Suggestions/ideas About Jumping Up

[Guest k9soul]

Rudy is very very outgoing and loves meeting people. He does not jump a lot, but in those first initial moments of meeting someone he really really wants to kiss the person's face and he will jump up suddenly. It's a bit hard to prevent because it's not like he pulls his way over to them and is jumping all over them repeatedly; it's just we walk up and he is wagging and suddenly up he goes to reach the person's face. It happens especially if they are baby talking him or using a higher pitched voice. I've noticed it seems to be more of a leash behavior too, because if someone comes in my house or I go to my parents he doesn't really seem inclined to jump up. He does jump on me on occasion, mostly when I pick up his leash to go for a walk and he is so excited he jumps up.

 

I know it is actually a very natural behavior for a dog to want to get to face level of someone, but obviously I don't want him to knock someone over or jump on them with muddy feet! I want to discourage the jumping but not in a scolding manner that he would come to associate with meeting people. If I'm in a place that is more heavily peopled such as PetSmart or at the Fun Runs, he doesn't seem to do this. It's more when we suddenly meet someone on a walk that wants to pet him. Anyone have suggestions/ideas?

 

The fact it's not a uniform behavior in a situation that I can easily reproduce makes it harder to work on. Also I should mention he gets down easily when I tell him "off" but I'm not having much luck preventing it from happening. Right now I just warn people who pet him that he may try to jump up.

[rascalsmom]

Rudy is very very outgoing and loves meeting people. He does not jump a lot, but in those first initial moments of meeting someone he really really wants to kiss the person's face and he will jump up suddenly. It's a bit hard to prevent because it's not like he pulls his way over to them and is jumping all over them repeatedly; it's just we walk up and he is wagging and suddenly up he goes to reach the person's face. It happens especially if they are baby talking him or using a higher pitched voice. I've noticed it seems to be more of a leash behavior too, because if someone comes in my house or I go to my parents he doesn't really seem inclined to jump up. He does jump on me on occasion, mostly when I pick up his leash to go for a walk and he is so excited he jumps up.

 

I know it is actually a very natural behavior for a dog to want to get to face level of someone, but obviously I don't want him to knock someone over or jump on them with muddy feet! I want to discourage the jumping but not in a scolding manner that he would come to associate with meeting people. If I'm in a place that is more heavily peopled such as PetSmart or at the Fun Runs, he doesn't seem to do this. It's more when we suddenly meet someone on a walk that wants to pet him. Anyone have suggestions/ideas?

 

The fact it's not a uniform behavior in a situation that I can easily reproduce makes it harder to work on. Also I should mention he gets down easily when I tell him "off" but I'm not having much luck preventing it from happening. Right now I just warn people who pet him that he may try to jump up.

I will be watching this thread, as Phoebe does the same thing. It is worse with her, too, if the people act excited/talk in a high pitched voice. But even on a walk, she wants to enthusiastically greet EVERY PERSON she sees--she has never met a stranger!

She's a rather big girl, tall and 66 pounds right now, so she can knock someone over!....especially the in-laws.

 

Hoping for some good advice.

Edited October 8, 2013 by rascalsmom

[Guest k9soul]

Rascalsmom, that's about Rudy's size too. I wonder if this is a more unusual issue or if it's just one there's not an easy answer to!

[Batmom]

1. Teach a "four-on-the-floor" or "hold still" command. Starting this is easy -- your dog is standing up, "Four on the floor!" + "Good dog!" (or click) + treat. Repeat repeat repeat repeat.

 

1b. Now you have a command you can use to practice with approaching people! Practice with some people the dog knows first. Some people like to practice by giving treats to the approachers to hold at hip level; others prefer to give the reward themselves (handler of dog gives reward). Give your command as people are approaching, starting with the people @ 10' away. If dog ignores your command and starts to jump, your friends are going to turn around and walk off @ 10-20'. Wait a minute or two, then try again.

 

2. Don't reward any jumping-up behavior with attention, walkies, etc. (Really hard if you must leash-walk for potty purposes.) You pick up the leash, dog jumps, you put down the leash and go sit back down and ignore dog. When dog is calm again, you can get back up, pick up the leash, .... repeat. You might not even make it out the door the first day.

[Acadianarose]

I am interested in this issue too. Payton is 67 pounds and he jumps up when is really excited – especially when I grab the leashes. Night before last, he jumped up and hit me square in the chest. Talk about take your breath away. I am trying to just stand there until he calms down and see that works.

 

He also jumps up when meeting new people. He does it fairly consistently so I am trying to anticipate it and hold him so he can’t jump. I don’t know if he will eventually learn not to jump on people or not.

 

Since it happens while you have him on his leash, can you hold him tightly so that you can stop his jumping as he starts? My GSD did that and since she was on a leash, I could hold her leash tight so she couldn’t jump up and tell her no. She caught on pretty quickly. I am not sure if that would work on a greyhound.

 

Hopefully, someone will let us know what works.

[Guest k9soul]

The "hold still" command sounds like a great starting point. I'll start working on that one.

[rascalsmom]

Good tips there, Jey. We definitely need to work on this.

This morning, on our walk, we ran into my brother--of course Phoebe sorta/kinda knows him, so was even more excited, and tried to jump. I told him we need to work on that, did he have any tips?--he had a Lab for about 12 years. His reply: "You can't do anything about it. Shasta (his Lab) did it till the end".

I don't think it's THAT hopeless--but heaven knows that Lab had more education than some of my children and EVEN had swimming lessons! Yes, a Lab had swimming lessons. Never could quite figure that out....

[NeylasMom]

I would teach a polite greeting that involves sitting when meeting people. You can go with four on the floor, but I think the sit is a better option since it's a more "opposite" behavior if that makes any sense.

 

So, manage his behavior to prevent the jumping in the first place. Just keep a short leash as people approach and ask them not to pet him until he's sitting. You may need to cue the sit initially,but with some practice the person approaching will become the cue and the sit should happen automatically. Then reward him frequently with high value treats for sitting and staying seated. If he gets up, ask the person to stop petting him until he sits back down. Obviously, it can be tough to control what other people (esp. strangers) do so I would practice this first with friends who you know will follow your instructions and avoid greeting people who won't.

 

The biggest mistake people are likely to make when teaching this, not rewarding the dog enough for sitting and staying seated. I really prefer to teach new behaviors with a clicker, but if you don't want to, use a verbal marker. Dog sits, click (or say your verbal marker "Yes!" or whatever you use) and treat. Then continue to mark and treat pretty much continuously at first. Over time you can lengthen the time between click and treats, but I would take that very slowly. There's no harm in reinforcing "too much" but if you don't reinforce heavily and he jumps up and gets rewarded, you've just taught him that being persistent is more likely to get him what he wants.

[Batmom]

I have done the "sit" thing too but find *I* can avoid getting whacked in the chin more easily if I have the dog just stand instead. YMMV. For the CGC, they do have to sit when approached by a stranger although they aren't penalized if they stand up after the initial sit.

[Guest k9soul]

I really appreciate the tips. We didn't run into any people today on our walks but I did work a bit with getting him to stand calmly while I put his leash on, which he quickly picked up on. He's really a fast learner and very reward-motivated.

[NeylasMom]

I have done the "sit" thing too but find *I* can avoid getting whacked in the chin more easily if I have the dog just stand instead. YMMV. For the CGC, they do have to sit when approached by a stranger although they aren't penalized if they stand up after the initial sit.

What are you doing, bending over the dog to give him his treat?

[Batmom]

Who, ME????

 

But, they CAN jump more forcefully from a sit than they can from a standing position.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Fortunately I didn't bite my tongue in half and the bruise didn't last long.)

[NeylasMom]

[Guest k9soul]

Ouch!!

[Guest Waterdog66]

I always knew greyhounds had a hard head

[Guest Zizi]

I have this same problem with Jerzi. She jumps when people come over or when I come home from being out. I have bruises all over my legs from her. She doesn't do this on our walks just at home. She just started this we have had her 3 months now. I was looking for ideas on how to correct this as well.

[RedHead]

Most people back up when a dog jumps up...this only reinforces it. If you keep walking towards the dog, it makes it much more difficult People are often more of a problem to train because it is hard to get them to completely ignore the dog and they almost always inadvertently reward jumping up/overexcitement.

[Guest k9soul]

Rudy is pretty good about not jumping on me, but my lab mix used to be really bad about this. What seemed to work best with her is when she jumped I turned my body to the side and faced away from her, as soon as she got down I'd turn back towards her and give her attention again, or even squat down so she could give kisses or whatever. If she jumped again I would immediately stand and turn away again until she settled back down. For her that was all it took.