Please help me stop my puppy jumping up

[Romanarama]

He's quite good - I think he has the idea that he's not meant to, as he'll usually sit to greet me and dh, he sits to be let out of the crate etc, he gets down when I say 'off".

But, he still jumps up all the time. DS3 has a massive scratch straight down his face and across his eye from this morning. And it's wet at the mo and the muddy paws are just everywere.

What I do now is make him sit for just about anything he might like (dinner, coming in, going out, treats, praise, whatever). I praise him loads when he stops jumping and sits down. Ignoring him when he jumps up is just impossible - the kids try bless them but he can pull them over, and the jumping is quite often accompanied by frenzied mouthing and clothes chewing which is quite hard to ignore.

What shall I do??

(4-month old goldie: info for those who are not bored of hearing about him yet )

I used pet corrector with my goldies (they're so bouncy aren't they?!) and it worked brilliantly...after only a few 'squirts' they learnt not to jump up and to the extent that one of them now sits down immediately anyone comes into our house! They do need a reminder sometimes though.

Also you need to get guests to completely ignore them - this is very very hard especially with people not used to dogs or with those that go "ahhh but he's so cute"...he is now, not when he's 35kg jumping on them.

What is pet corrector? Will google.

Have googled - that looks like a good idea, thanks! Did they stop for everyone, even when there's no spray can in sight?

I have a problem with training consistency as well, as my dh always starts shouting at the puppy when he's doing something 'unwanted', and it's not what I do, so our progress is prob a bit slow. A spray can that only makes a noise would suit dh's desire for corrective action and my wish not to do anything unkind, or show attention in the wrong circumstance.

Do not use a pet corrector on a puppy... I won't desribe what I would do to a person who used one on one of my puppies, but suffice to say, it's not printable on here... Not only is it lazy, but it is not likely to solve the problem long term and will possibly make the puppy nervous. I don't like things like this at all, but for puppies they are a definite no no.

It's the people you need to train, and then the puppy's behaviour will fall into place. The puppy must be ignored when he jumps up and only praised/spoken to when sitting down. I usually get my children to stand up, fold their arms and turn their backs is puppies jump up and if they aren't big enough to stay standing when pup jumps up, or aren't sensble enough to do it, the puppy is not allowed in the room with them unless I am glued to their side so I can enforce the standing, folding etc. It is also an idea to get children to greet/treat puppy through stairgate as there is no chance of them being knocked over and once pupy sits they can safely pet him or feed him through the bars with no fear of knocking over if he suddenly get too excitd.

It is going to be a long slog, not least as puppy is already four months old and the jumping up has no doubt inadvertently been reinforced. People do have to be 100% consistent, which is hard, especially with kids and an unruly husband... It is possble though and will be worth it in the end.

Agree with Midori - you must ignore with your back to him. And yes you all need to be thoroughly consistent.

Good luck, bet he is gorgeous!

Agree with Midori - don't use pet correctors. Everyone in the house needs to be 100% consistent. If the puppy gets a reward (i.e. manages to jump up) even occasionally, it becomes very,very hard to eradicate the behaviour.

They'll often get much worse just before they get better - the dogs, that is

I agree with Bella it will get worse before it gets better. This is known as an 'extinction burst'. Basically, jumping up got the puppy attention before, so he is going to try even harder to get your attention when it stops working.

There is a bit in this link that explains about extinction burts:

k9deb.com/nilif.htm

The NILIF 'programme is actually pretty useful in dog training, and you've been doing some of it already, like getting your pup to sit for his meals. I don't believe n pack theory at all, so I don't think that si why it works, but it works because in order to get what it wants, your dog has to do something you want it to, so it will do that.

Is 4 months old to be teaching this? I feel very inadequate now.

Also, while we're on the subject, , if he's chewing my feet and I ignore him, then he's very happy because he can carry on chewing my feet. If I walk off, I literally heave 15kg of goldie out of the room with me. So I have to tell him to get off, right?

Don't be daft! You sound like you're doing great! Especially as he's your first puppy, isn't he?

I do these things automatically from day 1, so I do sometimes forget that not everyone is as used to it as me.

If it makes you feel any better, the 'rescue' pup we got is around the same age (14 weeks) and when I got him last week he wasn't in the slightest bit toilet trained, didn't know any basic commands such as sit etc, had never worn his lead, let alone learnt to walk with it on. He was also jumping up like mad at all times and very, very bitey. He took several chunks out of my hand the first day. He also had/has an obsesssion with trouser legs.

Hi, Goldies IME are very bouncy so you are dead right in wanting to stop him now. In addition to the no attention thing, I recommend getting EVERYONE to bring their knee up very sharply when he jumps. It won't hurt him, and he will learn, only you hav to do it EVERY time he jumps until he doesn't do it any more , I promise it works (owner of pointer who can jump head height if she chooses!)

It does, thanks

He is my first puppy, though we had a lab when I was growing up.

My pup has ripped my crocs apart. He's currently obsessed with my furry slippers, any dangling string or cord, or flapping anything, and obviously excessively (in my view, not his) interested in the kitchen table.

But otoh he sits, lies down, rolls over and does a great high 5 with his left paw. And he doesn't pee inside anymore (though for some mysterious reason did a big turd on the outside doormat the other day. Maybe it was raining and he didn't fancy the patio .) He's also got over his fear of the car. Could be worse.

DH is a problem. I'm having a hell of a job even getting him to use the right commands - ie the ones I'm using. This because he's Italian and so yells things at pup in Italian, whereas every word he actually understands (all 4 of them) is English. He also is not a very patient man and yells at the pup when he's doing something unwanted, and carries on being cross with him when he's stopped. So basically not very helpful, though saved by the fact that he works 14hr days so doesn't have too much time to be unhelpful . I have pointed out to him that when he shouts the dog just thinks he's barking and it's all part of the game. I shall keep pointing it out. Ad nauseam I expect..... The dcs I can control. I'll make sure not to be on the other side of the room when pup is there.

I wouldn't knee a dog in the chest. That's a very old fashioned and totally useless thing to do.

Re the language thing - do you use hand signals? That can be easier for the dog to understand and also easier for everyone in the house to use consistently.

And if he's chewing your feet - say 'ow!' and take your feet away. Remember he's only got puppy teeth just now....

I don't knee him, though do do a sort of jerky knee flex thing to bat him off sometimes, in anticipation of the pain! If he's just jumping up normally it doesn't hurt, but if he's going for the vice-grip-on-thigh-manic-leg-shag option, then it's agony unless I'm wearing thick cords.

I cut all his nails yesterday, which involved 1/2 hour and robust gardening gloves. I think he thought it was a wild hilarious biting game after a while, which is not v.helpful in training terms, but the points of those claws had to go. I love the pup, but ds3's eyeballs are frankly higher on my priority list.

Anyhow, back to the point. Dh and the boys have had a stern talking to, have been implementing Midori's instructions to the letter, and this morning was already much better, so fingers crossed this will be resolved in a week or so.

I think some adult teeth are coming through at the front - would this be the right time? I still let him mouth me a bit - should I stop that now? He doesn't do it to anyone else.

That pet corrector made me think of something else. I want to teach him to avoid snakes as there are occasionally deadly vipers in our garden in Italy and I don't want him investigating them.

(I've only seen one once, but dh managed to chop its head off, and it still bit a local cat 20 minutes later putting the cat in a coma. The heroic moggy survived, which is almost unheard of, and I suppose because there was only about 1cm of snake attached to the head at that point - boak! The vet was very impressed ).

Would training him to avoid plastic snakes be useful at all do you think? They're never going to look exactly like the real thing, but I'd give it a go if it's better than nothing. I would like to make him very scared of snakes just in case, but don't want to make him nervous obviously.

The head of the snake with just a little bit of snake attached bit the cat?

I feel quite faint. That's quite ghastly. I LOATHE snakes.

Lucky you weren't there. It was vile.

Poor snake though tbh, it was just minding its own business by the garden shed then suddenly got its head chopped off. Not surprised it was p**sed off

Come and have a swim in our pool. From time to time you find a non-venomous (apparently ) water snake doing a length alongside.

cant help with snakes but expect there may be a usa site to help!

We are on our second dog. Both labradoodles so both are/were very bouncy. With first we used to totally ignore him and if nec turn round arms crossed. The new one, now a year, we're using clicker training so click and treat when obeys a command and otherwise ignore. It seems to work, w went to a class to start but didnt do it until he was 7 months old! He is so much better now. Btw my dh also shouts lot and refuses to follow my lead on this and it still works. Perservere and dont forget that from about 9 months they go insane once adolescent. But still lovely! Good luck!

Romanarama.

Am glad things are improving - yes, now is the right time for his adult teeth to be coming through. It's up to you whether you allow him to continue mouthing you: the important thing is that he learns bite inhibition, and knows not to do it too hard. Of course the risk in a house with dc is that the dog will mouth in a way that wouldn't hurt an adult, but would hurt a child.

I think you need Minimu's advice re snakes because the trouble with pet correctors (like electric collars) is that the dog doesn't necessarily associate the unpleasant stimulus with the thing you're trying to make them avoid, so you can end up with a whole new problem in its place.

Yes you can train them to avoid snakes. We live in adder country and ours have been taught to run away.

Don't teach them to be scared of snakes just change their behaviour when they see a snake (conditioned response)

Put plastic snake on the ground, put lead on dog let him see the snake and yell snake in a really excited voice and run away, the dog will follow you thinking this is fun and then click and treat.

Do this enough times and when the dog sees a snake he will come charging over to you for a yummy treat. I sometimes wonder why mine may charge over to me on a walk in the summer and generally see the snal trails on the sand.

You could if you prefer train the dog to bark but I prefer the running away from teh snake.

Once the dog is 100% with plastic snake then try with different type of plastic snakes and even a real one if poss in cage obciously!

Do not teach them to be frightened of the snake just excited and to run to you.

Re Pet corrector I had a spainel referred to me who had been "trained" with pet corrector for jumping up and had had the corrector used in the kitchen. Since that date 9 months later he had never ever gone into the kitchen again. He associated the correction with the room not the behaviour.
Needless to say the clicker turned the behaviour around.
Re the jumping up just keep doing what you are doing some dogs take a little longer to catch on and one jumping up will reward him for ages.
Re the foot biting if I were sitting down and they were chewing my feet I woudl say oww and then give him a toy he could chew and praise like mad.

Brill re the adders, Minimu : I am in adder country too so will use that one.

Making progress with your advice re my pup too, thank you oh wise one

Great, thanks Minimu. Will go and look for brown plastic snakes!

(How long does puppy adolescence last btw? I am a bit worried about this upcoming delight)

Midori I'd missed the nilif post earlier for some reason. Thanks for that.