Five Easy Steps to Teach Your German Shepherd Not To Jump Up
Teaching your dog to lay down calmly on a bed or in a specific spot is a great way to help stop them from jumping up on people. Teaching your dog not to jump up on people is actually quite easy. One major problem you're going to face when you start teaching your dog not to jump up is getting the people to listen to you. There is always that "uncle joe" kind of friend that allows your dog to jump up on them and some even encourage it. This must stop if you want to teach your GSD not to jump up. Here are five straight forward steps to solving problem forever. Step One: Jumping is about attention. Dogs jump for a lot of reasons. However 99% of the time it is because they are getting attention from it. Even if the attention is yelling at the dog or pushing the dog off of you to your GSD this is still attention. Ignoring your GSD when they jump and instructing every guest/family member that comes through the door to do the same thing is the most important piece of the training puzzle. If you cannot ignore your dog by turning around or stopping then you should walk straight ahead and ignore their attempts to jump on you. Do not stop moving until they stop trying to jump on you. You must not reward the jumping by talking to the dog or touching the dog in any way for this to be effective. Step Two: Now that everyone is onboard and they are not rewarding the jumping any longer you can start with step two. Step two requires that you teach your dog what is referred to as an incompatiable behavior. In other words, you teach them a behavior that does not allow them to jump. The best behavior to stop jumping is the down. When you dog is in the down position they have to stand back up to jump up. This gives you plenty of time to catch them and put them back into the down before they succeed. Step Three: At this stage your dog should know how to lay down on cue and everyone should not be rewarding the jumping by ignoring the dog when they try to jump up. Now you can start to teach "place" to your dog. Place simply means that when you say, "place" the dog is to go to their bed or a specific spot away from the door and lay down. You do this by breaking the behavior down into small steps and putting them together to make the final behavior. Start by walking your dog to their bed and pointing to it. When they step on it say, "good!" and give them a treat. Walk them away and bring them back repeating this step a few times. Once they are eagerly stepping onto the bed wait for all four feet to be on it. Then say, "Good!" and give them a treat. Walk them away and repeat this step a few times. When your dog is putting all four feet on their bed eagerly walk them over to the bed, point at it, when they step on it with all four feet give the down cue. When they lay down on the bed say, "Good!" then give them a treat. Walk them away and repeat this step 30-40 times over the course of a few days. Step Four: Now you are going to finish the behavior and put it on the cue, "Place" (or whatever cue you want to use). Stand next to the bed, get your dogs attention and point towards the bed. They should walk over and lay down on the bed without you saying anything. If they get to the bed but do not lay down say the following (in this specific order), "Place, Down" then when they lay down give them a "good dog!" and a treat. Over the next few days put a pause between, "Place, down" because you are trying to teach them that place is the cue you want them to respond to. If at any time during the process they lay on the bed when you say, "place" give them a good dog! and a treat. Practice this behavior for several days before you have someone try to come into the house. Have them knock on the door and at the moment you give your dog the place cue and walk them to their bed. Slowly walk to the door and let your guest in. If your dog gets up at any time have the person go back outside, shut the door, and walk your dog back to their place and repeat the exercise. Step Five: Going live with all that you have learned. Each time someone comes over be consistent and have your dog go to their place until the guest comes in the home. If at any time they get up and jump up on your guests have them completely ignore your dog. Then you should walk them back to their place and repeat the cue until they comply. Bonus Tip to Help Stop Your German Shepherd from Jumping UpYou can put the "place" behavior on cue using knocks at the door and/or the doorbell as well as a verbal cue. The idea is, doorbell rings your dog goes straight to their spot and waits patiently. While this is a bit more advanced and it does take a little longer it is really cool to see and you can show off your dogs smarts to your guests. Remember This: If at any time your dog jumps up or gets up from the spot you do not have to yell or push on them. All you do is back up and show them what you want and when they comply give them a reward. If you are consistent they will quickly learn this behavior. Related Information:
Copyright ©. All rights reserved. |
