Jumping up at people

My 4 month old English Springer Spaniel has had some clicker training which he responded to very well but the one thing I have been totally unsuccessful with is stopping him from jumping up at people. I think this is one of the most unacceptable traits in a dog and although other dog owners are forgiving it's something which I'm determined to eliminate. A lot of dog owners have said it's something that will diminish as he gets older but I'm not convinced. Does anyone on this board have any experience of this and have a successful strategy?

When i first got my AM bulldog he used to jump up at me and send me on my bum. What i did was everytime he attemped to jump i had treats to hand and would say sit and give him a treat. the only thing is you have to be quick so he/she dont get to the point of jumping up.

another thing i found worked with Buster was to turn my back but again you have to be quick. if you can read your dog you will know when he/she is going to do it. its just about distracting him/her from that behaviour.

it will take time but you will get there eventually. good luck.

Storm does this too and all it's very well us not rewarding their jumping up, but ALL other people have to stop too, which just doesn't happen. Storm knows he's not allowed to jump up at us, but when other people fuss him for doing it, it's very hard to stop him.

i agree if the no jumping is not re-inforced by everyone it does make it more difficult to solve.

Jumping up is a natural thing for dogs to do - it's how they say hello. However some of us humans think it is bad manners.

One of the ways to eliminate this is to turn away from your dog with your arms folded - no eye contact at all. It may take a lot of repetitions but it will work. A human is no fun when they aren't playing, a puppy thinks that this natural behaviour for it is acceptable and it's playful - so if you ignore the play then it stops.. after the puppy has stopped trying to get your attention by jumping - click and treat and say a command word, urm something like "Greet nicely/good greet/hello" something you can say when he is older and you have guests around - you can send the dog to "greet nicely"..

A second way to stop jumping up - play with them at their level, if you think about it, when you're holding a nice tug toy or treat above them - they want it badly - jumping is the quickest way to get it, you move it further away and they think it's a game... so you play and train on their level whilst they are young and they should never develop this jumping.

A third way is to simply put the treat/toy/desired object/subject out of the way. The dog will soon learn that jumping up causes the thing it wants most to go away.

I like the second one the best.

Hi
it`s recall you need to work on really. It`s approaching people that`s the problem IMO, not what happens then.
I would call your dog when he goes towards people. If you want him to greet them, put him on a lead, ask him to sit and praise him. Don`t reward until he is sitting, and ask the people to ignore him till he sits as well.
Allowing him to bounce up to people is inviting trouble - you get dog phobics or people who think dogs are dirty, or those who will give your dog unsuitable food etc. Best avoided really.

Hi, you do not say if the jumping up follows the dog running towards someone when you have recalled it and/or when it is on the lead and/or outdoors or in.

If the dog is jumping up at people when off the lead, then you are concentrating your training at the wrong end of the behaviour, it just demonstrates you have insufficient control ie you cannot recall your dog when required (or you choose not to).

So, assuming this is NOT the case then you need to ensure that the dog learns that 2 feet on the floor = no reward, and 4 feet on the floor = reward.

As dogs do what works, if dont work, they will stop doing it!

I clicker train my dogs so do not put in any commands until I get the behaviour, so there are several ways you can train this depending on the context.

1 Prevent the dog jumping up in the first place by having the lead under your foot, however this is not really practical in most situations. And it means the dog is unable to CHOOSE the correct behaviour.

2 If the dog jumps up at visitors to your house, you can have some food or treats by the door end every time someone comes in, you can throw some on the floor; a dog cannot jump up when its head is down hoovering the floor!

3 Ignore the jumping up, give no verbal, eye or body contact and the MOMENT the dog has 4 feet on the ground, click and treat. Rapidly click and treat whilst the dogs' feet on the floor, this is best done by dropping the food, rather than offering your palm or putting in its mouth as this reduces the chances of a dog repeating the jumping up.

Once this behaviour is quite solid, then you can put the behaviour on cue by giving a stand, sit or down command (provided that it has already been taught this outside of this context)

I hope that helps, if you are clicker training this method will work as long as the dog is NEVER reinforced for having two feet on the ground by ANYONE.

Good Luck

This is the problem though. No matter how we as owners treat our dog's jumping behaviour. If say for example, once we do not catch our dogs in time or anticipate they are going to jump up and they do and the person/persons they jump up at praise and fuss them, then they are getting their behaviour reinforced.

As for recall, I do often have a ball and whistle and when I realise Storm is on his way to jump up at somebody, I blow the whistle and Storm usually turns around expecting the ball to be thrown, so that stops him. In an ideal world though I would love it if he could just go up and greet people as and when, as he is such a friendly dog and many people also like him. But, it's not an ideal world and you just don't know what kind of person he's going to jump up at.

Well, FWIW I never put my dogs at risk of inappropriate behaviour being reinforced.

For example

When my youngest dog was a puppy, I sat outside my local supermarket with a pile of treats and a notice in HUGE letters which said "I am training my dog not to jump, if you would like to pet him or give him a treat, if he DOES you must walk away"

Worked like a charm, and if I thought this was not going to be followed, eg by children, I just walked away. So you CAN control the environment and others to a very high degree if you make the effort!

I like dogs, but I do NOT want ANY dog to jump up at me uninvited, and I ensure that extend that courtesy to others as no doubt many people think the same!

Also I never want to put my dog at risk from someone who may lash out in anger or fear.

Smokeybear, this sounds good, I'm definitely going to try it with Luna. Just telling people to ignore her when she jumps doesn't work. For me, jumping up is the biggest problem with my pup!