Hi all

Archie is a 17 week Lab and we love him to bits. I think his training is going really well - he sits, stays, fetches and despite a desperate need to mouth our hands will stop and get a toy to chew when we say "No biting - where's your toy?"

What he does do however is get very excited and jump up at everyone except our 3 year old daughter. We do tell him no very firmly and push him away, ignore him etc. and eventually he calms down. However some people think that when we have visitors he shouldn't jump at all and the same when he's off lead on walks. (I do call him and put him on a lead if anyone is approaching especially as he might knock over a small child and more often than not I can control him this way).

My question is will the penny drop with us keep re-enforcing the message or is some other technique needed? I understand he's a pup and therefore excitable and boisterous and I also understand that he will soon be even bigger and might hurt someone. However just because he's bigger/older doesn't mean he's going to be always jumping on people just because he does now - does it? My husband thinks he's trying to assert his dominance (the pup) but I don't, I think we have unrealistic expectations of how he should behave.

I would really appreciate your comments.
Best wishes
Cathryn

Hi Cathryn
You're right, the penny will drop eventually! He's being a puppy, as is his right. If you're kind, firm and consistent with your training, he will settle down as he matures. (Just as children settle down when they become adults.) If you keep chopping and changing training methods he will get confused and it will take longer.

Just because he's getting bigger, it doesn't mean he's ready to grow up yet!
:)

Sounds like exuberance to me - if you do a search of the forums on "jumping up", you'll find lots of threads with plenty of advice to teach him to stop it :)
It all boils down to completely ignoring him until he stops it, and then getting down to his level when you want to greet him, to encourage him to keep all four feet on the floor. He sounds like a lovely boy!

Annette

Some dogs can turn 'pushing away' into a game as it is a reward for them - any sort of physical contact is rewarding, so they repeat the behaviour - try simply turning away and refusing to interact in anyway - as other posters have said - consistancy is the key.

The turning away and ignoring the pup will work !! Tried, tested and suuccessful with our girls !!:)

Lucy

Yeah, totally agree. Works just fine.

And it is just a baby after all.

:)

Julia & Hooligans

It will work given time.
Another thing to do is to encourage people to get down to his level to greet him. This will avoid him feeling that he has to get up to your level. Insist that you only greet him when all four feet are on the ground.

Regards, John

When you're on walks and he's off lead - don't always put the lead back on when you call him to you - sometimes just call him to recall, praise him up and then send him on again. This way he doesn't start trying to avoid you when you call him back.

Wendy

he sounds perfectly normal and in fact well behaved to me.my 14 week old lab pup amber is a little terror, she's into everything and barks if i tell her off!!on walks she comes back every time cos i sometimes give her a treat, but not every time.good luck :)

Thanks all of you for your replies.

I think we'll stick with ignoring him when he jumps at us and wait for it to click. We realised tonight that the reason he doesn't jump at our 3 year old is probably because when we first got him we taught both the children to stand firm, look away and fold their arms when he jumped up. In fact we all did this in the beginning, but now our daughter is the only one who still consistantly does this because she is the only one who recognises that she could be pushed over if he jumped at her, therefore when he greets her she usually turns half away from him and only pets him etc. on her terms. (They seem to have a lovely relationship, lying all over each other and running around together - and he never mouths her either!)

So perhaps we should all do that and be consistant instead of giving him the mixed messages we obviously have been doing.

Best wishes
Cathryn