[nagdu] Behaviour question

[Daryl Marie]

Heya, Lisa!

In the first couple months with Jenny, she had a similar problem of jumping at people or up for toys.  It was a behavior I actively discouraged, and what I found worked for us was the following:

If she jumped at a toy, a stern "No jumping!", the toy gets put down, dog goes to bed, play is over, PERIOD.  I did this... I think twice, and it caught on right away.  I seriously don't remember the last time it happened.

As for people, we wound up with a similar issue, and we treated it in a similar way.  Dog jumps up on someone, a firm "No jumping, lay down!"  Dog cannot jump while laying down.  This jumping behavior will likely continue so long as the person actually reacts, because it reinforces it.  If the person turns their back on him, it shows him that he will not get the attention from them, which he wants in the first place.

Does this help?


Daryl



----- Original Message ----- From: Lisa via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users <nagdu at nfbnet.org> Sent: Sat, 14 Mar 2015 07:46:45 -0600 (MDT) Subject: [nagdu] Behaviour question  Hello everyone! I'm coming to you with a question once again. Just to give you the basic info: I have a 3-year-old lab named Taylor. I got him in September 2014. We work alot on different things and it's amazing to see his or our progress. My question is not about his guidework but about his behaviour when people come to visit or when we stop and talk to people outside. He wants to jump up on people (is that the right term? Sorry, if not. I think you know what I mean) and just gets too wild and excited when I start to talk to people, also strangers. When people come into our apartment and don't ignore him completely, he jumps up on them several times, starts to run in circles around them and gets all excited. Depending on how the person reacts, it stops soon or gets worse and worse. Of course I try to forbid him to jump everytime. I also try to let him sit after a short greeting. But I just feel I haven't found the best solution to control him in such a situation yet. Especially here in the apartment, I of course don't have him on a leash and therefore have to think of other things to do to stop him from getting too excited. Do you have any strategies or exercises for me that could help me fix this issue? It's just very unpleasant, this surprised reaction from people who are often like "He is a trained service dog. Why is he behaving like this?" best wishes from Germany Lisa  _______________________________________________ nagdu mailing list nagdu at nfbnet.org http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu: http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/crazymusician%40shaw.ca