Recall and jumping problems

[BNM1980]

1. Recall.

 

I'm having some trouble teaching my puppy recall. In confined spaces—indoors and on the roof-space—he's okay. But as soon as we get to the park, or into the forest, he becomes a different dog. If I call him, he ignores me. If I move towards him to put him back on lead, he takes off and turns it into a chasing game. Sometimes these "games" last half an hour. When playing fetch, too, he will go to the ball, but will not bring it back. He picks it up, and turns it into a chasing game.

 

I heard that a dog first needs to get used to having freedom to obey a recall command, and that a good way to start out is to use a long line. This is a problem for us because as soon as I attach a long line to my dog he starts to "play" with it, eventually getting entangled.

 

 

2. Jumping.

 

During our walks in the forest, whenever we come across other hikers, my dog runs ahead jumps all over them. Needless to say, many of them do not enjoy this. Yesterday, a woman was frightened of him. If I could get him to come to me when called, this would not be a problem—I'd just put the lead on whenever I saw a hiker approaching. Failing that, how should I teach him to stop jumping? One trainer recommends squeezing a dog's paws whenever it jumps up. What has worked for you?

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

[bsms99]

#2 first - when my puppy jumps on me, I block with my knee. I ask others to do the same. No rebuke, no scolding - just a pop with the knee so it isn't fun to jump on people. My current pup is learning. He would learn faster if my daughter would cooperate...

 

#1 - I'm considering a shock collar. My puppy is fine, but my older dog knows exactly the difference between being free and being on a leash of any size. He has finally learned it is OK to come back (previous owners taught him otherwise), but he doesn't know he NEEDS to come back. I'll be looking forward to any advice you get! Dan has no interest in food, treats, etc, so it is hard to reward him.

[WildFlower]

Recall: My dog, Daisy, is still a pup (9 Months old) but she has a pretty decent recall. When I took her to the park I would (and still do most of the time) keep her on a long 30' leash. I let her walk and sniff around then I call her "Daisy come" and if she doesn't come I reel her in like a fish. Either way I praise her and give her treats. Then release her "ok". She goes back to sniffing or whatever then I repeat again. Now, I drop the leash and let her play with other dogs or we play fetch. I still do the same thing. Call and reward. If she doesn't come I pick up the leash and reel her in. If we are with dogs and owners I trust, I do let her play off leash now - but she has proven to me that she will come (most of the time).

 

Jumping: The knee works well with jumping. Also ignoring the dog. Turn your back to them - don't say anything or touch them. This is of course only something you can do to help correct that issue.

 

Good Luck!

[lrayburn]

#1 - I'm considering a shock collar. My puppy is fine, but my older dog knows exactly the difference between being free and being on a leash of any size. He has finally learned it is OK to come back (previous owners taught him otherwise), but he doesn't know he NEEDS to come back. I'll be looking forward to any advice you get! Dan has no interest in food, treats, etc, so it is hard to reward him.

 

He will also quickly learn the difference between when his shock collar is on and you have the remote and when the shock collar is off or you don't have the remote in your hand. I had an acquaintance with a shock collar trained field lab - she came like a rockstar when he was holding his cell phone (which looks like the shock collar remote) and totally blew him off if he had nothing in his hand.

 

You can do a basic search to find lots of information on positively reinforcing the recall. See the thread "How to Teach a Solid Recall" in the FAQ section.

 

How to Teach a Solid Recall

 

If you search, you will also find posts that refer to "walking down" the dog if he blows you off. Try lots of different food, treats, toys and games. There is something that your dog cares about. Even a low-motivation dog will learn a recall if you practice the steps and then reinforce with a walk down which prevents him from self-reinforcing when he ignores you. Good luck!

 

Lisa

[Ninso]

First, you NEED to control his behavior until he learns to behave. If he won't recall off leash, he doesn't get to be off leash. If he jumps on people during walks, he'll have to walk on leash. The more he practices bad behavior, the more ingrained and habitual it becomes and the harder it becomes to break. So stop it now by not giving him chances to misbehave.

 

The recall is hard for a dog, and needs to be trained and practiced constantly, gradually increasing the level of distractions. If you can't use a long line (though it's not really as hard as you make it sound) practice at first in a small fenced-in area where it will be easy to go get him if he doesn't come. DO NOT chase him and don't let him get you to play half-hour chasing recal-ignoring games! This is very fun for puppy, very bad for recall! This is why a long line is useful, so you can reel him in. But at the very least, walk towards him slowly and purposefully without saying anything until he stops and waits for you to grab him. The keys to a good recall are practice with gradually increasing levels of distraction (e.g., if he has no recall outside, don't try to call him away from a really good smell or playing with other dogs, or something like that right away--call him when he's had a chance to sniff around and isn't doing much of anything, then either release him to go back and have fun or reward the heck out of him by playing a fun game) and NEVER letting him ignore a recall--don't give the command unless you're ready to enforce it.

 

Jumping up is easily cured, but the problem in your situation is not recalling. Work on jumping up in other settings for now, with people who won't be scared or offended if he makes a mistake. I generally just turn my body and ignore them until they're standing or sitting with all feet on the floor.

[Amelia]

Hello all, I have covered these exact situations in the 2nd and 4th digests of The Real Time Canine. Here are some excerpts:

 

On the keep away game:

 

What I don't do is keep calling and calling. If I did that, I would be teaching him to ignore me. Bad precedent. Another "don't do" for me is to kneel down, lean forward, clap my hands and hope. This would actually encourage the action by resembling play and resembling it close to the pup's height level. Height is superior in the dog world and to correct an action, I have to position myself accordingly. Also, I never lean down towards a dog when I am correcting him. I believe that when I do this, I look vulnerable to the dog and give up my power.

 

I won't just continue to chase the pup down until he out grows it. I correct the action from the beginning and while it is occurring. After I call the puppy, I say something, (insert your favorite growled word or phrase,) while walking straight towards him in an upright position. Initially, I corner them or position myself so that they are running into the garage, house, barn, etc., where it's easier to enforce the correction. I am not overly harsh and I never use more than my "I really mean it" volume. If you are screaming at the pup, you are lacking intention, they are ignoring you and learning to tune you out. My puppy made a pretty determined break for it in the beginning, but cornered, he began to show me his belly. The instant he did that, my entire demeanor changed and I praised him up completely. I spent a minute rubbing him all over and making him feel really good about his decision to give up the chase. Every time he's done it since the very first time, I've had less and less of a chase and quicker submission. He knows I will keep coming. He knows I won't give up and start begging, and he knows that I'll be absolutely consistent.

 

And on jumping up:

 

When the puppy put his feet on me, I simply and gently shoved him down with my hand and gave a growled correction. The correction lets the puppy know that it's doing something wrong. Just pushing the puppy down isn't enough. It might be considered play. You have to push him down with a verbal correction. The push doesn't have to be and shouldn't be harsh or scary. It should be gentle, but resolute and it absolutely must be consistent. Consistency is the key to the whole thing and this holds true for everyone that has contact with the puppy. If you don't allow him to jump on you, but others in your family do, you'll just be wasting your time and confusing your puppy. Be consistent!

 

IMHO treats don't work as a training aid. To be well mannered in all aspects of his life, a dog has to respect you, not just want a treat. Train the dog while teaching him to respect you, then he'll do whatever you ask without expecting a reward. A knee in the chest or turning your back when a dog puts his feet on you isn't a correction. You have to let a dog know that it's done something wrong, that you don't like it, that it won't be allowed, before a dog will stop.

 

Cheers all

[Root Beer]

One trainer recommends squeezing a dog's paws whenever it jumps up. What has worked for you?

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

What worked for me with jumping was to teach my dog to jump up and put his paws on me on cue and then get off on cue. Once my dog knew this solidly, I would tell him "off" when I didn't want him to jump and invite him when I did.

 

Whether or not you want your dog to jump up on you at all is a personal choice, but I like for my dogs to jump up to greet me, and I use paws up on me in games, so I never teach my dog that it's "wrong" to put his paws up on me. I teach it as a very neutral "up up" and "off".

 

You can use food to train this, but if the dog likes to jump up, you really don't need to. Cue the dog to jump up, praise and love on the dog for jumping up, then say off and simply take a step back so the dog's paws drop to the floor. Praise and immediately cue "up up" again. Of course, you might use different words. Cueing the dog to put his paws back up can serve as the reward for getting off until the off cue is solid if the dog likes to jump up. As you do this more and more, watch for your dog to offer the "off" when you cue it.

 

I chose to do this with Dean, who gives the most amazing hugs, which I wanted people to experience if that is their preference (many of his friends adore his hugs) and it worked very well.

 

Once the up and off cues are solid, you can do a number of things. You can start to work on cueing the dog to keep off of others. If you don't want your dog to jump up, you can extinguish it by cueing off until it becomes a solid default.

 

This has worked nicely for me, so it's another technique you can try, depending on your preferences for your puppy.

 

Until the behavior is trained, I would also keep the puppy leashed so he could not jump on people univited.

 

For recalls, I would keep practicing them on leash and reward heavily for quick response. It may seem redundant, but the groundwork is so important. I would practice on leash outdoors and on leash indoors until I had a good solid conditioned response.

[BNM1980]

Thanks everyone!

 

I am going to try some of these suggestions and see how it goes.

 

I'll let you know.

 

Thanks again!

[BNM1980]

See the thread "How to Teach a Solid Recall" in the FAQ section.

 

How to Teach a Solid Recall

 

Thanks for this link.

 

I've saved the article to my computer. Very helpful.