30kg Of Love Jumping At Your Face

[lisalionheart]

we have a lovely rescue dog, dempsey, who we've had for 5 months. he's just turned a year old, is a kelpie x rotti x unknown. he's a lovely dog, VERY energetic and takes well to training but we can't seem to stop him jumping on strangers. he doesn't jump on us (or rarely) as we always turn our back and ignore him, although he still manages a lick on the mouth when we bend down.

when we take him to the park/dog beach however, he plods along with me ok off lead til he sees someone in the distance then he's off and running to play with their dogs (very hyper) and jumps up to lick folk in the face. he has split two lips this way, purely with the force of his powerful hind legs. we keep him on the lead when we can, and walk him when there is no-one around when possible, however it needs to be fixed as we want him to be able to run off some of that energy rather than just walk placidly on the lead, and frolick with dogs without the risk of huring someone, especially kids. i feel awful leaving him on a lead when he has so much energy to burn, and we can only fit in 2 walks a day. i recently had a nasty girl on the beach scream in my face for 5 minutes as he managed to lick her forehead, not a worry if you like dogs but no fun if you're scared of them, even if you ARE on a dog beach.

something we have been trying, with SOME success, is training him to HALT when he approaches a person; halt basically means he gets loads of praise and treats if he either stops, changes direction or just doesn't jump. the only reason this has kind of worked is that another dog owner has been jumped on a lot and has very patiently assisted in teaching him HALT (thanks Nell and Issy). i can detail the training of this halt if anyone wants it.

does anyone else have any ideas? we don't do the 'knee to the chest' as we don't want to hurt his still-forming chest structures, and given he gets out of reach we often can't grab him mid-jump and give him the big NO. people keep suggesting we give him a smack but we don't agree with using violence or pain, and he has had 2 other owners so it's a risk given we don't know his past.

help please?

[MyMontage]

I know how you feel, my dog does this! He gets so excited, and you really want to be able to have them off the lead. What I am trying to do, is tell people to not pay my dog any attention....(which is REALLY hard work), and other than that, trying to teach better recall, so if he sees someone in the distance, I can turn around and walk the other way, and he will follow ME and not launch himself at strangers. I have initially been practicing the better recall in the back garden, and been using sausage treats...then I have ventured out onto the streets, then use a longer lead etc. etc. until he listens better to me and can be off the lead and respect that I am in charge.

[Gayle.]

I have a similar problem...my very boisterous 6 1/2 month old Aussie Shepherd boy loves to leap around people....he doesn't touch them, just runs to them and bounces around them in big high leaps, which is enough to scare the bejeezus out of little kids.

I have started training in a way I think might work. This is what I'm doing....and I'll keep you posted on how we;re going. Last week I bought a loud squeaky toy....a different shape, texture and colour to anything he owns. I took him to a park at a time of day I knew we'd be alone and let him off the lead. He chased a frisbee, which is what we always do, but this time....instead of just calling him to come back with it, I squeaked the toy, waved it madly while I called his name and asked him to come to me. It got his attention every time and he came running.

When he got to me, he'd drop the frisbee and I'd show him the toy, squeaking it and letting him have a sniff.....then put it away. He got to sniff it a few times, I let him mouth it once.......and when we got home I put it where he could see it but not reach it. And he tried......oh my goodness, how he tried! That squeaky toy is now the Holy Grail!

The toy will now come everywhere with us, but he'll not be allowed to do more than sniff or lick it.....it's to be very desirable but unattainable. Combined with the toy, I'm using some yummy treats.

I hope this works, but in the meantime I'm being very careful about where I let him off the leash.

[kamuzz]

Is this one of those situations when an electronic collar would help? Hopefully one of our resident training experts will be along soon to comment.

[sas]

You can teach him sit stay and keep your foot on the lead so he can't jump up

Edited September 24, 2007 by sas

[MyMontage]

Would never use an electric collar...that is just mean!!

[Poodle wrangler]

Is this one of those situations when an electronic collar would help? Hopefully one of our resident training experts will be along soon to comment.

Ecollars aren't for this sort of thing.

Ecollar's are best used only for very specific training situations or as a last resort for problem barking (antibarking ecollar).

Used properly- with an experienced trainer teaching you- they're not cruel.

Is there a local obedience club you can join?

Sounds like you need to work on "sit" every time he greets someone, including you. Does he love food? If so use food treats to reward him. Does he love a special toy? If so, use that too. No sit= no pats/ greeting/ walk/ fun.

[lisalionheart]

Yes we're very hesitant to use any form of pain or physical punishment for his bad behaviours as he's had 2 previous owners and we don't know what they did to him, nor could we bring ourselves to inflict pain, although i do understand why people resort to it with a boisterous, unintentionally dangers dog! we take him to training each weekend, positive reinforcement, which has worked wonders on other issues.

the squeaky toy might be an idea, he actually chewed the squeaker out of a toy and we can blow on it to let out a horrible squeak that he loevs. yes he definately needs to learn better recall (we're working on this with games in our yard) and to sit as he greets people. this fits in with the HALT command, it's just unfortunate that HALT isn't a natural word for us and we stumble to use it when he's running to people.

we use fritz/strassburg (meat in a tube?) as a training aid as he goes nuts for it, again thanks to Nell and Izzy (and now Buster) for this little miracle. very attentive, much more likely to stay within range and follow me if i run away from his distractions.

i had a sly lick in the mouth this morning and a muddy paw print on my work shirt, just delightful.

thanks for the advice so far guys, will pass onto hubby to have a crack at it all too :rolleyes:

[poodlefan]

Does Dempsey attend training classes?

To extinguish this kind of behaviour you have two choices:

1. Make jumping up so aversive that he chooses not to do it. You've indicated that's not what you want to do and it wouldn't be my recommendation anyway.

2. Substitute another desirable behaviour for the jumping. Sitting to be patted is an obvious one. As a noted dog trainer once put it, "sit" extinguishes about 80% of undesireable dog behaviour. :rolleyes:

In the meantime, you have to control every single interaction with people. Show Dempsey the behaviour you want that gets him rewarded by attention and keep him onlead until it's reliable.

If he does this to the wrong person, he'll get labelled "dangerous" and he could badly injure someone. You simply cannot afford to let him offlead in public until he has a reliable recall. In the interim, keep him on a long lead.

I can think of any number of dog owners who wouldn't thank you for allowing him to rush up to their dogs either. If he does it to the wrong dog, he could find himself on the receiving end of some serious aggression.

Edited September 28, 2007 by poodlefan

[kamuzz]

As a noted dog trainer once put it, "sit" extinguishes about 80% of undesireable dog behaviour. :rolleyes:

Would that be sit and stay? My new foster is also inclined to bounce around with excitement so this thread is interesting. I'd have to work on his bum being on the ground longer than the time it takes to eat the treat. Suggestions please?

[sas]

Would never use an electric collar...that is just mean!!

Only if you're not educated on their correct use. They're not at all what you think from the comment you have made, times have changed, the stimulation the dog gets sometimes can't even be felt by a human with the collar on, a trainer will assess what the dogs working level is and set the collar to that level.

Can'y use them in all states of Australia anyhow.

[sas]

If the dog is that bad and you simply can't control it, it sounds like you either have to teach the dog to have a brilliant recall if he's running across the park to greet people by jumping in their faces or you have to deliver a form of punishment that shows the dog the behaviour is not acceptable.

Edited September 28, 2007 by sas

[poodlefan]

As a noted dog trainer once put it, "sit" extinguishes about 80% of undesireable dog behaviour. :rolleyes:

Would that be sit and stay? My new foster is also inclined to bounce around with excitement so this thread is interesting. I'd have to work on his bum being on the ground longer than the time it takes to eat the treat. Suggestions please?

Put the treat in your fist and increase the duration of time until you open your fist.. slowly. Then start to fade the treat slowly out of the picture.

[Tonymc]

Lisa,I would do a check also of how assertive you are being with this Dog. Tony

[Dogfish]

I would not appreciate some dog jumping at me. And if it was jumping on my kids I would probably skitz out big time.

Mine stays on the lead till it learns. If it never learns it will never go loose.

Dogfish

[Nelli]

Hi Lisa

Glad you found your way over here Hope you get some tips that works. Im happy to help!

Got my operation tuesday but a couple of days after that i will be home (for about 2 weeks) if you

want help and lots of doggy love hehe knock on my door

D is such a gorgeous boy