One thing that really annoys me about pet owners is the complacency on fixing problems that “seem” cute at the surface, but eventually “are NOT cute.”
One such case is a dog in a local shelter here in LA. The dog jumps on people and was placed and returned and is now scheduled to be killed. The thing that keeps surfacing in the mails is that it’s OK to be happy. Well, as a person who works with trouble dogs, I say that its OK to be happy, but teach your dog to express it in different ways. If your dog jumps up, it is displaying some sort of unruly behavior. This can be very playful to a dog, but it can be dangerous with older people or children. For that, the dog will suffer. Teach your dog NOT to jump up on people from an early age and the dog will have a much better chance at learning it.
The way to train a dog NOT to jump on people is not by yelling at them or hitting them when they do it. This only reenforces the behavior. People are constantly making excuses for their dogs behavior without looking at the repercussions, and that is SELFISH. Read my blog at BOUND ANGELS and see how many dogs are killed for behavioral problems, if people were only not so selfish and took the time to correct a dogs problems. Dogs should be well behaved family pets that we care for, protect and love. If they are well adjusted, they generally don’t act out, and thereby “generally” don’t end up in shelters and get killed.
The problem with jumping is as follows. If a small dog jumps up on a big person, its cute. If a large dog jumps up on a small child and knocks the child down, its not cute, or if its an older person its also not cute. A dog that is out of control will jump and run and act like a goofball whenever they like. These “out of control” dogs are on the short list for the kill shelters of America, and all the selfish, non-correcting dog owners are NOT beating down the doors at the shelter to save them. They are on to another cute puppy.
When your dog jumps up on you, do not acknowledge him. Turn away. Pushing him down generally starts a game with him. My favorite way of correcting this behavior is to acknowledge the dog for NOT doing the bad behavior. If the dog runs up too fast, you can use a long line and correct the dog before he gets to his target. When the dog sits, the dog gets a treat, a toy or praise. Generally this problem can be solved very quickly. Acknowledge your dog for good behavior. Don’t instigate him by getting him excited enough to jump on you. Throw him a ball in a yard to get his enthusiasm up. Jumping up on people is NOT cute and it leads to a maladjusted dog.
If you really LOVE your dog, you will instill in him positive behaviors that will protect him or her.
Comments 1
Great post! I have a beagle that we were having this problem with. We made the mistake of allowing him to do it when he was little, as he got bigger he was not an acceptable behavior anymore. It took much longer to “undo” what we had allowed him to think was ok, than it would have had we just done it right the first time. We did not make the same mistake with our other dog.
Great post!
Marla