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 )

A couple of really good books are 'The Culture Clash' by Jean Donaldson and some of the books by Karen Prior are quite god too. I liek the Karen Pror ones because she talks abtu training dolphins and how it is simply impossible to make them comply by force, as they would just swin off, so they needed to find another way. Anyone who has ever watched Dolphins can see how much they enjoy their work and personaly I think that is what we should be striving for with our dogs.

I can remember the breeder of our first dog waving a rolled up newspaper at her dogs when they barked. It did stop them at the time, but it didn't stop them barking again next time they felt like it. My dogs hardly ever bark because they have learnt it doesn't benefit them to do it. I hate hearing people's dogs barking in the gardens all summer, despite being a dog lover. We were also told by our girl's breeder that feedin raw chicken wings would certainly kill her, to use a walking stick in front of her face to teach her to wak to heel, that I sholdn't allow my first litter of puppis to play fight, and other little 'gems'. Luckily, I found my own way.

I think as a new dog owner, it can be confusing, but for those who do look into all methods, some clearly make sense and others do not. I have found, for example, that most people who believe in pack theoy have never looked at anything different to that and like the romantiscised idea of calling their dogs a pack. I think there are also a large proportion who get some kind of thrill out of assuming themselves 'pack leader' and are probably inferior in other areas of their lives.

I think it is just like having babies - the ideas my mum "Helped" me with where not what the current thinking on motherhood currently were.

The same with dog training some people have used meathods for many years and are reluctant to change over to the newer, styles of training.

No doubt that kneeing your goldie will work but I would prefer the positive appriach myself. Also the positive methods allow you so much more scope and things we could never train our dogs to do we now can.

If you see a clicker trained dog they will be wagging their tail eager to work but a dog trained in the more "traditional" methods can be more subdued and although trained slightly apprehensive.

What would you prefer to be kicked to stand up every time you sat down or to be given a bit of chocolate every time you stood up.

Don't worry, there's no way I'm kneeing my goldie!