My Hyper Greyhound..training Help

[Guest snowmo18]

My boy..love him dearly..he is a very interesting greyhound, he is so hyper for a greyhound. I need some advice on how to break his bad behaviors.

 

1. Whenever I come home he jumps and twirls around uncontrollably...knocking his sister (polly our calm greyhound) over..runs into things...has jumped and scratched my legs, back, etc. I have to throw up my arms with my bags/purse to block him from jumping on me. It takes me 5 minutes to just walk across the living room from the front door to open the back door to let them outside to go potty...its getting to bed too much.

 

This is what I have tried (for several weeks): Ignoring him, turning my back (this is when he tries to climb me like a tree and sctraches me all up) and only acknowledging him when he calms down and gives a treat. Taught him to sit on command..which he does, but his butt is wiggling around so much and he gets so excited he can only sit for about 10 seconds and starts twirling all over again. He is 4 yrs old..and has always been this excitable..racing school dropout..we joke that he probably didnt have the attention span for it

 

2. He does the same thing when I grab the leash for walk time...which is everyday..but its such an ordeal, I been letting him out into the backyard right before I grab the leashes so he doesnt freak out in the house. He gets his energy out during play times in the backyard and on our walks. The only time he didnt get excited about putting his leash/harness on was after 3 days at GIG of pure exhaustion.

 

any suggestions?

 

 

[Guest jbbuzby]

My hound did this for a while, and still tries to every time I come home. My solution was to teach him, "GO LAY DOWN." I taught him by grabbing his collar, or setting him up by having a leash on him, and putting him right over to his bed and making him lay down/waiting for him to calm. So every time I come home, it consists of him doing a couple of quick bouncey moves, me saying, "GO LAY DOWN" which he knows, and he goes right over and stays put until he is calm, because he knows this is the only time I will pay him any attention. It will take practice, but it can be done. He was very bad, and would also trample his poor sister. Not any more! I can deal with a couple of happy bounces.

 

For your other problem, I also put him there and tell him to stay before I go get his leash. If he so much as moves or breaks the stay, he gets told, "No, STAY." and put right back where he was. In other words, nothing happens at all until he stays there and I'm ready to call him. If he is REALLY worked up, I make him stay, hook him up AT his bed, and then have him on the leash if he gets bouncey so I can have more control. I haven't had to do this in a while though. Normally he (and his sister) know they must stay at their beds, until I say, "Okay, let's go!" to which both immediately come running over, but I then ask him to "SIT!" while I leash him and we're ready to go.

 

The most important thing is to be consistent in what you expect. It will be hard and seem impossible at first, but stick to it and don't let them budge until they give you what you want. You're welcome to try treats and praise of course when they do, but be careful to not overdue it and get him all riled again! In short, I'd work on basic obedience and always ask him to do something before he gets what he wants, and to deter him from doing behaviors you DON'T want.

 

Good luck!

[Remolacha]

Sounds like Fletcher, who was also a dropout, they said he "lacked focus" What worked for me was, in the beginning, if he ignored the "calm down", I would go back out and close the door. Wait a minute, then come in again. In the beginning, I came in and out a lot! Once he calmed a bit, if he still got excited after I was inside, I would turn my back on him. He got a lot better, but even at 11, he still twirls

For the leash thing, if they start getting out of control (and all the dogs are guilty), I put the leashes back and go sit down until they calm down. They learned this one real quick! Now, all I have to do is stop, cross my arms and wait. They calm down right away.

[Batmom]

Sounds like Fletcher, who was also a dropout, they said he "lacked focus" What worked for me was, in the beginning, if he ignored the "calm down", I would go back out and close the door. Wait a minute, then come in again. In the beginning, I came in and out a lot! Once he calmed a bit, if he still got excited after I was inside, I would turn my back on him. He got a lot better, but even at 11, he still twirls

For the leash thing, if they start getting out of control (and all the dogs are guilty), I put the leashes back and go sit down until they calm down. They learned this one real quick! Now, all I have to do is stop, cross my arms and wait. They calm down right away.

 

Best method . You might work on these first when his bladder is empty and Polly isn't there (maybe off in a different room getting lovies from your husband). Once he's got it down, let Polly re-enter the equation. You can get most dogs to behave lots better in just one session. You need more sessions to cement the learning, but progress is generally pretty quick. Good luck!

[krissy]

Sounds like Fletcher, who was also a dropout, they said he "lacked focus" What worked for me was, in the beginning, if he ignored the "calm down", I would go back out and close the door. Wait a minute, then come in again. In the beginning, I came in and out a lot! Once he calmed a bit, if he still got excited after I was inside, I would turn my back on him. He got a lot better, but even at 11, he still twirls

For the leash thing, if they start getting out of control (and all the dogs are guilty), I put the leashes back and go sit down until they calm down. They learned this one real quick! Now, all I have to do is stop, cross my arms and wait. They calm down right away.

Absolutely. My puppy has learned that she only gets out of her crate if she is calm and laying down. When I come home and she's excited spinning in her crate and crying I just leave the room again until she's quiet. Come back and if she's laying down I start unlatching the door. If she jumps up while I'm doing that I latch it and walk away. Only when she waits for the door to open and I say her release word is she allowed to get up. In your case you would just step back outside. The second he settles even a little you go back in.

[Guest Scarter55]

If you keep him in a crate, than what Krissy said. Lady only comes out of the crate when she is sitting and quiet. In fact, for the past couple of months she has to sit once we open the crate until we tell her she can come out.

 

You might try putting a a barrier in front of the door. This will allow you to enter your house and give him commands without him jumping all over you. He'll learn that you will only come across the barrier once he is sitting/on his bed/or whatever. Also, we try to give the majority of our cuddles to Lady when she is on her bed, so now she will often run there when she is excited and wants attention.

 

She went through a small jumping stage. We simply walked in to her. No turning, knee to the chest, pushing away. We just "took our space back" and walked straight into her when she jumped on us. The jumping only lasted about a week, and now she never ever jumps on us or others. Something you might try.

[RedHead]

Good suggestions so far. Most people instinctively move back or hold their hands in the air when a dog jumps which only reinforces it. If you actually walk towards them it is very hard for them to jump. Ignoring is also good but you may need to do more. Is your dog food motivated? If you walk in the door with a really smelly piece of food (like baked chicken or liver) your dog can catch the scent and will focus on your hand, which you can hold down, and reward him for staying down. Just make sure you aren't rewarding him when he is still hyper (even if he isn't jumping). Eventually, he may focus on the food, not so much on you and jumping up. Once he gets the routine you can phase out the food. Just another suggestion to try....

[KickReturn]

How much walking is he getting? Some dogs just need more. Yes you can train better behaviour but if what he really need is more time on walks that you're not really addressing the root of the problem. I believe many agencies do a diservice to Greyhounds by advertising that they can get by with two twenty minute walks per day. Same with calling them "couch potatoes". For some this applies but for many it does not.

 

And time in the yard doesn't count IMO. The guy probably wants to explore and sniff.

[Guest snowmo18]

I started sticking my knee up when he jumped last night...I can tell it had an immediate effect on him..so Ill keep that up.

 

For Raider..yard time seems to be more beneficial than walks. The yard he runs and runs, twirls, and gets his energy and excitment and sniffing all in. On walks he is held back by our people pace and I can tell he never fully seems satisfied with the walks...unless I go jogging with him and even at that he just wants to go faster than I can handle lol. Recently, we try to let him getting most of his energy/excitement out in the yard and then go on a walk..so that its less stressful for us and his sister who likes more casual walks.

[Guest Clawsandpaws]

A great thing to do is some obedience training. I trained Dudley to do a few things, but the most beneficial one is "sit." Dudley MUST sit if he wants me to put on his collar, it has helped SO much with getting him to calm down and not maul me every time we go somewhere. I used Jennifer's Neversaynever blog: http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/2009/08/greyhound-sits-101.html

 

Once you get sit, or down, everything else comes easier too. Sometimes the mental stimulation is a great tool for bored/rowdy hounds.

 

If he is not walking nicely on a lead, you can train that too.

http://neversaynevergreyhounds.blogspot.com/2008/01/heeling.html

 

Some of the techniques are harder to do than others, so modify them to fit your needs, but if you read her blog, you can see the basics.

[a_daerr]

My Truman is also a jumper... Unfortunately, no amount of training has been able to completely get rid of it. I've made good progress by ignoring and turning my back when he's jumping. But he still does his "little hops" anytime we come home. It's like he knows what he's supposed to do, but he's too excited to make it happen for any prolonged period of time. I had to laugh when you said about the "ten second wiggle butt" because mine does the same thing!

 

If you've consistently done this type of training with your boy and he's still jumping, it may be a maturity thing. I'm still crossing my fingers that once Truman grows up and settles down a little more, the impulsive behaviors will decrease.

[Jackandgrey]

Wow when I started reading this I thought did I post this without remembering? Jordy is exactly the same! He is 4 and wasn't a racing washout but he is 4 going on 2! He definitely needs to learn self control and I also have to watch that his jumping and twirling doesn't land him on top of his 13 year old brother. He's only been home for 2 months so he is a work in progress. This thread has been very helpful!

[Guest Giselle]

Neuroticism and over excitability are personality traits. They are inherent characteristics that you cannot change with exercise. I find the "Just give them more exercise" argument reeks of a certain popular TV dog "trainer" (I honestly wouldn't even call him that), but it is advice that is mostly unhelpful in these situations. The problem here is that the dog needs to learn impulse control. To do so, you need to teach him what won't work, as well as what WILL work. I would combine the door method with the Go Lay Down method.

 

1) When you open the door and he starts jumping, IMMEDIATELY walk back out and shut the door on him. Repeat repeat repeat until he learns to self-inhibit, and you actually see him thinking, waiting politely, for you to come in.

2) Train him to wait on a mat until you tell him "Okay!". This teaches him very explicitly that he cannot approach you until you give him the Okay. It's a way of telling him exactly what behaviors are good, while giving you full control of the situation. See the above posts for details on how to train. The early posts in this thread were absolutely correct.

 

Also, one last word: the knee in the chest technique only works because it causes the dog discomfort. It is a form of punishment. Would you rather train your dog by physical discomfort or would you rather teach him what behaviors are/are not okay by using his brain?

[Guest Giselle]

Also, here's a video on teaching self control that uses the same principle as the "door method":

http://drsophiayin.com/resources/video_full/stellah_sits_for_excited_petting