# Jumping on people on walks



## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

My advice would be similar to what I wrote in the other thread:
He will not stop jumping...

Create the situation that inspires the bad behavior, but do it on YOUR terms. Get a patient friend, and use your leash and voice to interrupt the behavior right as it begins in her head. By the time she's jumping, it's too late. If you're in a physical struggle with the dog (holding her down, hauling her back on the leash), you're actually confirming the behavior. Pushing and pulling increase the excitement of the situation and they don't communicate your wishes in language a dog can understand. Any kind of yelling is also high on energy and low on communication.

She needs to learn that everyone she greets will ignore her, fold their arms, and turn away unless she sits and keeps all four paws in contact with the earth. As your friend approaches, stop the dog and let the person come to her. If she pulls, your friend stops and you do the interruption. She'll probably learn quickly that sitting and behaving gets the person to come, while pulling and jumping result in interruption to her behavior and no attention from the approaching person.

When you bring her back to the real world situation, she'll already know the pattern of correction and behavior, so your leash pop and "off" will have more weight and more ability to break through her natural desire to greet people. If you go to a real world situation and she still misbehaves, go back to your training. Don't let successful misbehavior confirm itself.

I want to make one more note to these posts about jumping. I believe in saying "no" (or "off" in this situation) to a dog and to "popping" the leash. Popping is simply a light tug where you take the slack up and tug the collar quickly and lightly. I don't use a choke, martingale, or pinch collar on my dogs, so there's no pain or choking _whatsoever_ in a leash pop. If you use any of these special collars, you'll have to modify your technique so you're not hurting the dog.

Both the pop and the "no" are ways of _interrupting_ the undesired behavior and mindset, not of hurting or chastising the dog. Once you have an interruption, you can work in a desired behavior instead.

A purely negative stimulus (an angry shout, a yank on the leash that hurts, a hard shock from an e-collar, a pinch or choke from a collar, etc.) may have its place in certain kinds of training or with certain kinds of dogs, but when you're working with a Golden and a behavior that's 90% positive (greeting strangers in a friendly but inappropriate way), you're gently modifying the behavior, not creating an aversive situation. A dog that's trained with negative stimuli becomes nervous and anxious, and both are bad, bad, bad, even dangerous. 

I do believe in negatives if they're only used a handful of times in a dog's life and they're for non-negotiable situations like running into traffic, eating batteries, etc., but they're not for situations like this.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Mine would if I allowed it, but I do NOT... I correct with a leash pop and a NO, and walk the other way. I am not too shy to tell people to not talk to or touch my dog, because I am training him. This phase is usually short lived- the dog quickly learns he will not get any attention by acting like a lunatic! 

I admit I would correct this- I have never had a dog that overly friendly and bold who would become fearful and nervous from a few corrects with a choker or prong to teach him that acting like a complete and utter asswipe is not acceptable. But, every dog is different!


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

You are absolutely right to avoid the school and all children (and frail adults) until you get a handle on this. Someone could be injured.
You will need some willing, healthy, adult, partners to help you work on this problem.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> Mine would if I allowed it, but I do NOT... I correct with a leash pop and a NO, and walk the other way. I am not too shy to tell people to not talk to or touch my dog, because I am training him. This phase is usually short lived- the dog quickly learns he will not get any attention by acting like a lunatic!
> 
> I admit I would correct this- I have never had a dog that overly friendly and bold who would become fearful and nervous from a few corrects with a choker or prong to teach him that acting like a complete and utter asswipe is not acceptable. But, every dog is different!


I'm with ya; in a real world situation, since my guys already know not to jump, I'd probably say "no" with some force and pop the leash. I just like to stress that timing and communication in correction is much, much more important than the force of the correction. Your dogs obviously understand your displeasure noises, so they work really well (mine are the same). I just see too many people impotently yelling at misbehaved dogs or otherwise inadvertently encouraging bad behavior or, worse, creating anxiety.

The one real bite I've ever received was when I was retraining a Golden for a family who had turned him into a nervous, misbehaving wreck by yelling at him and unknowingly encouraging bad behavior. When company came over and he jumped up, they would all shriek at him and push him. When that only ingrained the behavior, they bought an e-collar. Then, when company came over and jumped, they mashed the button repeatedly until he was shocked into submission, cowering in the corner. He still jumped every time until they started shocking him, since he didn't understand why the shocks were happening, or where they were coming from. He did, however, develop a neurotic, anxious panic over touches to the neck.

Not knowing about the e-collar and thinking I just had a headstrong dog with bad habits, I grabbed his collar during training and he panicked and bit me, hard enough to break my thumbnail.

Can you blame the dog? He had learned that his collar was a source of fear and pain. He very badly wanted to please people, but he had developed mindsets and habits that were unhealthy and inappropriate. I had to completely adapt to the bizarre and dangerous neuroses they had built into him in order to train him.

I'm not against e-collars, particularly for distance training and on low settings, but boy do you have to be careful when you integrate any kind of pain or fear into training. Ideally, there would be none at all.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> I am not too shy to tell people to not talk to or touch my dog, because I am training him.


Oh yeah, PS, this is totally important and a great comment. Don't be afraid to tell people how to interact with your dog. 99% of folks, especially dog people, are accommodating and interested in helping, particularly when you present it as a "can you help me out?" situation rather than a "you're doing it wrong" thing.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Very true... my timing is good, from lots of practice. A very subtle correction or command works on mine. When I see people just yanking over and over, raising the volume on their yelling... yeah, that definitely is not going to do ANY good. It just either makes the dog like you say, or it makes the dog completely immune to the handler.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Yeah it's not about fear... it's more about... I am bigger and more intelligent than a dog. I can control my dog, even if he isn't trained, so he cannot jump or lick at people. And if I can't, I can walk the other way.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

There's a woman in a state park I hike lots with the goldens, and she has a beautiful neutered male 1 year old golden . He jumps on his owner, and bites her puffer jacket- bites her arms, back, shoulders,etc. It is hard to watch. The more she yells at him to stop, the more intensely focused on biting her he gets, up on his hind legs, throwing his weight around by jumping her. Is that aggression or playing with no limits? The dog is from a GRF great breeder- a to-die-for beauty. However, he is so naughty! He's lucky he doesnt live in my house or with Tippy(or Jenna). He would be mending his ways pretty fast.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Yeah, I can't even comprehend the posts that ask how to stop a dog actually yanking food off the table in front of the owner, biting the owner's clothes, etc. I just can't imagine it ever even getting that out of hand. BUT it takes practice to be able to handle dogs, and what is 2nd nature to some of us is brand new to many people. It doesn't make them bad owners- just new and learning. I think confidence in handling dogs goes a long way. Dogs can tell if you're unsure IMO.


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

Ljilly28 said:


> There's a woman in a state park I hike lots with the goldens, and she has a beautiful neutered male 1 year old golden . He jumps on his owner, and bites her puffer jacket- bites her arms, back, shoulders,etc. It is hard to watch. The more she yells at him to stop, the more intensely focused on biting her he gets, up on his hind legs, throwing his weight around by jumping her. Is that aggression or playing with no limits? The dog is from a GRF great breeder- a to-die-for beauty. However, he is so naughty! He's lucky he doesnt live in my house or with Tippy(or Jenna). *He would be mending his ways pretty fast*.


*....and be happy to do so.....* sounds like a dog that is screaming for limits....


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## ScoobaSteeV (Nov 28, 2008)

Sweet, thanks again for the help. ya it's pretty embarrassing on walks having her pulling and jumping like crazy to get to other people/dogs. I definitely get some pissed-off looks from other people. Never had a dog though, so I already know I'm pretty bad at this. Not like she's attacking people or other dogs though. Luckily she's really mellow, and seems goldens are just so eager to please you, so she's been really good at figuring things out despite my inexperience(well aside from the jumping)... But I'll try to nip this in the butt asap.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

You're not bad! Just new  It'll come!


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