View Full Version : Puppy jumping on people
Since you all helped me with the furniture problem, maybe you can help me with the puppy on people problem too!
I don't know if the issue is her age, her breed, or training, but we're still having the problem of her jumping on people when she gets excited or playful.
She's a 6-month old boxer puppy, small for her breed (vet thinks she'll top out at appx 45 lbs), and high energy but well-behaved otherwise. We've tried to break her of the habit, and she seems to improve temporarily, but then reverts back. From reading about this breed, it seems this is where the name boxer comes from, and that is what she likes to do - almost a pawing at people; even when we cuddle, she wants to paw at me in play. This only happens at home, she's very calm on our walks. But if someone comes over to our house, she gets excited and wants to jump up and paw at their thighs.
Any ideas or advice? We really want to eliminate this behavior. She's not treat motivated at all. And if we become too stern in our scolding she cowers in fear. But when we're "calm and assertive" as Cesar Millan would say, it only works temporarily.
:help:
p.s. I'm also wondering if some of it could be from stress. The family that surrendered her only had her for 2 months, and she's only been with us for about a week and a half. Twice when I went to leash her for our morning walk she began to cower in fear, and I realized it was because (1) I was using the hat that I was wearing when I got her from the shelter, and as soon as I took the hat off, she was ok; and (2) The second time, I hadn't put on my walking hat yet, and she didn't know where I wanted to take her. Once I put on the walking hat she was ok.
Maybe some anxiety or uncertainty is making her reactive? Or maybe I'm reading way too much into it and she's just being a puppy!
ETA: The weird thing is that she learns other things really quickly. She's great on a leash, completely potty trained, etc... This is the only thing we're struggling with.
My very social foxhound is 8 years old and still jumps on people when excited so I will watch this thread with special interest.
Today when DH came home I had him try a tip to just ignore her completely until she calmed down. The tip (I can't remember where I found it) said that you can also ignore the pet for 5-10 minutes when you come home. It took less than one minute for her to calm down for DH. I was reading that for dogs jumping up on others is a sign of greeting and affection, so it's like trying to change the way that they relate to humans. But when we're playing she gets so excited - and she is fast! - she could really hurt someone.
mschrisgo2
6-2-14, 11:09pm
Your dog sounds a lot like my friends' cattledog; he's about 55 lbs now full grown. His idea of play is very similar. She's worked with a trainer so that the 2 of them could play together without her getting hurt! He broke her lip open twice, all in play, and she was becoming fearful that he would hurt someone else. The trainer has taught signals for "rough play OK" and "stop." He has specifically designated toys for rough play- a rope toy, a boomerang made from an old tire, and a heavy duty ball. He also has an extremely reliable "sit-stay" when it's all done. So,
I suggest a very good trainer!
awakenedsoul
6-2-14, 11:45pm
Puppies are like that. It sounds like she's doing really well with you. I think the ignoring is a good idea. I used to use my knee, too. You can also train her to sit and stay when people come in the house. My dogs get more hyper when people come over...I think they feel my nervousness. These two dogs are not nearly as well behaved as my old dogs. Dominance is much harder to train.
Spritz collar. We let our puppy (now full grown) jump on her dad when he gets home from work but used a spritz collar to train her to not jump of other people. The collar also has a beep-beep sound setting. The spritz is like a shot of lemon pledge on the chin. Spritz with a stern 'no' did it. Only spritzed 3-4 times and she was trained.
I checked out the spritz collar and found this site with info. http://www.securepets.com/psbc300.html
I like the idea of using a gentle spray to control behaviour but no stress for the dog. I did have the Innoteck with static energy but he got too stressed and simply quivered when we put it on rather than enjoy the freedom of no lead. We got our dog from the Humane Society and I believe that someone had tried to train him with the static charge as he didn't bark when anyone came to the house ever. Since DH's passing, he will bark using a special bark when I have visitors.
That collar is interesting. I read recently that dogs hate the scent of citrus. Over the weekend, the puppy was doing a bit of digging at a tree root and I put some fresh lemon peels in the hole; she hated the scent and quickly covered it up with dirt :). She's very quiet, and I like that she is a good guard dog, so I don't want to discourage her barking - she's only barked once since we got her and that was in play. When someone comes to the door she does a low growl to alert us.
The thing is, she knows we don't like her jumping, and she can control it - when we're out on walks she never jumps. And yesterday she quickly calmed down to get affection from dh. She's very smart. So I'm going to see if I can offer her a trade: her spot on the couch for the jumping. I've decided to put her couch off-limits until she can control her jumping. I put some plastic bins on it to make it inaccessible. I'm hoping she can make the connection. And I do realize that it's hard for her to change her behavior, she's a puppy and the jumping and pawing are natural behaviors. I want to teach her that she has to earn her spot on the couch. I'm hoping that she will realize that it's a good trade and choose to control the behavior on her own, rather than us being after her about it all the time.
rodeosweetheart
6-3-14, 11:08am
We have the same problem with our golden puppy. She grabs with her teeth--has ripped towels, bathrobe, etc. We need a trainer, too, that sounds promising. What is the spritz collar? I bought a citronella collar for barking--is it the same collar--have been too busy to unwrap it and try it.
We finally resorted to getting out the muzzle when she would not leave cat alone--cat started hissing and clawing, and the terrier came over and threatened the cat--the poor cat, because she clawed at the puppy. Who is 3 times the size of the cat and will not take no for an answer. So we put a muzzle on her when she won't stop the biting--very much jump up on you, excitement, and left it on a couple of minutes, patted her head, etc. Now if you show her the muzzle she stops and looks abashed.
It is really hard to get her to stop the excitement jumping and the wanting to "play" with her teeth. Nothing fazes her--the older dog growls when she bugs her, but she just puts her paw on her, climbs on top of her.
I felt so bad for the puppy this morning. We were cuddling after our walk and she really wanted to play with me the way she would with siblings: pawing and nibbling. She's gentle and tries very hard not to bite, but then she gets excited and her teeth make skin contact. Has anyone used a flirt stick? Maybe I can train her to focus the energy there. The only thing is that wikipedia says you should wait till the dog is at least a year old, but she is very agile and does a lot of this play already on her own. She loves agility.
This is the flirt stick, you can buy it or make your own. Anyone use it?
http://notesfromadogwalker.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dinos-012.jpg?w=225&h=300https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTBtarWzaQXsuN6CNDBH0F0m5bQ4rb_O 3hHv1ZsuNyGcov-vQxCzg
rodeosweetheart
6-3-14, 12:27pm
I was doing something similar with our puppy with a towel on a stick, to keep her from biting me but playing but I think it just encouraged the grab the towel play her with teeth problem. So I stopped. Tried the spray bottle and ended up spraying her head completely wet, nothing fazed her, she kept coming. So that did not work. Seemed to get her more riled up. Tried the kennel but I can't really pick her up when she's acting like that, so I think the muzzle may be what works for us--I try to keep one on me and show it to her if she is starting to get rile or nippy. Then she sits down and thinks about it.
WE do a lot of substituting--giving her a chewy if she is acting like that, needs to use her teeth. We tell her No biting in a calming but very firm voice. Raising voice makes her nuttier, more excited. I try saying gentle, gentle so she will lick me, that helps when she is not uber-excited. I also feed her treats a lot with my hand so she learns to take them gently, and say gentle, gentle when she is using her mouth around me.
We bought a kids playground ball and she loves to play soccer, so maybe try that with your boxer--she really uses her paws and captures the ball, like a goalie. Maybe channel that paw stuff.
Our Pyr went through a stage like this, would come slam into me, rip me shorts--she outgrew it. Thank God.
We did the "raise a knee and say 'NO' loudly thing. We also spent a lot of time with one person standing on the leash behind the dog. When people walk up and the dog goes into 'jump to say 'hi' routine' the walking up person says 'no'. The person standing on the leash is able to keep the dog from jumping high and the dog feels the pressure of the tight leash even though his whole attention is on whoever is walking towards him. We also spent a lot of time immediately saying "sit" when seeing the dog. Got to where the dog would immediately sit when he's see us or anyone new. The tail and butt sure wagged the floor a lot but he was always rewarded for his good 'sit' and greet behavior.
I think I really appreciate our dogs old age now more than ever after reading your two threads. He looks at the sofa or bed or even people and decides that it's too much effort to pull himself up off the floor where he is laying. About all we get anymore from his is a raised eyebrow and one or two tail thumps. (I will probably never do a puppy again.)
Rodeosweetheart - thanks for the reply! I'll skip the flirt stick for now. I need to run a couple of errands today and I'll pick up a ball for her to play soccer with. I have abandoned the couch/jump idea - it's probably not likely that she'll make the connection at this point - no matter how smart she is! It will probably just confuse her.
Float On - our previous dog died at 14 so I know what you mean. The first week was very tiring with this little bundle of energy. But it's been really good too - I'm a lot more active than I've been in a while and I'm really enjoying the outdoors more than usual. We walk early in the morning and greet our friends and neighbors along the walk. And we spend a lot of time in the backyard, which is really nice with our big tree and comfy furniture. She's brought cheer with her. She's so goofy too - she makes me laugh every day!
What I've also been doing is stopping the play and walking away as soon as she jumps on me. I ignore her completely and go inside. That makes her sad because she wants to keep playing. I'll keep doing that and see how it goes. When we meet people on the walk she never jumps or paws at anybody, so I have hope :).
Don't know if you will find this helpful or not but when I was struggling to train our foxhound at approx. age 2, our grandson was the same age. I watched and noted that their attention span and ability to relate to directions was about the same. Of course, DGS outgrew this but the dog never did. I try to treat him at a 2-2 1/2 year old boy and have scaled my expectations accordingly, this has made me much more understanding and patient.
Don't know if you will find this helpful or not but when I was struggling to train our foxhound at approx. age 2, our grandson was the same age. I watched and noted that their attention span and ability to relate to directions was about the same. Of course, DGS outgrew this but the dog never did. I try to treat him at a 2-2 1/2 year old boy and have scaled my expectations accordingly, this has made me much more understanding and patient.
Thanks razz. I do try to remember that she's still a puppy and that she's a dog :). And I probably made it sound worse than it is. I would say that she jumps on me about 1-3 times per day during the course of play, so it's not constant, and she does play really well by herself. We just don't want her to jump on people, period. That habit really bothers dh and I in any dog. Since we just got her, and I'm on vacation, I'm trying to nip it in the bud before it becomes permanent. But we do have lots of fun the rest of the time. :)
Update: we have success with the jumping elimination! Woohoo!
What has worked is ignoring her completely as soon as she jumps on someone and walking away from her. It only took twice of me doing it while we played and she understood - no words, no scolding, no commands, no attempt at correction or punishment - just walking away and going inside. I didn't want to try the knee thing because I wear shorts all the time and feared she might end up scratching my legs. Now we still play, but she knows that jumping on me is off-limits and she always catches herself in time.
For dh, when he comes home, it only took once of completely ignoring her until she calmed down - no eye contact, no greeting, no commands, etc. Now she works really hard at keeping her paws on the floor - although her whole little boxer body shakes with excitement :). She has never jumped on me when I come home, so I think in time she will get used to it. The great thing about this is that it places the responsibility of behavior monitoring and modification on her, not us. And it encourages positive reinforcement, I bought her some extra chew toys as a treat.
Razz - I don't know how well this would work on an older dog, but you can give it a try. Let me know if you have any questions.
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