Pup jumping up on guests

Corholio

Have a labrador pup, around 6 months. He's quite active and hyper and while he's got a lot more behaved as he's got older, he still gets very excited when people call to the house. Constantly keeps jumping up on them with his paws, which are a little sharp despite getting them cut. We have done the turning your back and not giving him attention trick which has worked great as he jumps up for a few seconds and then stops, but for other people, guests etc he still gets very excited. She has also been neutered as we heard this would help.

Wondering if anyone has any advice on how to stop/train him to not do this. I have come across the dog collars that give out a pulse to show the dog he's not supposed to do that, but not sure how effective they are.

Any advice would be very appreciated.

tk123

Corholio wrote: »

I have come across the dog collars that give out a pulse to show the dog he's not supposed to do that, but not sure how effective they are.

This is a bad idea - you're going to teach him that visitors = him getting a shock and he might decide he doesn't like visitors at all.

Are your visitors turning their back when he tries to jump up - this is what we had visitors do? If you're visitors won't do it then maybe leave his lead on him so you have some control while he's excited and you can lead him away if he gets too excited or give him a time out. How about sending him to his crate/bed with a kong or chew to keep him occupied instead?

Magenta

Corholio wrote: »

She has also been neutered as we heard this would help.

Neutering is not a training method or a cure-all for bad behaviour! The puppy should have been taught not to jump up from day one. I would guess that he was allowed when he was smaller as it was "cute" and now he's hit 6 months and is getting bigger, it's not cute any more. I would recommend "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey or any of her training books, she is great.

gavmcg92

Magenta wrote: »

Neutering is not a training method or a cure-all for bad behaviour! The puppy should have been taught not to jump up from day one. I would guess that he was allowed when he was smaller as it was "cute" and now he's hit 6 months and is getting bigger, it's not cute any more. I would recommend "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey or any of her training books, she is great.

Take it easy magenta. I would recommend trying to get the dog to sit and stay about 5 ft from the door when you have visitors calling to the door. Everytime the pup moves from the sitting position you get the guest to leave and repeat. Because this is going to take some time, get a family member to be the knocker. Trying to stop things like this take time.

Hooked

We used to hold our lads paws firmly (one in each hand) every time he jumped up on us. Hold on for a few seconds, he'd get agitated and start trying to pull away and we'd hold him up (not off the ground mind!) for say 20-30 seconds and in addition but not necessary... with a loud, firm NO - let him back down. He quickly got sick of being held and stopped jumping.

But guests would normally call him to them, come here... Patting their chest (to entice a jump). So all family and friends had to be told not to encourage it. He only jumps now when asked/prompted.

Corholio

Magenta wrote: »

Neutering is not a training method or a cure-all for bad behaviour! The puppy should have been taught not to jump up from day one. I would guess that he was allowed when he was smaller as it was "cute" and now he's hit 6 months and is getting bigger, it's not cute any more. I would recommend "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey or any of her training books, she is great.

Didn't get him neutered just for that, was going to do it anyway. But just heard that it was another benefit. Saying something should have been done before is not advice.

Magenta

Corholio wrote: »

She has also been neutered as we heard this would help.

Corholio wrote: »

Didn't get him neutered just for that, was going to do it anyway. But just heard that it was another benefit. Saying something should have been done before is not advice.

In your original post you said you got the dog neutered because you heard it would stop the dog jumping up, hence me pointing out it's not a training method. Sorry if I didn't read your mind or tell you what you wanted to hear.

DBB

Mod note: Keep it civil please folks. Any more little digs as in the above two posts will result in warnings or bans. There's no need for it. If any poster has a problem with a post, report it.


Mod hat off: OP, there are several posters advocating training techniques which are simply not necessary, and can result in things going wrong for you. For example, holding onto the dog's paws might just get you bitten, and can (and often does) cause dogs to become touchy about their paws being touched by human hands at all. A nightmare for groomers and vets.
Squirting dogs with water can also increase aggression, and is a method of correction that's prone to abuse.
There's simply no need to use physical punishment to stop your young dog jumping up: punishment, in the absence of giving the dog something more appropriate to do, is an inefficient training tool, and can result in other behavioural problems.
Gavmcg gave you spot-on advice earlier: teach your pup to sit, and ask him to sit every single time you greet him. Every time. Practise this, so that you're greeting your pup many more times a day than usual. You should find that your pup starts to pre-empt being asked to sit at greetings, and sitting becomes his way of greeting, getting attention etc. If he jumps up, ignore him, and ask for the sit again.
You should gradually build excitement and loud behaviour into your greetings, so that you can eventually tap-dance into the room singing Old Lang Syne, and the pup will still sit... Remember, he needs to be "proofed" for real-life, excited, noisy visitors! You eventually want him to sit no matter what odd things the humans are doing!
Once your pup is sitting reliably for you at greetings, you can graduate him on to others. At first, friends who can ignore him and ask him to sit, but eventually, he should get so used to sitting, regardless of who's coming through the door, that nobody need ask him to sit, he just does it naturally. You can build a hand shake into his greeting too, if you wish!
If in doubt, especially during the early stages, put his lead on so you can stop him from diving on unsuspecting visitors, and thus you're not undermining your early work.
Good luck!

nala2012

Plus one on getting dog to sit when meeting people, make sure you give your guests treats to give your dog when they sit as well as praising them. Also make sure there's nobody encouraging your dog to jump i found it so annoying when i was training my dog and people would be wanting her to jump on them saying "sure its fine she's only saying hello" so annoying!

DBB

One way around this problem, of people encouraging your dog to jump, is to teach your dog to sit when they see people making the usual "jump up on me" moves and noises!
If your dog already sits reliably to a verbal "sit" command, introduce the new "cue" by eg slapping your chest, saying up, up! (calmly at first) etc, then ask the dog to sit. So, new cue is followed by old familiar cue, the old cue can eventually be passed out. As he gets better at sitting for this new cue, you can start to make it all more exciting.
It's pretty much the same as proofing the dog for different levels of greeting as described above.
Similarly, dogs can be taught to sit when people scream and throw their hands up, so that if they happen to meet someone who's scared of dogs, the dog will sit, rather than jump up or otherwise pester.

Gormal

You really need to teach him not to do it, just like you teach him to sit and stay. If it were me I would use the 'down' or 'no' command in a firm voice. You could follow it up with a sit or stay (Or issue that command before the guest enters). When he does as he's told, give him praise. He doesn't know it's wrong or not acceptable until you tell him so.

carav10

OP DBB's advice is excellent here & I've got some new ideas of how to proof on the excited guests predictable hands slap on chest move.

One thing you might find, depending on the excitability of your pup, it could take time depending on how many in your household. My 10mth old doesn't jump on me but will go for it when excitedly greeting people although she is very good now on the sit in front of people & wait. But it's taken a while because I live on my own & don't have the regular incomings that some houses might have. And then because it's all dog people we hang out with, unless I'm on top of them, they're the very ones to do the slap on the chest 'up up' one :-) But I still have to put her on lead when out on a walk in the woods if I see someone coming or some poor person will end up with paw marks which is definitely not wanted. But half my problem is that people in woods are the very ones who she does get to play with no restrictions because of what I'm training her for so I could be fighting a losing battle on that one until she's a bit older :-) Good luck & persevere with it, pre-empt the situation & set your pup up for situations, it'll save you a lot of apologising later :-)

ISDW

Gormal wrote: »

You really need to teach him not to do it, just like you teach him to sit and stay. If it were me I would use the 'down' or 'no' command in a firm voice. You could follow it up with a sit or stay (Or issue that command before the guest enters). When he does as he's told, give him praise. He doesn't know it's wrong or not acceptable until you tell him so.

Sorry Gormal, I'm not picking on your training methods, but something that I was told years ago, and that I had been guilty of doing up till then, but what command do you use to get the dog to lie down? A lot of people say down, or lie down, so then when you use the word down to get a dog off furniture, or not jumping up at people, they get very confused. I use 'off' to try and stop any confusion, and find that it works really well.

Gormal

ISDW wrote: »

Sorry Gormal, I'm not picking on your training methods, but something that I was told years ago, and that I had been guilty of doing up till then, but what command do you use to get the dog to lie down? A lot of people say down, or lie down, so then when you use the word down to get a dog off furniture, or not jumping up at people, they get very confused. I use 'off' to try and stop any confusion, and find that it works really well.

No probs, it's down to each owner to find ones that suit them. Personally I've never used english when talking to my dog All my commands and chatter have always been in Gaelic (Scots) plus the odd disapproving sound.:D so I just used the laigh (lie) command. But then again my dog was daft! She even got excited when I greeted her in the morning and asked if she was going out to pee LOL