Hillary Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I took time off from jogging while I was raising my pup. Now that she's a year and a half old, I'd like to get back into it. Problem is she gets over-excited when I start to run and jumps all over me. We live in the mountains and only go out on trails OFF leash. When I'm walking with her she has no issues and mostly does her own thing, occasionally checking in with me or of course when I call her. It's only when I'm jogging that she gets weird. Funny thing is, she never does anything like this when we're running agility or playing chase in the park. Only when we're jogging. I have asked a lot of people and no one has any idea how to get her to stop. I've tried rewarding her when she's not jumping on me, ignoring it (it never stops) or even letting her get kicked when she's in the way (that just made her scared and jump on me more in an effort to appease me). Hopefully y'all border collie people can help! Dog is a 1.5 year old bc/aussie mix. Very well trained and responsive dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camden's Mom Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Wow, I'm not going to pretend to have a good answer for you on this one. Jumping seems like a common problem on leash, but off leash.. well I'm stumped. Disclaimer: This is just an "out of the box" idea. Others may say it's a terrible idea and, if they do, trust their judgement over mine!! OK, got that out of the way, now for my harebrained idea... If she is food or toy motivated? I wonder if you could distract her before she has a chance to start jumping on you. If she's food motivated, toss some very yummy, very stinky treats around on the ground before you start running. Hopefully she'll be distracted by trying to find them and you can set off on your run. When she catches back up to you throw some treats away from you before she has a chance to jump on you. If it's toys she likes, you could take a ball with you and play fetch with her while you run. A word of caution on the fetch idea - Only throw the ball/toy on the trail as tossing a ball in the woods can be quite dangerous for a dog. When she catches back up to you with the toy, you'd either have to stop and throw it again or carry a second toy that you could toss and then scoop up the one she drops. I dunno... I guess both of these would be tedious, but I'm just trying to think of ways that you can distract her from your movement, which is what is over-exciting her. IF the distraction idea works, hopefully she'd have the experience of running with you without jumping on you and you could start to scale the distractions down. If at ANY point she just runs next to you without jumping (even if it's just a few steps) I would reward that heavily. Anyways, this might be the worst idea ever, but I figured I'd toss it out there. Good luck! I'm very curious to hear what others will suggest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 This is what I did. Set it up as a training exercise. Start on leash, but as soon as you know your dog knows what you are asking, work on the exact same thing off leash too. Work on getting your heeling rock solid. Vary your speed while heeling, 5 steps normal pace, 2 steps slow, 7 steps normal, 2 steps fast, until your dog understands that speed doesn't matter, staying at heel is the objective. Don't go more than just a couple steps at a fast pace until your dog is no longer reacting, except to change it's pace to keep up. Then start adding 1 more step at a fast pace slowly as you are seeing no unwanted reactions. Also work on direction changes and teaching your dog how to stay at heel when you step sideways or backwards. I slowly worked my dog up to jogging about 200 ft, then he was ready for any distance. After he understood what I wanted from him on a jog, I could loosen up on heel position. I have always had a different command for heeling versus walking on a loose leash. So at that point I use my loose leash command, which he has learned over time also means stay kind of close when he isn't on a leash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 I teach my youngsters a correction word--aaaht! or Ahh ahh!--which essentially means "stop whatever you're doing and do something else." Then if I'm walking, jogging, whatever and the dog makes like to jump on me, a quick Ahht! stops the dog and it goes on to do something else. If you're interested in only reward-based training, then this isn't a solution for you, but it would work for the situation you describe, provided your dog knows a correction word (even "no" or similar). J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillary Posted February 13, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2014 Thanks y'all! The varying speeds idea has worked really well so far, Gideon! We do competition obedience so I had her on my right side so she didn't start offering precision heeling. I'm sure I look stupid but she's staying much calmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted February 14, 2014 Report Share Posted February 14, 2014 It only took me about 2 weeks to get Gideon jogging with me on a loose leash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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