Let's face it.
The internet is a great source of information on all kinds of things,
but it's also weeding through the information to find out what actually
works and what doesn't. And this is especially important.
When it comes to dog training,
we actually came across a video that showed a simple way to prevent your dog
from jumping up on the furniture,
by covering it in foil to test whether or not this is actually going to work.
I have covered every piece of furniture in this room with aluminum foil,
while at work, well, we're going to find out.
But what I can tell you is I've got some great things.
I'm going to show you what actually will work to prevent your dog from jumping
up on the couch. I'm instructor Steve, come here hip. This is Hippie Shake.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
When we saw this video,
it was built as a simple way to prevent your dog from jumping up on furniture.
People are always wanting the shortcut or the magic bullet that can simply stop
things from happening, but dogs don't work that way. They need to be trained.
And that takes some time and consistency.
And we also need to talk about the reasonable nature of the fix.
Is it reasonable to have your entire living room covered in tinfoil?
[Inaudible].
So let's say it does prevent my dog from jumping on the furniture,
which it clearly doesn't. Cause Hippie is laying quietly on this tinfoil.
We need to think about what else it looks like in life.
What do I do when I have friends over? Where are they going to sit?
And what happens when the tinfoil is not there?
If I do want to clear the tinfoil off so that my friends can sit down,
is my dog really going to know that they shouldn't jump up on the furniture.
And then there are other safety concerns that go along with leaving tinfoil all
over your house. What if your dog happens to ingest this tinfoil or what? Again,
if you have a sound sensitive dog,
that's very worried by the crinkle of this sound and they get scared and there
becomes an association with that sound. Anytime they hear it.
It's important to keep in mind as dog owners,
what this is or is not actually teaching our dogs. And I can tell you,
it's not actually teaching our dogs anything. It might in the moment,
prevent the dog from jumping up. But then again,
what do I do once I've taken off?
Do I then put out a whole new roll of aluminum foil to prevent my dog from
jumping up? Or what do I do?
If my dog decides they like the taste of aluminum foil, because let's face it,
dogs eat a lot of stuff. So we need to look at how we can teach our dogs,
not to be on the furniture in the first place until we invite them.
And that's the big thing. I like to have dogs on the furniture in my house.
And I can give you some tips on how to get there in my house.
I enjoy having my dogs up on the furniture with me.
They're allowed to be on the couch or in the chair hanging out when we're
watching TV. And you may want that for your dog in your house,
but it's really important that your dog understand the difference between being
invited up on the couch to hang out and deciding on their own that the couch is
their new place.
This furniture.
Is a bit of a reward. Your young dog being up on the same level as you,
where they can decide to crawl in your lap or do all sorts of things is not the
best position to put them in.
So we're going to teach our dog some other skills instead.
And once the dogs understand those skills,
then I can start to loosen the reins and.
Invite her up to have that reward. So how do we prevent our dogs from jumping.
Up on the furniture unless invited? Well,
the first thing we're going to do is we're going to supervise them.
When our puppies are out of their crate,
we're going to actively have eyes on them.
We're going to encourage you to put a leash or a line on the dog so that you
take away their ability to make it those kinds of decisions. Good girl, hip.
That's very, very nice.
This allows me to interrupt anything I don't like and takes away her ability to
reward herself for jumping on the furniture.
And when my dogs are actually out of their crate, it's very rare.
They're left to their own devices.
I don't give them the freedom to run and jump on the couch and reward
themselves. I'm actively training them. I'm teaching them to sit.
I'm teaching them to lie down.
I'm teaching them to respond to their name and bigger picture.
I'm teaching them that I have value.
So instead of them thinking that the couch is the best place to be,
they start to learn that I'm more fun and I'm more engaging than the simple
piece of furniture is.
So once I've done a little training and I've given my dogs a little exercise,
it's important that we take a break,
I will take the dog and I'll just put them in their crate.
Let them have a little nap and want to have a little bit of time.
Once I've done the other things that I need to do,
I can come back and give my dog that great focused attention.
So when I do have time for training,
there are a couple of things that I start really early with my puppies,
and I will teach them where to go. I give them a spot in the room.
That's valuable. That is at my direction.
I don't allow them to jump on the couch or the other furniture that's going to
come later. One of the things I will do is I will get a bed.
I will put it close to where I want to sit,
because that way I can relax a little bit too.
And I'm going to use a little bit of food to encourage that dog into that spot.
Now, with these young busy dogs,
we're going to build a ton of value by rewarding very often.
But as my dog gets a little bit more adept and comfortable with that position,
yeah. I can start to wean away from that reward.
So I can just take a little food. I can lure my dog onto that bed.
I can ask her to lie down and then I can simply, yeah, yes and reward,
a good girly, very good job. And at first I'm building a ton of value quickly,
but the more able she is to hold position, the more I can space out the rewards.
Good girl, Hip. Excellent job. Now she's really excited by this.
I've got some pretty high value treats here,
but this is something I also actually will take part of my dog's meal and do,
instead of using high value treats all the time,
I'm going to feed them that food anyway.
So why not use it to create some value for holding position?
I can reward her over and over. Now if she were to get up,
there's a couple of important things to happen.
I have the leash of the line in my hand, so, okay. You can get up.
Let's say she wanted to wander off and check something else out.
I've limited her options on where she can go. I've got this line in my hand.
I'm not going to scold her or do anything other than simply encourage her back
to this bed. Encourage her to lie down and build more value here.
I take away her options in one hand, but I build a ton of value for this.
And this makes a big difference in teaching them that just chilling out nearby
me is a really, really good thing. Instead of chilling out on me. Now,
one of the big things to keep in mind that big part of good dog training is good
leadership. And what I'm setting is an expectation that says,
I'm going to direct everything. I'm doing it fairly. I'm doing it clearly.
I'm helping my dog to be right instead putting them in a situation where they're
making mistake after mistake and I'm having to get after them for it,
taking the time to teach my dog where to go when I want gives them
that ability and that understanding. Now,
once my dog does understand that chilling out on the bed is where I want them to
be.
I can start to change my expectation a little bit and give her permission to
be up on the couch with me. Now, Keep in mind. This is all about permission.
This is all about me deciding that it's okay for her to jump up.
And Hippie of course is doing a great job at this now.
And your dog will start to figure this out quickly too.
So now I can start to say, okay, Hip, I can encourage her. [inaudible] yeah.
Good girl. Excellent job. Now. In this particular scenario.
I have given her permission. I've encouraged her to come up.
I still have her leash or her line on because I don't want her being crazy.
I don't want her having a party up here,
but I can calmly praise her and I can call her and we pet her.
And I can also now start to teach her to get off the couch when I want.
So she's been invited up. I can pet her for being up here.
Then I can take a little food. I can tell her, okay. Hip off. Yes. Good girl.
And I can reward her for coming off the couch. Good girl. Good off. Yes.
Good off now off is my word for not being on the couch down is lie down
off means get off and I can start to now spend some time teaching when it's okay
to jump up and more importantly,
what to ask you got to get off the furniture you need to get off. Okay? Yep.
How about yes. Good girl. Excellent. Good job. What a good puppy dog. Hurray.
Good girl. Very good. Good, off. Yes.
Good care. Excellent. Good puppers. Hooray.
Now giving your dog permission to be up on the couch is a privilege and
something that as they are learning, you may need to take away and add back in.
If you find that your dog is starting to make decisions on their own or maybe
not listening as well in general,
I can go back to being a little bit more specific about my direction.
I can insist that they lie on the bed and build more value for that.
Really make sure they understand that they do need to wait for my permission to
come up on the furniture. This is all about consistency in your dog training.
If you find the dogs are taking advantage of the freedoms that you're giving
them, you need to be more specific with them.
You need to be there to supervise them and you need to be directing them off the
couch. If they're taking advantage of those situations,
the idea for this video came from something that we found on the internet.
The internet is a great place,
but when you're taking information from the internet,
it's really important to say, does this make sense for me?
And my dog chances are,
if you're struggling with your dog jumping up on furniture,
you're going to be struggling with them jumping up on other things in life too.
Now,
if you want to learn more about how to prevent dogs from jumping up on people,
check that the video that I did here with a golden retriever named Emmet and I
taught him not to jump up on me. Now,
if you're struggling with your dog training and you'd like specific information
tailored to you and your dog,
click the link in the description below to our online training programs that I'm
Steve, this is a little Hippie Shake, Happy training.