Jumping On The Door

[Guest barkdogs]

Hi all,

 

My lovely Allistair is a great guy, for a 17 month old greyhound. I've had him since he was 7 months old and he has been an absolute sweetie.

 

He has one bad habit--jumping on the door, only when I am on the other side of it. I scold him for it but unfortunately I am correcting after the fact and not before the event happens (invariably I am doing something at the time) I am thinking of hanging something on the screen door (he has wrecked it from "asking" to be let in) and on the inside of the regular door that would be uncomfortable enough to break the behavior (not electricity, just enough to make him think twice) anyone have suggestions? also, where to get this? I was thinking of that plastic sheeting with the spines (hurts but does not injure) similar to the backing on car floor mats. I am not sure where to get it--also I am sure others have dealt with this and maybe you have better ideas?

 

Thanks!

[Guest jaws4evr]

Our non-hound does that... the problem is, once they've been rewarded for doing it by being let in to be with you, you're almost SOL. It's like letting them on the furniture, once you do it ONE TIME you're screwed! We try to ignore him when he does it... chastising him doesn't work very well because he's happy that we're coming to the door at least, even if we don't let him in.

 

You could put something on the ground infront of the door to keep him back? Those roller mats for under computer chairs upside down may help, although you'd have to move it every time you let dog in.

 

If you're super consistent in NOT letting the dog in when he jumps, you should make progress in time. Maybe try waiting for 5 minutes of non-jump, or wait until dog is doing something else and not focused on the door, then go call the dog to the door, and as for a sit or a down or whatever he can do? Make it more about the "sit on command" than about the door-bashing?

 

In the meantime good luck with your screen

[Guest barkdogs]

Thanks-unfortunately it has gone on for a while--but I am going to try those clear plastic runners with the spines on to see what that does.

 

***SIGH***

[Guest MyHoodies]

Hey.... my baby boy, Damion, does that too . He learned the behavior from my angle boy Jif (blondie in the backgroud).

does your boy look something like this...

 

 

 

I have tried many times to stop this behavior but not very sucessful; mostly due to my fault i guess .

 

the neighbors think its funny

 

hope you have better sucess then me.... keep us posted on how the mat works.

[Guest PhillyPups]

Hey.... my baby boy, Damion, does that too . He learned the behavior from my angle boy Jif (blondie in the backgroud).

does your boy look something like this...

 

 

 

I have tried many times to stop this behavior but not very sucessful; mostly due to my fault i guess .

 

the neighbors think its funny

 

hope you have better sucess then me.... keep us posted on how the mat works.

 

No suggestions, but I have to say I am not your neighbor but I think that is funny as he77 too. :rotfl

[greymatters]

I'm hardly an expert since we've only had Merlin (our first) for about two months, but fwiw here's my experience: our silly boy would go nuts when I came home from work. If I made it inside he would jump all over me, but if he heard my car in the driveway first he would come running and jump all over the door in his excitement (DH says he's a mama's boy, but it's really just that I'm the Food Lady: mom's home = dinner ).

 

Anyway, we dealt with the excited jumping by me simply turning my back on him (arms crossed) and standing there until he settled down. If I was already inside, I'd just walk past him and keep my back turned or ignore him completely - so hard to do when your new pup is excited to see you! If he was jumping on the door as I approached, I'd walk right up to the door, so he could see me, and then turn around and just stand there until he settled down.

 

Basically, we were trying to follow the NLIF principle: he only gets rewarded (in this case, my presence/attention and then his dinner!) once he starts exhibiting the desired behavior (no jumping). He's a smart boy and learned this pretty quickly - I still get the excited prancing and helicopter tail but he doesn't try to jump on me or the door. As jaws4evr said above, if the behavior has already been rewarded then "reprogramming" it may take some time and practice/consistency - good luck!