I've had giant breed dogs for 25 years. And when I got my first one,
one of the most important things that I wanted him to learn was to not jump up
on people. He was 160 pounds and he was a really big dog,
a four-pound Chihuahua jumping up on people is an issue, but 150 pound Mastiff,
or even the 80-pound German shepherd jumping up on people can be really
dangerous. Today I'm going to be working one-on-one with Scott.
As he's really been struggling with his dog, ginger jumping up on people,
I'm going to help give him some skills to prevent the jumping up from happening,
but also teaching ginger not to jump up in the first place. I'm instructor.
Steve, welcome back to McCann Dogs.
Wow.
Here on our channel,
we publish new videos every week to help you to have a well-behaved.
Four legged family member,
whether that family member is a four pound Chihuahua or 150 pound Irish
wolfhound.
Now I'm excited for you guys to meet Scott and Ginger. So let's go outside.
I,
Scott, thanks for joining us today. Ginger is awesome.
And she's obviously an excited little dog.
You had mentioned to me that that she jumps up when she's,
when she's meeting new people and she gets a little excited.
Is that something you find a lot? Yeah.
Absolutely. Whenever we have friends coming over strangers or people,
she knows very excited loves to greet people as soon as they come through the
door, unless you,
she wants to run to see them and wants to jump up on them and play.
When it comes.
To the idea of jumping up is jumping up as a very self rewarding behavior.
The act of jumping is something that they like and especially a rough and tumble
dog like Ginger, you know,
just that physical interaction of crashing and bashing is stuff that is
naturally rewarding for her.
And oftentimes the things that we do to let them know they shouldn't jump.
Also reinforce that we give them a push off or we even put our hands on them and
they go, oh my gosh, every time I jump on somebody,
I get that rough and tumble play and I get their hands on me. That's a really,
really great reward.
And that's how we want to start to approach changing that picture and preventing
it from happening. Now,
oftentimes either managing or simply gaining her off or creating her in a
certain area can take away that rehearsal again.
So not only did we get the self reward from the jumping itself,
but the running to the door that excitement, the barking,
all of that is a really self rewarding behavior for the dog.
So managing you're on a really good step for that,
but I would try and go one step further where I don't let that particular
rehearsal happen. Okay.
Now telling her not to jump up when she does absolutely using the leash is a
much better way to go.
And one of the things that we have just done is we switched a Ginger's collar
from a fairly wide collar. Hi girl, to a little bit better fit,
flat buckle collar. Not something that clips,
but one that actually belts like your belt one and fit well enough that
egg.
It's not gonna slide down on her shoulders and give her that extra power and be
not so big. It's going to slide over her head,
but give me the best control that I possibly can to help her say, Hey,
I don't want you to do that. And then I can redirect her and do something else.
This is where things like harnesses. We have people say, well,
I put a harness on my dog to prevent that a harness on this dog.
It's like hooking up to a snowplow. You're going to be able to do anything,
to prevent her from doing what she wants to do.
We're sort of giving her all the power.
So WellFit Flint buckle color and your leash or the tools that we are going.
To use now, Ginger's a big dog. And I want to set her up to be successful.
So before we get into a situation where she's making mistake after mistake and
we're having to correct her and place her and do all sorts of things,
I'm just going to have Scott reward her a bunch of times and make sure that she
understands how valuable he is before I get in there and start distracting her.
So let's give this a shot. One.
Of the things that I want to do is give her another job to do that.
We're going to make more valuable than jumping up on the people. Okay?
Now we talk about having our dogs in at our side is a very good place for her to
be very good girl. And that's a great thing to do,
but I want to make it so valuable that she doesn't want to jump.
She wants to maintain that position. And eventually she's going to learn.
That's the only position that she is in when people come in to pet her.
So Scott, I'm just going to have you take the leash.
I'm going to have you guide her to your side.
So just take your left hand into scoop her into your side there.
And then I want you to just lift her up into a sitting position to bring your
right hand down there, close to the clip and tuck her,
a little bit about your side. Sit good, sit now. Like anything else,
I want to make it easy for her to be successful.
So I want her to know that sitting beside you is valuable.
So now that she's sitting, you can give her a little pat,
but I also want you to reward her. So, you know,
we know what we use the word yes is our marker.
And Scott has got some great treats for her. Something that she really,
really likes. So feed her again. Yes. In reward.
And we are going to start to make it so more,
so much more valuable for her to just sit her side,
that she's going to ignore me right now.
I'm standing at a distance to kind of help to make sure that she doesn't make
that mistake. Because obviously she is a super social butterfly.
I guarantee if I come into there, she is going to, she's more apt to get up.
So this is really all about building value.
Now you talked about having her be excited. When people come to the house,
this is sort of how I would approach it.
If I was the person coming in your door and you had the leash on her and you had
some of those great treats there you could teach her that again,
people are going to come and go. And her job is just to sit. Now,
one thing I want to point out that Scott's doing a really,
really good job of is there's no tension on the leash clip.
That leash is hanging straight up and down and he's not strangling her and
holding her. And I said, she has the option to get up.
And because she's sitting, he's going to pet her. He's going to yes.
Reward her again. And he's simply going to build that value. Good girl.
Good job. Excellent girl. And if she were to get off,
we are simply going to guide her back that sit at our side.
Now those treats are great. She's really, really loving those.
So let's see if she gets up and let's see what she can do.
I'm just going to come in a little closer. She's making some good choices.
I want to talk to her a little more of that right now.
She made a really stellar choice there.
And I want to just talk about that.
She looked at me and then immediately looked back at Scott.
That is the thing I want to capitalize on.
That is the thing that I want her to know is absolutely right.
He remained in that position, but she made the choice. Good to look at you.
She said, Hey, there's somebody cool, dad, what should I do?
And that's absolutely the best thing to do. Good girl. Good job. Good.
So at that further distance,
ginger is starting to make some really good choices.
And I'm going to try and make it a little bit harder for her.
Now you'll notice a couple of things. When I was talking to Scott,
I wasn't making any eye contact with ginger at all. I was talking to Scott,
I was standing back. I was maintaining some distance to help her be successful.
And in these situations,
it's really important that you be the advocate for your dog.
People's first inclination is to come in and say, oh my gosh, what a cute dog.
And for most dogs, that's really too overwhelming. They really are social.
And there's nothing wrong with them saying hi to people. However,
if I'm getting jumping and other behaviors that I don't want,
I need to help coach those people and say, Hey, my dogs in training,
can you maybe step back and help me with that training?
And I will tell you to come in, when I think she is able to make a great choice.
So I'm going to come in.
I might even look at her directly and we're going to see if she gets up.
So she got up. So we're gonna bring it right back to it.
Once you just take your leash and bring it right back to your side,
talk her back in. Good girl. Loosen up on your lease a little bit.
Excellent girl. God, that's better now again.
I'm going to see if I can make it a little harder. Good girl, are you ready?
There's a good girl. Excellent. Good, good. Praise that right there. Go ahead.
Set. Yes. And award. Excellent. Good girl.
Now I'm going to get a little harder again. She got up.
So we're going to bring her back, place her in that set ness. Good girl.
This is the bubble that I find most dogs get at this distance. Six,
eight feet. She's doing brilliantly. She's quite capable of holding the set,
but again,
if I'm going to go in and pet her right now and she's getting up constantly,
then she is learning that she can get up and go see people whenever.
So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to make it just a little bit more valuable for her to hold that sit
position. Okay. I'm going to come in a little closer. Good girl.
She's making those choices to look at you. Good girl.
I want you to come in and I want you to just reward her just a little bit more
frequently as they come in. Now, your timing is important.
I don't want you to holding food on her nose and driving her to be there. Okay.
I want her to make that decision. She's going to hear that. Yes.
And then you're going to give her a treat and I was like, I'm closer.
We're going to shift that focus from me to you. Okay. So remind her to sit.
Yes and reward. Say yes,
but don't reach in your pocket until she's there. Yes or no. Okay. No, Good.
Yes. There we go. Excellent. Very good. Good reminder. Is that good girl? Sit.
Good. Good sit. Sit. Good girl.
So he got to watch that and in the pocket before you say yes,
I don't want that cue to be pay attention to me because she knows the cookies
are in that pocket. I want it to be, she makes that choice
and feed that. There you go. So yeah, the differences, she, again, looked at me,
looked at you, we say yes to, and she gets that reward. Everything. Good girl.
Now we're going to make it one little bit harder. Okay.
Now that she's shown that we can be this far away and she can be successful,
I'm actually gonna reach in and pet her. Okay. Okay. Now same rules apply.
Her job is to maintain that sit position,
your daughters to culture a little bit. Okay.
I don't want to talk to her the whole time, but a reminder of her job.
Good girl. Absolutely. And as long as she's holding a position,
we're going to continue to reward. Good. Good, good, good. Excellent.
There we go. Excellent. Good. Good girl.
Very nice. Good. Good girl. Good reward.
So good timing for that girl.
I gotta do one more since she's doing a great job of this girl. Very good.
Yes. And award that right there is my girl. God. Now I got to say,
ginger is doing fantastic and learning this from when she walked into the door
to doing this now, but she has learned it in this particular room,
in this particular situation with me as a distraction.
So because she's doing so well, I'm going to make it harder.
I want to challenge her some more and see if we can build on her skill and
teaching her not to jump up. Now,
it is important to keep in mind that if your dog is struggling with and you work
through this particular scenario and you're not gets up repeatedly,
I would continue to practice that. Don't make it harder yet until you know,
there's a greater chance of them being more successful. So your next steps,
once your dog can knows how to sit at your side and is able to have people come
in and pet, we can start to give the dogs permission to go and say hi.
Now this is all about permission. This is all about you saying,
you can go say hi to that person, but there are still manner. So in a second,
Scott, I'm going to come in. I'm going to stand a little closer.
You're going to tell her, okay. And you can say,
go see or go say hi or whatever you think you're going to use for your sort of
greeting command.
And I want you to step forward with your left foot to let her know that she
should move and it's okay to move. Hey, what that's going to do is two things.
And it's going to let her know that she's allowed to get up because of your
motion and your release, where,
but the second thing it's actually going to put you in a really good position to
help her because the moment she stepped forward to come see me.
If she were to jump,
I can give her a little bump on the leash and tell her not to.
But more importantly,
I could remind her off to keep those four paws on the ground.
And I'm going to give her a quick little pet.
What we're not doing is let her get out to the end of a six foot lease that you
and I already talked about. She's so darn strong.
If she gets that six feet least year, there's nothing you can do about it.
At that point. I'm just going to give her a little quick, a quick little pat.
Okay. Now it's going to be a short pet. And then when I tell you to,
you're just going to call her name. Okay.
So what we're saying is you're allowed to go say hi to somebody,
as long as everything's good, the people are going to pet you,
but before we pet her for too long and she gets too excited,
we're gonna call her name and simply move away.
So it's a really controlled interaction at first.
So then she learns that that's how she's going to meet people.
So I'm going to come in and stand close. Good girl.
So I would just tell her good set. Good. Go ahead. Now tell her, okay.
Go say hi. Go say hi. Hi girl. Good. Very nice. Good. That's excellent.
Good girl. And that is called her name. Ginger. Yes. Girl, girl,
girl, girl. Good job. Good. Good. She is making fantastic choices right now.
And I wanted to point out something that ginger did when Scott told her to come
and say hi to me, she didn't stay focused on me.
She actually looked at me and then turned back to Scott.
And I liked that because what that means is she's saying, okay,
I can go see that person, but my person is still the most valuable.
So when she does that, she's going to come and say hi to me.
I'm pretty much guaranteed. She's going to look at you.
I want you to say yes and I want you to just reach down and give her a treat and
even a little pat on the head and I'm going to pet her for a little bit longer.
Okay. She's making fantastic decisions right now.
So let's just get her on her feet. Come on. Girly. Excellent girl. So say hi.
Hi girl. Good job. What's happening, Gary? Good girl. Yes. Right there.
Yes. Yes. Yes. You're all good. And then call her name.
Good girl.
So she just got several rewards right there for doing all the things that we
want. First and foremost, he kept four paws on the ground. Second of all,
I got to pet her and let her tell her she was a great dog.
And you got to reward her for paying attention to you in a situation that's
really, really distracting. So once my dog knows how to sit,
I can expand on those skills by telling her,
go and say hi and give him permission.
But it's all about setting them up to be successful,
which is exactly what we did here.
Ginger made great choices because we control the choices that she made and help
her do all those great things. Good girl. So you were talking about her energy.
Yeah, quite often, Steve, when we have friends over,
she'll be very excited when she first sees him, want to jump up,
we'll get her settled down after a little while and she'll go and have a lie
down, gets her energy back. I've let my guard down.
She wants to get back up and play again and reintroduced to them and jumping up
on.
Them again. Now,
one of the things I like to do that I encourage you to maybe practices,
you know, have her Goliath in a certain spot in the room.
So the reason for that is I can then have a bit of a,
more of a cue when I realize she's gotten up.
Cause sometimes we get in the moment with our friends and do all sorts of
things. And if the dog is just wandering around, all of a sudden, she goes,
oh my God, there's that person that I already met. Whammo. The dog has a jump.
My young dogs, I will, once they're at this stage, kind of have a spot to lay.
And that's sort of my cue because they will be sleeping. And as I'm doing stuff,
all of a sudden, if that dog gets up, I'm like, oh, wait a second.
That dog is going to do something.
I can interrupt it before she ever has a chance to re-up to jump and reward
herself. And then I can redirect her quickly. I can bring her back to the bed.
I could bring her out and do that same exercise again,
have her sit at my side or go say hi, if she's able.
And then I can also look at managing, whereas it's, you know,
the point of the night where I want to hang out with my friends and do other
things, I'll pop the dog in the crate and just let them have a chill.
After I've taken them out to the bathroom or something like that. So.
A little bit more consistency in the moment,
but also thinking that step ahead and this isn't about letting her jump and be
mad at her for it. This is about changing her world.
So she understands how every interaction goes.
Instead of letting her make happy-go-lucky puppy mistakes, very large puppy,
mind you. And then being mad at her for it.
So this is about controlling the environment and setting her up for success.
Now,
Ginger did really well in this scenario of learning how to not jump up on me,
but there's still training to do.
And if you're struggling with teaching your dog,
not to jump up on not only people, but on counters or tables,
click that video right.
There. Now,
if you'd like some personalized help for you and your dog and have direct access
to a McCann Dogs, instructor check out our Life Skills.
Online training program link is in the description below on that note.
I'm Steve, this is Ginger happy Training.