that could be easily pushed over. I do spend a little bit of time apologising though still....On the other scale, I'm trying to train her for search work and her natural initial indication on finding was, guess what? to hop off me, we're working on discouraging that one.

However, one incident that comes to my mind sometimes is a day where we were out walking on a headland, and came upon a man coming through a gate. My pup goes up and starts barking at him from about 5ft away, looking at me, barking more. I know she was telling me, 'mom, mom, look what I found! This is what I'm supposed to do isn't it? Tell you there's someone here?' but as soon as I reached them she was put on the lead immediately as I could see he was a bit nervous of this dog barking at him. Now she's a small dog with a happy face, even when barking, but he doesn't know that does he? I know she doesn't have a bad bone in her, but he doesn't. So my message is in all this, we know our dogs, but others definitely don't and why make what could be traumatic for them even worse. If we're out for a walk, and I see people coming along, she gets called to heel or put on the lead until I guage the people (giving a wide berth, making eye contact, going 'oh what a cute puppy!! can I pet her!). She'll still give a warning bark to me if there's someone she's not sure of coming along, but then she gets recalled and put on the lead. To be honest, in this day and age, I've no problems with that...

Vince32

Thanks for all the replies, you guys summed it up perfectly. It's really hard to teach a dog not to jump on people, especially a Husky who can be as stubborn as an ox.

It's a work in progress, sometimes she is angelic other times she is a demon, but I won't give up on her, I know she can learn this, and the sooner the better by all accounts.

Does everyone use distraction to teach no jumping? or is there another method I could try as well?

tk123

Vince32 wrote: »

Does everyone use distraction to teach no jumping? or is there another method I could try as well?

Yep I use distraction with a look command. When he was smaller I used to hold a biscuit in my hand in the morning when we passed all the school kids lol so he wound't try to talk to them!

axle108

I just tell the excited person going to rub my dog, he'll jump up on you, ruin your clothes. Its amazing how much their excitement tones down and the dog normally doesn't jump up and they rub him.
With friends and their children i tell them to hold the palms of their hands down low over the dog as they just start to rub him before he gets a chance to jump and its worked for me.
My ethos is if a person is gonna get mad excited over my dog, hes gonna give it back ten fold. I found its better to get the person to approach your dog properly rather than looking to try and control the pups excitement.

JustAThought

I had enough issues leading my dog around with a piece of cheese in my hand. So for the jumping every time I wAs just stern & said down & when she went ( back) down then she got a " good down" and then the patting !! Worked !

callmekenneth

it was an accident and accidents happen. i would apologise and move on. if she has some deep psychological fear of dogs then that's her problem and she needs to deal with it. you can do no more than apologise and assure her it wont happen again (and make sure it doesnt)

mymo

I have a slightly different issue in that one of my dogs doesn't like random strangers petting him (doesn't growl but backs away and will bark if they keep it up), he looks cute and cuddly so lots of people want to say hello.
I use a wait command if I see someone approach who looks like they want to pet him, and I ask them not to until I tell him to "Say hello", I use the "we are working on his training" excuse, when I tell him to say hello he's fine, I think he see's I'm ok with it so it must be ok. (and if its someone I can see he's uncomfortable with I'll just say no)
Kids are another story, thankfully he loves them, but the number of them that just run over and grab him is shocking. I also give the lecture same as AJ above, and tell them how and where he likes to be rubbed.

You could try using the wait command and then allow the person to come to him when he stands or sits nicely, better for you too as when he gets bigger he will be strong. Teach him quiet and calm gets the rubs he wants.

Vince32

Ok the wait command sounds easy to teach, I never heard of it and always considered wait the same as stay. But after a quick google search they have very different meanings.

I think that will be our next lesson and with some luck teach the pup some good manners too.
Thanks for that.

tk123

Wait is a good command to have we use it all the time. Wait until it's ok to cross the road, while I mess with my phone, when the lead is tangled, while the person coming towards us on our walk passes etc etc etc. One time time in the park he sat down tail wagging "c'mon legs go" a few times but nothing... "ehh...OK!?" and came running and looked for his treat - we'd been practising at the weekend and he obviously thought it was a great game so decided he wanted to practice it again lol!!

here's Bailey waiting lol :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYAJ8Vyynfw