Is it just me?

[SunDance]

A friend at one of the parks just got a miniature Aussie (she'd had standards previously). We've run into her three times so far...not daily...and yesterday she let us know how she was training the pup to not jump on people and asked that we act accordingly. Unfortunately, what she's doing strikes me as teasing the pup without actually connecting our action with the undesirable behavior. She said that she hadn't tried this method with her other ones (who were not jumpers).

Is it just me?

We acknowledge the pup and let her know to come over....but, if she jumps, we just turn our back on her and walk away. No verbal or hand motion correction. I did it that one time and felt like....no, you were wrong, I didn't really want to pet you. The pup had no idea what happened and looked around for someone else to pay attention to her...someone who wouldn't just walk away. There is nothing to tie a person walking away with her jumping.

I'm thinking about letting her know that I'll just be one of the people who doesn't acknowledge her at all....many people don't pet every dog they see....so that I don't confuse her.

Am I not seeing something? I've never encountered anyone "training" like this for any behavior and it just feels ineffective and cruel.

[Snowshoe]

That's what we were taught to do. It did seem to work with most pups. Another method, the yank 'em down method, was much more teasing and quite rough and could easily lead to injury but it's the method it took with Oban.

[lovemylabby]

We were also taught this when we when to puppy school...when your puppy jumps, we were taught to turn your back on the puppy and walk away a little. By doing this, you are not rewarding him for bad behavior. And the puppy eventually learns that if he wants some attention, he needs to stop jumping. By letting the puppy jump on you, it's giving him the attention he wants and he will continue to do so. Does this make sense?

[barry581]

It was one of the methods we tried with Sophie to get her to stop jumping, and like every other method we tried, it didn't work. She would literally choke herself out while wearing a prong collar to jump on people.

Honestly one of the few things I like about Ceasar Milan's methods is the "no touch, no talk, no eye contact" when first meeting a dog. While it's really hard not to acknowledge a happy, wiggley puppy, it really does teach them that the human decides when acknowledgement happens.

[SunDance]

What complicates things with this particular pup is that the woman has her on a retractable leash and she has free rein to run up to people so she's already totally excited. Her previous two dogs were walked off leash (not allowed in this park) but put on 6' leashes when someone with a dog approached. I don't know if she leashed them around people without dogs because we always had at least Danny with us when we saw her and she knew Dan was off-limits for her dog(s). She "controlled" her two with treats being offered....I never heard an actual command of any type. She always used to comment on how well behaved Danny (especially) and Sunnie were.

What I always did with mine was, yes, step back/walk a bit away....but with an "uhhh" or "leave it" or just plain "no" throughout the years. Or a held up hand along with the vocal. Something to mark the exact behavior. It sounds like dogs eventually "get" the point, from what you're saying. It just feels so wrong to only walk off....and I mean walk off, not circle back to try again. Just walk off. I presume she circles back to actually train, but I don't know.

We didn't bump into her this morning so I'm going to play things by ear, rely on your comments a bit to try to avoid what would be an awkward and unnecessary moment.

[smartrock]

It was one of the methods we tried with Sophie to get her to stop jumping, and like every other method we tried, it didn't work. She would literally choke herself out while wearing a prong collar to jump on people.

Honestly one of the few things I like about Ceasar Milan's methods is the "no touch, no talk, no eye contact" when first meeting a dog. While it's really hard not to acknowledge a happy, wiggley puppy, it really does teach them that the human decides when acknowledgement happens.

Sounds like our experience. If the person stops, chats for a bit outside the range of the dogs' ability to jump on them, my dogs will soon sit down or lie down, or go look at something else. Then once they've gotten over the excitement of seeing a new friend, they're OK to be petted. If the person insists upon immediately approaching the dog within leash range, Henry will sometimes still want to jump up. I warn the person that he might jump and, while staring right into his face, they almost all say something like, "That's OK, I love dogs" and forge ahead. Not encouraging the jumping by turning away is fine, just fine. I'd also rather they not invite the dog over to them during the initial greeting but wait until the dog is acting like they have some sense in their heads. I'd certainly give the pup a chance to try a different strategy for greeting people if they start to jump. Once they're calm or seated or standing quietly, it's OK for them to get petted so let's try again.

I teach the grands to fold their arms across their chest and turn their backs to the dogs, walking away if they need to (not running- that signals a game). "Act like a tree." It's hard for the older one who really could not care less about seeing us adults, it's the dogs she wants to see when she visits us. Henry knows he can count on her for some good games. The younger one makes a great tree, as long as she's not also squealing!

Oh, and Boo to retractable leads!

[barry581]

Sounds like our experience. If the person stops, chats for a bit outside the range of the dogs' ability to jump on them, my dogs will soon sit down or lie down, or go look at something else. Then once they've gotten over the excitement of seeing a new friend, they're OK to be petted. If the person insists upon immediately approaching the dog within leash range, Henry will sometimes still want to jump up. I warn the person that he might jump and, while staring right into his face, they almost all say something like, "That's OK, I love dogs" and forge ahead. Not encouraging the jumping by turning away is fine, just fine. I'd also rather they not invite the dog over to them during the initial greeting but wait until the dog is acting like they have some sense in their heads. I'd certainly give the pup a chance to try a different strategy for greeting people if they start to jump. Once they're calm or seated or standing quietly, it's OK for them to get petted so let's try again.

I teach the grands to fold their arms across their chest and turn their backs to the dogs, walking away if they need to (not running- that signals a game). "Act like a tree." It's hard for the older one who really could not care less about seeing us adults, it's the dogs she wants to see when she visits us. Henry knows he can count on her for some good games. The younger one makes a great tree, as long as she's not also squealing!

Oh, and Boo to retractable leads!

Sophie didn't care if the person was out of range, she was bound and determined she was going to jump on them and that was that. She was by far the worst jumper we ever had.