We have a problem with our dog. She is by her coloring and her appearance a lab and beagle mix. By that I mean she is colored EXACTLY like a beagle but has the body of a lab as best I can tell. She weighs about 30 pounds.
She came to us when she was about 2 months old and has been a house dog since then and very well behaved with my wife and myself.
The problem I have is when we go for walks and bathroom duties she gets VERY excited when she sees other people. Especially small children! She pulls and strains at her leash and almost pulls out of her harness! She means NO harm whatsoever, just wants to say hello and play with them.
One little girl likes to come over and pet her but I have to hold her back because if I let her get too close Sadie will jump and paw all over her almost knocking her down! She just gets too darn excited!
I am at the point that I am almost afraid to walk her in case she gets loose or jerks the leash out fo my hand she might push someone down and injure them.
Sadie is not prone to bite but she just plays too rough for me to feel safe with her around children and strangers. Even the grandkids are uncomfortable to be around her.
Any ideas? Is it just still the puppy in her? She is about 8 months old. Will she grow out of it?
I have her on one of those squeeze harnesses that put pressure on her when she pulls but it is of little detriment to pulling against me.
I think the only real option is training, either at home or in an obedience class. You will just have to teach her what “Down!” and “Heel!” mean, and keep training her until she’s able to obey them even when she’s all excited about seeing new people.
Alas, dogs don’t automatically grow out of such behavior. I’ve had seven- or eight-year-old dogs launch themselves at me with all the abandonment of friendly puppyhood. (I don’t mind, I love dogs, but not everybody is okay with being jumped up on.)
Most dogs do get somewhat calmer as they age, and eventually canine arthritis will slow down the bounciness, but don’t count on age alone solving your problem. You need to get the dog to obey your command not to do this, and that means training.
Even if you enjoy it at times it’s hard for a dog to understand they can jump up on some people and not others. You have a couple of choices - either crouch down to her level when she comes bounding towards you so she doesn’ t feel the need to jump up or raise one knee and use it to fend her off when she jumps up. Hopefully she’ll grow out of it.
Pulling on the lead is another problem and I may get pitted for suggesting but have you thought of using a ‘choke chain’ ? (horrible name).
Even if you enjoy it at times it’s hard for a dog to understand they can jump up on some people and not others. You have a couple of choices - either crouch down to her level when she comes bounding towards you so she doesn’ t feel the need to jump up or raise one knee and use it to fend her off when she jumps up. Hopefully she’ll grow out of it.
Excellent advice. The dog is not going to “grow out” of this behaviour, more likely it will become more troublesome over time. Personally, I would never want a dog in my household that had not been through structured obediance training.
This might sound harsh, an since I know very little about you an your dog, don’t take it as personal offense. As a proud owner of a male boxer (the breed most prone to jumping of them all) that never jumps up on a person or plays rough, unless invited to, I think I’m somewhat qualified to give some advice.
Most people don’t realize just how much work, and especially time, it takes to get a nice dog. I think dogs are really smart animals but let’s face it - compared to humans, they’re really stupid and training them takes a lot of effort and patience. This is why you see all these contraptions trying to harness the dog by pinching them in the armpits, attaching the leash to the snout or whatever. These contraptions are for people who failed to properly train their dogs.
Figure on a minimum of at least two active hours with your dog every single day. That’s not snuggling on the couch, feeding it and just having it around. I mean two hours of walking it, playing with it, training it. It should also have time for proper excercise (since you have a lab mix, this is very important) an playing with other dogs. If you have a border collie and don’t raise sheep - figure on more like 3-4 hours.
You need to teach the dog how to behave by the way you let it treat you. If you let her jump up to greet you, it’ll jump up to greet other people as well. The dog will not be able to know that what’s right for one person is wrong for another.
The best way to stop them from jumping is just turning your back and ignoring them when they start. Don’t be too enthusiastic when greating your og either. I know it’s easy to get all excited and gush over the dog, but that will only rev up it’s jumping engine even more.
From the OP I gather there are at least two of you. It’s very important that you treat the dog in exactly the same way. Dogs are opportunistic and if one of you slips, the dog will use that as an excuse for doing it the wrong way.
Almost all dogs have a working background. You will notice that your dog will be extremely happy when given tasks and then succeding in performing them. This is how we train obedience, since most of the things we want the dog to do doesn’t come naturally for them. My advice is that you get yourself to an obedience class pronto. My dog is 2.5 years old an I still go every week - mostly so I won’t slip. Having to show up and do the excercises every week keeps me on my toes. And I need that. Boxers are a bit too creative to be made into obedience champs easily.
As special treat / training, you might want to take up tracking. All dogs love this, but with a lab / beagle mix, the hunting trait is so strong, you’ll probably get an excellent tracker. Tracking is fun too. When you see your dog working with the abilities it was bred for, and solve really tricky puzzles, you’re gonna be one proud dog owner.
Sorry for double post - I thought I’d be unpopular if I introduced the subject of choke chains so deleted, not fast enough it seems so i’ll continue. I’m not advocating them for use as a punishment/ training through fear tool but I just know that our very bouncy dog walked happily with one without any official obedience classes* or anything of the like and was far less likely to pull. She still walked a bit ahead of the person and you have to wait for the dog to sniff around as usual - you know just pay attention as you walk but she knew that she was on the ‘controlled’ part of the walk.
*She was ‘home-schooled’ to in the basiscs - come, sit, stay, wait, only do your doings in the long grass, but never ‘walk to heel’
Walking (which you’re already doing) and socializing her. I suggest that you take the dog to the dog park (if you have one), or doggy day care, a couple of days a week for a while. You can also take her anywhere there will be a lot of people. Try to desensitize her. Outdoor art fairs, Farmers markets, and busy parks are where I took my dog.
But my standard responses to any behavioral problems are: plenty of exercise, basic obedience training, and socialization. If you get those three things right, everything else will fall into place.
I prefer the Halti to the choke chain, but use whatever works for you and your dog is fine as long as you are aware of the difference between “training” and “abuse.”
Don’t just fend the dog off with your knee- let the dog really throw itself at your knee. It hurts just a little (the dog usually makes a nice “omph” sound), but the dog will learn not to jump very quickly.
I volunteer at the Humane Society, and most of the dogs there are big jumpers, and starved for attention, so any attempt to push them off with my hands is reinforcement. For all of the dogs I’ve worked with there, it has worked after 3 repetitions, max.
I am now using the aforementioned harness that pinches her arm pits… That works a bit. I thought about the choke chain but my wife thought it too harsh. I agreed since I was afraid that she would pull too hard and accidently injure herself.
Actually I think the suggestion of obedience classes might be the best. Now to find a reputable one at a price I can afford.
Ask the Humane Society. Ours has coupons for local trainers- the trainers get publicity, you get a better doggy citizen, and the Society avoids one more abandoned dog.
You don’t need to take her to classes (although the contact with other dogs would be helpful). There are many good books out there which will allow you to do it yourself. There are good sites on the internet too, which give you the basics. Actually, I prefer home training, because it requires work and consistency. I’ve seen too many people who take their dogs to class, and it all leaves their head as soon as they walk out the door.
The SPCA advocates choke chains! I have one for my now 2 year old, she mostly doesn’t pull, occasionally if she sees a cat but also responds to voice commands. The choke chain must be used correctly ofcourse or it is useless for anything other than strangling the dog. Short, sharp jerks only.
My family used to have a big German shepherd. A choke chain was the ONLY thing that would work because he had such a massive quantity of fur, especially around his neck. Anything less, he wouldn’t even notice.
I respectfully disagree. It’s one thing if you work in a shelter, another if you’re raising the dog yourself. Bad behaviour in a dog is the owner’s fault. If you have to resort to such harsh treatment and that halti thing, it’s because you haven’t raised your dog properly and in effect, you’re punishing the dog for your own failure.
Ideally, you shouldn’t have to use a leash at all, but most people don’t have the time to spend in making the dog that obedient.
The choke chain is a good way to teach a dog to heel in my opinion, whether you have a rescue dog or not. Yes, there are other methods and I have used them with other dogs, but the choke chain was brilliant - and now i use it even though she doesnt need it because it slips on and off so easily.
A Halti isn’t harsh. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t hurt the dog at all, even less than the choke chain. It just transfers the pressure of a leash from their shoulders, where they are strong and can ignore you, to their nose and neck, where they have to pay attention to you. Shelter dogs often haven’t been trained to pay attention to humans (or they’ve been trained to not notice them through a constant barrage of “come, come, come, come” which they are free to ignore).
With my personal dog, a border collie/aussie mix, I don’t use a leash unless I’m in an area that requires it or we’re around little kids (that herding instinct, you know). But I have spent an ungodly amount of time training her. And despite reading every dog training book I can get my hands on and talking to many trainers, she will still tug on a standard leash. She has no problem heeling when free, though. Some dogs are just stubborn.
