I am new to training, and we have a 4 month old german shorthair/english pointer, and he is constantly jumping on us and on our guests. I have been using ideas from Sitstayfetch, and sometimes it works, and sometimes not. Any help out there? Thank you
Hi Andi, Your dog is still a pup, so it has a lot of energy for expelling in greeting people! Keep following the advice in SitStayFetch pertaining to jumping up.
In addition ensure that you and your family members have read and understand the techniques in the bonus book "Secrets to becoming the Alpha Dog". These are great techniques for maintaining or establishing your position at the head of the household. No matter what the problem is, all dogs need to know where the stand in the house for both yours and their peace and comfort.
Here are some ways to reinforce your position, your children should also be involved in these steps:
1) If you come across your dogs while they are sleeping or lying on the floor then you can reinforce your position as alpha dog by making them move so that you can pass by.
2) Make sure that you always go through doorways first. A good method to reinforce your position as alpha dog is to walk your dogs around the house on the leash, making your dogs wait while you walk through doorways first.
3) At mealtimes make sure that your dogs eat after all of the humans have.
4) Do not feed your dogs tidbits or let it pester you at the table. Save the morsels and tidbits for training sessions instead.
5) Do not greet your dogs straightaway when you arrive home. Make it wait until you are ready and then call it to you.
6) Whenever your dogs want attention or anything, wait till they are sitting and being well behaved.
7) When you give a command make sure that you are in a position to enforce the action that you require from your dog, especially in the initial stages of Alpha Dog training. Also, use the Alarm-No-Command technique as described in the Alpha Dog bonus book to reprimand your dog if it does not obey your command.
Generally I do not recommend people give their dogs bones as this encourages the aggression, because in the wild the alpha dog would be the only one to have the privilege of chewing the bones. The reason your dog growls at you when you approach it with a bone is because it believes that it has the right to the bone and is trying to discipline you for challenging your dog for its dominant role.
Also, it is recommended that your pup is not allowed on couches or beds.
Work with her for 15 minutes a day minimum on the basic commands of sit, stay and come. You should also work on a command like OFF - practice it whenever you see her up on/against something she shouldn't be on, kids, couch, counters, other people. With adults you can try giving a command like 'up' to have her jump up against you, then "off" to have her get off of you.
Your dog should always be reprimanded for bad behaviour. DO NOT yell, as this has no effect on a dominant dog. Growl instead, use a guttural growl like " AAHHH!" instead of "No!", as this makes a sharper sound then "No" (If done correctly it may hurt your throat a little).
When introducing her to new people (especially children), it is beneficial that she be on a leash. Having her sitting quietly before greeting any new people would be ideal. Do not allow her to greet them if she is aggressive (jumping up can become an aggressive behaviour to assert dominance), reprimand her as the behaviour occurs and reward only calm behaviour.
When she is calm enough to be introduced allow slow calm introductions one at a time. She should be seated throughout.
You can practice this a lot, by inviting some visitors over specifically for training - make the visitors aware before they arrive of the training in progress, tell them to ignore the dog should it act too excited or jump up. Visitors (and owners!) should not back away from a friendly dog that is jumping up, as that asserts the dog's alpha position. Instead, step forward and reprimand with direct eye contact.
Your pups behaviour should immediately start to improve upon properly structuring her environment for positive reinforcement for good behaviour and reprimands or no attention for bad behaviour.
Hope this helps! If you have any questions feel free to ask, we'll help where we can, Blue
