[seawater]

I have been trying soooo hard to get my dog to stop jumping on people, and nothing seems to be working. I ignore him when he jumps and he stops, for the time being, but he'll do it again the next day. I regularly practice with others, let him say hi, and remove him if he jumps on them until he can say hi politely, but he never seems to make progress. He will stop eventually, but has yet to meet anyone politely and not jump the first time.

His recall is still only 50/50, and sometimes he'll just look at me when I call him and figure, eh, eye contact is good enough, and go on his way. After 4 months of training he is FINALLY learning sit, down, and stay pretty well, but that's about it. I am consistent with him, and I've tried several reward types (treats, play, praise) but he doesn't seem to want to learn.

Am I doing something wrong or is he just a stubborn dog? Growing up I had herding/sporting type dogs and I've never had this much trouble training a dog. He's a hound type, is this normal for hounds to be this hard to train?

Does anyone else have experience (or words of encouragement, lol) with training a stubborn dog?

 

[annageckos]

Some dogs are harder to train than others. And some dogs will never be reliable off lead. Sometimes you have to try different ways of training, some dogs learn better one way than another. Also use super yummy special treat that he only gets while training. If he is easily distracted go to a quiet room and work there. For not jumping I've had luck turning away. If that isn't working maybe try not paying any attention to him until he is calm, it could take a few minutes or longer at first. With Freyja I keep her on a leash and will turn and walk away with her if she starts to act up, she learns pretty quickly that barking or pulling gets her farther away from what she wants. She has a hard time with people inside the house because she doesn't have much experience with it. We hardly have people over.

 

[cookieface]

Some dogs are motivated by different things and that can make them seem stubborn or more difficult to train. Hounds are typically food motivated - what type of treats are you using? Alternatively, you might try Premack - what activities does he love to do? Use them as reinforcement.

For the jumping specifically, how have you taught him to greet people politely? How are you preventing him from jumping on people while you train?

 

[ChessaQ]

Hounds are definitely more stubborn than some breeds. In part it's because they tend to be preoccupied with hunting, but they also just don't engage with humans the same way other breeds do. My beagle/rottie acts all beagle, and she's very smart, but she simply doesn't care as much about learning as my JRT mix. Even with food, she only stays focused for a little while before she gets bored and doesn't care about the food anymore. They're a more independent type, so it just takes time and patience.

 

[Gnostic Dog]

How old is your dog?

I would suggest you teach your dog to jump on command and once that is achieved you teach to ONLY jump on command. I have explained how to do it in another thread, but I won't bother to type it out again unless this is a suggestion you are interested in trying. The other thing I would suggest is to play tug. What is going on here is his desire to connect with you and others, so by teaching to jump up on command you can control this behavior.

His recall is shaky because he is more attracted to what's going on in the environment than he is to you. You need to increase his attraction to you, and playing tug and teaching him to jump up will help with this, as will "pushing". Again, I have posted about pushing a lot on this forum.

I always SMH at the suggestion to up the value of the treats, if that fails to work what do you end up with, NY strip steak?

Look into Premack, as @cookieface suggested, this is essentially what I am suggesting, but I personally, find the term very confusing.

 

[seawater]

Some dogs are motivated by different things and that can make them seem stubborn or more difficult to train. Hounds are typically food motivated - what type of treats are you using? Alternatively, you might try Premack - what activities does he love to do? Use them as reinforcement.

For the jumping specifically, how have you taught him to greet people politely? How are you preventing him from jumping on people while you train?

I've alternated between training minis mostly when indoors, where distractions are fewer, and brought out chicken sausage patties when outdoors, as it's more high-value for him and he's more likely to come for them. But even then, he won't always come for them if the distraction is super interesting, like another dog or person.

We have been having him meet other people, like friends or roommates both indoors and then moving to outdoors on a leash. I let him go to say hi, and if he jumps, the other person says "nuh uh," turns away, and ignores him. I pull him back with the leash, make him sit, and we try again. Sometimes it only takes once if he's doing good, but he never does it right the first time, and I want him to not jump at all.

How old is your dog?

I would suggest you teach your dog to jump on command and once that is achieved you teach to ONLY jump on command. I have explained how to do it in another thread, but I won't bother to type it out again unless this is a suggestion you are interested in trying. The other thing I would suggest is to play tug. What is going on here is his desire to connect with you and others, so by teaching to jump up on command you can control this behavior.

His recall is shaky because he is more attracted to what's going on in the environment than he is to you. You need to increase his attraction to you, and playing tug and teaching him to jump up will help with this, as will "pushing". Again, I have posted about pushing a lot on this forum.

I always SMH at the suggestion to up the value of the treats, if that fails to work what do you end up with, NY strip steak?

Look into Premack, as @cookieface suggested, this is essentially what I am suggesting, but I personally, find the term very confusing.

He is about a year old, so still a pup, but he's definitely got a good history of having the jumping reinforced. :/ I think I might try to teach him to jump on command, and then teach him to "stay down" from there... I've heard of people doing this with barking, but didn't consider also doing it to stop jumping. After all, the ignore method seems to not be making much of an impact on him, so it couldn't hurt to try another method.

I'll check out Premack, it sounds like it might be applicable to this situation and might help.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I really want to nip this jumping habit ASAP so I'm willing to try anything.

 

[cookieface]

I've alternated between training minis mostly when indoors, where distractions are fewer, and brought out chicken sausage patties when outdoors, as it's more high-value for him and he's more likely to come for them. But even then, he won't always come for them if the distraction is super interesting, like another dog or person.

So, you know what is distracting so you can use them as reinforcements. You also know that right now attempting a recall with certain distractions is unlikely to be successful.

In addition to treats, try making yourself the reinforcement - be exciting, play with your dog, making interacting with you the best thing ever! Build up a strong history of recalling in lower distraction situation before slowly increasing distractions.

You might look into Susan Garrett's Recallers (expensive online course) or Leslie Nelson's Really Reliable Recall (likely more affordable DVD / book) if you really want some extra help.

We have been having him meet other people, like friends or roommates both indoors and then moving to outdoors on a leash. I let him go to say hi, and if he jumps, the other person says "nuh uh," turns away, and ignores him. I pull him back with the leash, make him sit, and we try again. Sometimes it only takes once if he's doing good, but he never does it right the first time, and I want him to not jump at all.

That doesn't really teach him what you want from the start or set him up for success. One exercise I've done in classes is to
- have the dog on leash
- ask for a sit
- have another person slowly approach
- if the dog stands, the person backs up
- if the dog remains seated, the person continues to approach
- the reward for continuing to sit is interacting with the new person (verbal greeting at first, petting later)

It's important that he doesn't practice jumping - jumping is likely reinforcing for him (and most dogs) and every time he does it's a step or two backwards.

There are good training recommendations here, too: Polite Greetings with people and dogs!

 

[cookieface]

Too late to edit -

Recall sticky with fun training games

 

[Foxhunter]

When a dog jumps up at me I will walk into it very fast and hard, this will send them off balance.

With recall people keep calling the dog when it gets to far ahead, I never do, what I will do if it has bad recall is to hide from it.
Calling tells the dog where you are and it isn't bothered about you, silence makes it unsure amd want to look for you. True with most breeds not so much so with hounds of they are on a scent!

Some people I met have rescued a Staffie, nice bitch, they kept her on a leash to start then leashed her if they met other dogs. We walked together and she let her off leash to run with my pack. When it came time to split directions the dog wanted to come with mine, I told her to just keep walking and not call. E dog came with me for about 100 yards, realised her owner want there and turned and ran to catch up with her.

 

[UghNowWhat]

I don't really believe any dog is "stubborn", you just have to know how to work with their particular personality. People say it all the time about Beagles but I don't find mine "stubborn". They were created to think for themselves..people don't realize that.

 

[seawater]

That doesn't really teach him what you want from the start or set him up for success. One exercise I've done in classes is to
- have the dog on leash
- ask for a sit
- have another person slowly approach
- if the dog stands, the person backs up
- if the dog remains seated, the person continues to approach
- the reward for continuing to sit is interacting with the new person (verbal greeting at first, petting later)

It's important that he doesn't practice jumping - jumping is likely reinforcing for him (and most dogs) and every time he does it's a step or two backwards.

There are good training recommendations here, too: Polite Greetings with people and dogs!

I gave this method a shot over the past few days, and it has been helping a lot! He was finally able to have a friend come over and did not jump on her the first time around. I'm really, really impressed. I don't want to say he's stopped completely, but doing this instead of what I was doing before seems to have made a good impact. I'll keep trying this with other people and other situations.

Thank you so much for the recommendation!

 

[cookieface]

Glad it's helping! Jumping is super fun for the dog, so it's going to take time and many repetitions for him to get it. As long as you have patience, don't increase difficulty too quickly, you'll see progress.

 

[agility collie mom]

Have you tried giving your friends the high value treats and having them drop them on the ground at their feet before he jumps? The pup is rewarded essentially for four on the floor. Also for a more reliable recall try feeding him his meals using your hands as a food bowl. As he is eating walk backwards and say come. Increase the distance as he understands.

 

[seawater]

Glad it's helping! Jumping is super fun for the dog, so it's going to take time and many repetitions for him to get it. As long as you have patience, don't increase difficulty too quickly, you'll see progress.

I will definitely exercise patience, and keep the situation controlled in a park or at my house for now. Maybe I'm getting so frustrated with it because I'm trying to move him too fast, or expect miracles too quickly. Baby steps!

 

[mathilda]

I wouldn't call it stubborn, they're often just more independent-thinking dogs or the training method isn't fit for this individual
It's also a breed or working type thing.
some dogs need to make own decisions and be independent to do their job, like some hound breeds, guarding breeds (LGDs, some Molosser breeds) or solidary hunting dogs ( like some Terrier breeds, Ratonero, the small Pinschers and Schnauzers for example).
Some more primal dogs, like most of the Spitz-typed Nordic and Asian breeds can also need a bit more persuation.

plus herders are often teacher's pets when it comes to training, in my experience. they're often very handler orientated which makes training in some aspects more easy than with other breeds.

 

[seawater]

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I figure I'll give an update since I FINALLY found a solution that stopped my dog's jumping up habit. About three weeks ago his trainer suggested I try a pet corrector can and spray his behind when he jumps up. I got a small one and after two weeks he's stopped jumping up on people! I used it sparingly, but truth be told it only took a couple of sprays before he got the point. He will still go up to everyone in the dog park to say hello and get pet, but now I don't hold my breath waiting for him to jump up so I can tell him to get down and apologize. He keeps his paws on the ground. I'm so happy! I don't plan on using the corrector anymore, because I don't want him to become accustomed to it and render it ineffective, but I'm really impressed with how well it addressed the jumping problem.

Just thought I'd share since I finally made a breakthrough with breaking this habit!

 

[Concetta Parsons]

Dogs are not stubborn.It's just their nature. Jumping on people is just their way of showing love. They are just curious to explore new things and people.

 

[seawater]

Dogs are not stubborn.It's just their nature. Jumping on people is just their way of showing love. They are just curious to explore new things and people.

Oh I know, his jumping has always been from a friendly place, he just wants to show the other person how excited he is to meet them! However, for the safety of everyone else he comes in contact with, like kids and elderly people, I think it's best to keep a zero tolerance stance on the jumping. If he were a small dog I probably wouldn't mind so much, but he's 55lbs and solid as a rock, so he could potentially hurt someone pretty bad on accident!

He still certainly does get to explore new things and greet new people, he's just a lot more polite about it now. Which works out great for him because people are a lot more likely to pet him and love on him when they don't have to worry about him potentially taking them down!