[jetbot33]

I have been browsing this forum since I had my golden Rocky as a puppy. He was a great puppy although always hyper and jumpy. Now he is 4 but he has lost none of his bad jumping habits. Let me explain.

He is well trained in commands but as SOON as he sees someone that is not family, he SPRINTS at hurtful speeds, ramming into the person and jumps on them and nips. He is absolutely crazy and will not stop being excited no matter how many commands are told to him. We've tried treat training, leashing, calming him down over a period of several hours with guests but as soon as we let him go even inside the house, he ATTACKS everyone. He is such a good dog with just his family but whenever people come over he freaks out and does not stop freaking out to nip and lick and jump on them. This is dangerous especially to my grandparents and children. And when he is outside playing fetch, he completely ignores his high value treats such as steak and beef and peanut butter biscuits just so he can jump on that random stranger walking. This happens even when the person is across the street and far away. Despite any commands, he runs away from all his commands and treats, sprints across the road, and wildly jumps on everyone that is walking. Then he is impossible to take a hold of as he nips and jumps on me too. I have to grab him by the collar and drag him home. He does not listen to anything.

Don't get me wrong, he is a very good dog and I love him and he's very sweet. He's obedient at home and follows all commands to the dot and even goes so far as to know his boundaries in the house (eg he knows not to climb up the stairs and knows not to cross an arbitrary boundary in the kitchen where his mom designated as the no pass zone). He just has zero obedience when other people are around that is not family. Today while playing fetch, he ditched 2 large bacon treats, sprinted across the park and road, and jumped on this poor old woman and her dogs. She yelled at me for not putting a leash on him as I desperately attempted to take hold of him. I took him home and now he is sitting in his crate as a time out.

We've been struggling with different tactics for years and he just will not change. He's 4 years old now and it's embarrassing such a full grown dog cannot control himself even a little bit. I am considering shock collars at this point because I am out of options. I've been reading these threads for forever but it seems like things just don't work with him, especially since ANY training goes out of the window as soon as we let him go. Please help.

TL;DR no training makes him stop jumping on others inside the house; no training makes him stop jumping on others outside the house. Considering shock collar

EDIT: I have found this collar that vibrates. Lots of reviews say that the vibration is very effective and there is no need to shock. What do you guys think?
http://www.amazon.com/Dogwidgets®-R...ration/dp/B00CX6LJ22/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

[Leslie B]

Your dog is giving you "the paw". Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. This issue is not about training as he knows not to jump, to come, to sit, etc. He is choosing to do something other than to obey you. Coaxing, begging, treats, etc are not effective for a dog that is willing to forgo the reward because there is something else that he would rather do. It is particarly bad to REPEAT the command many times in the hopes that he will eventually do it. Believe me, he heard you the first 30 times you told him to "come" and he chose to do something else. After the first command, all the subsequent commands just reinforce in his mind that it was just a request and not a command.

This is about enforcement of the known command and there is no way to do this in a purely positive way. If he will ignore the steak to knock down your elderly parents then you will need to change your enforcement methods.

While I will get a lot of flak for this opinion on this site, an ecollar is the perfect tool for enforcing known commands. For a 4 year old dog, his habit of ignoring your commands is pretty well set and I would not bother with the vibration collar. You need the ability to up the consequences for his bad behavior.

First find a trainer that can help you collar condition your dog and teach you how to effectively and humanely use the ecollar. It is extremely important that you use the collar correctly or you can/will cause more harm than good. Collar conditioning teaches the dog that he can turn off the pressure by obeying the command. This is critical as it allows you to help your dog learn to make the right choices when you give him a command.

Second - get a good ecollar and be prepared to put it on him every day for quite a while. Even if you don't use it, it will be important to have that tool at your fingertips until he obeys consistently over a number of months.

Third, after he has learned how to turn off the pressure you will have to set him up in controlled situations where he will get a command, and then a correction if he fails to obey - which he will. Repeat the excercise in a variety of settings but don't overdo it for any one session. If you can have your trainer help you with this it would be great but if you, you can do them yourself by starting with small temptations and working up to bigger ones. It might seem cruel to set the dog up to be corrected but you are helping him to learn to resist his impulse to bolt and LISTEN to the command.

Last - up the exercise with your dog. Serious all out running would be great, swimming would also help. Draining some of that energy will give him more ability to listen to your commands.

Good Luck

 

[Leslie B]

A good collar is Tritronics, Dogtra, or Sport Dog.

 

[Charliethree]

Rocky clearly loves to greet people, take the time to teach him how to do it appropriately. Take the time to consider why he is running off to greet the person way across the park, it is not because he is 'blowing you off', ignoring your cues, it is because it is highly rewarding to him, more rewarding than playing ball and because he 'can'. It is little different than a dog breaking a sit or stay to eat the delicious dinner placed in his bowl -eating is undeniably more rewarding than sitting and waiting - he needs help to learn more self control - it doesn't come 'natural' to dogs. He runs off, or jumps on people in the home because he 'can', for his own safety, consider using a long line when outside to prevent him running off, or finding a completely fenced and safe area for him to be off leash, while you work on and highly rewarding a solid recall cue!! In the home, keep him on leash, and reward him for calm behavior or confined so he cannot practice the misbehaviour when you have company over, until he has learned to meet and greet calmly and appropriately - he jumps on grandma because he 'can' it is very rewarding to him.
Teach sit to greet - Start with familiar people to teach him 'how' to do it, and what is expected of him. Get the sit, have person approach, reward while he holds the sit, if he breaks the sit, the person stops moving forward, or backs up a step or two, until he chooses to sit. Once he sitting, the approach resumes. Repeat until the person is close enough to give him a treat/attention, as long as he stays in the sit. Practice with familiar people until it becomes automatic for him to sit to greet, then work on having him do the approaching, ensuring that he sits politely (reward the sit) when close enough to greet. When that has become 'habit' practice in the same way, with unfamiliar people, one at a time, introducing a new person only after he is reliably working (sitting to greet) with the first. Keep in mind, that since he has been greeting inappropriately for quite some time, it is going to take a lot of practice and repetition, lots of praise and rewards for getting it right, for him to understand what you want from him.

 

[goldlover68]

A cheaper way to start on this training is with a pinch collar, does not require any 'conditioning' the dog to the collar and it will prepare him for an ecollar if you get one later. You train him by having him on lead when you bring in people to the house, he will pull and you will give a slight jerk on the collar. It will pinch his neck and he will stop! through this process, even later attaching a 30' rope to reinforce the command 'jerk' at a distance. Usually, the dog will learn very quickly to be obedient.

Best advice I see in these posts is to go with your pup to an obedience class, and not at the local Petco...find a trainer not working in some retail store. That being said, our trainers have always recommended pinch collars vs. choke chains, ecollars, or harnesses. Be advised that all can be misused and harm the dog.
The downside on pinch collars is that traditionally, the act of putting them on the dog and getting the latch to hold properly is a challenge. My field trainer recently put me on to a lady that makes a new style pinch collar, that eliminates the difficulty of putting them on and it has no latch...you can look at them at www.lolalimited.net. They call them "Secret Power" collars...but they are a well-engineered covered pinch style collar.
Good Luck

 

[Goldylover2]

I think it's time for you to call Cesar Millan.

 

[tzickefoose]

Obedience

I have just found this forum after losing my beloved Winston only two days ago. He was only seven years old, but was without a doubt one of the best behaved dogs most people have ever seen.
Here's what worked for me. I started the day we got him with simple commands and rewards. The rewards always included verbal praise and I used treats when needed, ( his favorite were turkey dog slices fried to a crisp in the microwave. ) I never let him off the hook even once, I made sure he obeyed the command given before moving on,and as his stubbornness increased, stronger medicine was employed. The most physical I ever got was to scruff and shake him like a mother would do. Very effective. As he was taught off leash I used a shock collar. I would give a simple verbal command a wait briefly for results and then hit the button. After that the lesson was repeated until desired results were achieved. At that point positive reinforcement was generously given. As his training progressed, hand signals were employed and he eventually learned to back up all the way across the yard or around corners even. He could roll over left and right, sit stay, etc. Come, stop, drop it, and the like were childs play to him.
As far as greeting new people, Winston showed signs of being an excited jumper early, so I focused on that right away. I taught him that he would have to sit at my or anyone's feet before he had any chance of being greeted. This resulted in a dog that would slam his butt on a newcomers feet and sit there and vibrate waiting for attention. He also developed the practice of running and hiding under my legs when scared or even just to hang out and be close, although it got a little tricky as he got big. (80 pounds)
It was really very cute and he was completely reliable in this way. He never ever jumped on anyone.
In summary, I think it's time to establish who makes the rules and who follows them. I think that makes for a most rewarding relationship for all parties.

 

[GinnyinPA]

If your dog won't listen when you tell him to come, do not ever let him outside without being on a leash. For his safety and that of the people on the street, he needs to be on a leash whenever there is a possibility of him running off. Which in his case is always.

Work on his self control. Our trainer told us to have Ben sit before going in the door or out the door. Sit before he can eat. Sit before he gets out of the car. Sit when a car passes by as we are walking outside. Sit whenever someone comes up to talk. That is his one rock solid command. He sits automatically in most of those circumstances now. The biggest thing is it teaches him to wait - a little self control before getting what he wants. And when he gets excited, a quick sit or down command will get him stationary again.

I suggest you get your dog to obedience training. See if you can find an instructor for Canine Good Citizen training. They will help you work with teaching your dog not to leap up to greet strangers or other dogs.