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Thread: Calm Greetings

  1. #1
    Senior Dog Halcyon's Avatar
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    Calm Greetings

    I admit, I didn't really work on this as a puppy. We don't get a lot of visitors (maybe three visits a year) so we've never really trained it nor has it ever really been a problem. At puppy school, we were taught to attach a leash on them and stand still. The puppy could move until he hit the end of the leash but the visitor would walk away until he stopped and dropped into a sit. As a puppy, I instructed all visitors on the "no touch, no look, no eye contact" rule and we used the above exercise. If he jumped out of the sit as they approached, they were to turn their backs and walk away until he was in a sit. It worked when he was off leash at the dog park as well. He never jumped on people.

    This worked really well...until he got big.

    Now, the family doesn't have a problem with his jumping. We've never given him attention when he was jumping until he was in a sit. He doesn't jump on us. He will drop into a down or a sit. Visitors, on the other hand, not so much. I did try to leash him but he would pull strongly and when I planted my feet, he would start barking. We've had two visits this year with cousins who wanted to pet him and play with him. These aren't little kids either. They're older teens to adults. The first batch were dog people (grew up with dogs), albeit small dog people. They came out whilst Bobby and I were playing in the backyard so I didn't have time to grab a leash. As expected, Bobby was jumping like crazy and they followed my ground rules of no attention until sitting. It helped that they were tall. It was fine for them.

    However, the second batch were not experienced around dogs although they did say they wanted to own a large breed dog. I did warn them beforehand of his wild excitement which they were fine with. I tried the leash thing and he just ended up barking. They said they were fine with the jumping so I decided to see whether it would work as well as it did with the first lot because the leash method was not working. I do know that the barking is not aggression but excitement and frustration and I feel as if the leash might have been the problem. When he stopped and sat, I released him and he started running to sniff and eventually, jump. They tried to turn away but they would excite him further by sort of screaming, cowering instead of standing tall and against my wishes, started petting him whilst he was jumping! I quickly called Bobby back and pulled him back when he wasn't listening as I didn't want him rewarded any further.

    Now, I've recently been told that the second lot of visitors are coming back sometime during/after Christmas. I regret not working more on this and being better prepared with what might have gone wrong. I should have known better that not everyone can take the jumping until he sits. Neighbours aren't big dog people either so I can't recruit them to help. I want to be a lot better prepared in both training and what to do during the greeting if something goes wrong. To do so, I have actively been working on recall, LAT, mat work and stays. I have also been proofing this with family members distracting him (e.g. calling him, waving arms, tempting with food).

    What can I do to calm his excitement?

    ETA: When I know people are coming over, I do exercise him beforehand.
    Last edited by Halcyon; 12-18-2014 at 07:08 PM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I've posted what worked for me before. It's rough. It uses aversion. When the kind, non-aversive methods didn't work I went to this to protect my 91 year old mother at the expense of the dog. A trainer showed us this at the request of another owner of a jumping dog. What breed was that other dog? Need you ask?

    The Yank 'Em Down Method. Dog on leash, helper entices dog to jump, yank him enough to defect the landing on the person. Your goal is not to throw your dog across the room, just keep him off the helper. When you yank give your don't jump word. Ours is FEET (on the floor.) The little poodle mix ( not that little really) took one yank and no matter how the helper encouraged him to jump he would not. The other Lab took two yanks, Oban took three.

    If you don't think you can gauge how much oomph to put into your yank don't try it. We had cushiony floor in the training room, so maybe do it on grass outside.

    There are some advantages to this over other methods. For one the dog will pay no attention to those people, like my Mum, who encourage him to jump, knowingly or not. For two it works at a distance, it does for us. For three it's YOU the dog is listening to, not someone else.

    About three months later Oban needed a refresher, just one yank. He hasn't needed one since. He was 8.5 months when we first did this in class.

    I think it helps that Oban does have a word that allows him to jump on me or other people. HUG. There have been a few wayward jumps on strangers that for some reason said HUG out loud, of course he was forgiven for those.

    If you try it let us know what you think and how it works. I'm sure you'll get lots of less rough suggestions, try them first. Good luck.

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  4. #3
    Senior Dog Halcyon's Avatar
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    Thanks, Snowshoe. I'm fine with aversives in training if done correctly and within reason. I do believe that there are times when corrections are necessary as in the case of your grandmother and Oban.

    Would you yank them whilst they are in midair or when they've made contact? Do you make them do anything else like sit before you release them or do you just let them go back and repeat as necessary? Is this all done with just a flat collar and a leash? In the meantime, what should the helper be doing? I assume, just standing and ignoring the dog?
    Last edited by Halcyon; 12-18-2014 at 07:19 PM.

  5. #4
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Before they make contact. Flat collar and leash Didn't make them do anything else. Just sort of let them think about what happened when they jumped. This truly is counter to most training we do nowadays. The yank is startling and unpleasant and your tone of voice should be firm and commanding. It's truly an aversive training method.

    I think I should say too, this doesn't necessarily make your dog calm. It just stops the jump. I know when favourite people are met or come over there's still an awful lot of whining, wiggling wagging and pushing against them. But no jumping.

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  7. #5
    Senior Dog Halcyon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Snowshoe View Post
    Before they make contact. Flat collar and leash Didn't make them do anything else. Just sort of let them think about what happened when they jumped. This truly is counter to most training we do nowadays. The yank is startling and unpleasant and your tone of voice should be firm and commanding. It's truly an aversive training method.

    I think I should say too, this doesn't necessarily make your dog calm. It just stops the jump. I know when favourite people are met or come over there's still an awful lot of whining, wiggling wagging and pushing against them. But no jumping.
    Thanks. I don't mind the whining, wiggling, wagging and pushing as long as the jumping is gone. The jump is what really has the potential to damage. I also like how the dogs won't listen to others. I've been in scenarios whilst training down-stays, with people encouraging Bobby to jump up (he was a puppy then) by patting their knees with an excited voice even when I tell them not to. From training Bobby, one thing I've learnt is to pick my battles wisely otherwise, it's just a lose-lose situation for all of us. Meanwhile, when should the visitors be able to reward him with attention? Just when all four paws are on the ground?

    I assume that Oban is now off leash with visitors. If he were to suddenly jump, ignore your "FEET" command and any recall, what would you do (he is off-leash in this scenario)?

  8. #6
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    I yank him again, just by grabbing his collar or neck and giving him a bit of a shake. Oban is 7 now. This works very well for us. I admit I watch in high jump potential situations and might be saying FEET loudly a few times. But there aren't many times he forgets.

    I leave it up to the friend/visitor/ neighbour. If they want to pet Mr. Wiggly, Waggly, Whiny dog in the midst of his carrying on they can. Somehow he knows the difference between a Rally trial and a visitor.

    Yes, he's off leash. I can yell this down the trail and I'm confident he won't jump. The only exception I make is small children. He hasn't jumped on a child since he was 5 months old but it reassures parents and some kids if I get in there and act like I'm his boss.

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  10. #7
    Senior Dog sheltieluver's Avatar
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    I got lucky Gauge was never a big jumper but we never allowed him to jump so I'm not sure if that is the reason. He does however go crazy when people come over which isn't that often so like you its hard to work on it. He does the wiggle, excited whine not much barking. I basically let him but tell them ignore him, don't look, don't touch until he is calm. Its frustrating when people don't listen and say oh hes ok or pet him when hes like that. I only reward calm behavior and it takes me longer to train him because when they give him attention it messes with the training.

    I would do what snowshoe suggested if jumping on people.

  11. #8
    Senior Dog doubledip1's Avatar
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    I always instruct people to put their knee up in the air. Not knee the dog, but you put your knee up in the air BEFORE the jump, when you see the cogs turning, and if the dog jumps into your knee, that's their own fault. Kind of a "justice" response.
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  13. #9
    Senior Dog sheltieluver's Avatar
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    ^^^ I did this last night to Benelli when he launched himself at me. He thought twice about doing it again.

  14. #10
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    LOL, there's another one my sister learned with her most recent English Shepherd pup. Similar to the knee but milder still. You put your hands together, palms down, so when the dog jumps she bumps her nose into a "palm plank." Worked wonders with Sis's mild mannered Bonnie. I did it down the trail the other day with the overly exuberant Goldendoodle and she simply used my palm plank as a support to rest her front feet on. Bumped her nose, didn't even bother to land her front feet in between, simply put them up on my hands. I swear the thought bubble over her head said, "Oh gee, thanks, that helps." LOL, you gotta laugh.

 



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