jumping bulldog

Question
Hi! I have a 2 yr old male bully that is the love of my life. The problem I have is that when I let him out of his crate he jumps at the back of my legs excessively. I have corrected the front jumping by putting my knee up as he jumps, but we literally do a dance around each other or I run full speed to the back door so I can quickly get him out it. He also nips the back of my knees. I'm afraid that he will knock my knee out of position as he weighs about 80lbs.  Please give me some suggestions.  Thanks, Julie

Answer
I had to laugh when I read your descripton; it seems your Bulldog has figured a way around your attempt to stop this behavior.  Try to see the lighter side of this situation, a sense of humor really helps us through.  If this is the worst problem you have with your dog, you're very lucky!

The easiest way to extinguish unwanted behavior is to capture it.  You do that by actually training the behavior.  When the dog jumps up, you connect a word with the action (nonsense word, like PINK) then throw a treat away from you.  Repeat this many times over and the dog will associate the word (and the treat) with his behavior.  Once you see the "lightbulb" go off (and YOU WILL, you'll just know the dog has made the link), you can then ASK for the "jump up", offer a treat by hand, back up a step and say "off".  Repeat this many times (by "many times" I mean a minimum of 36 trials over the course of many days) and you will have captured the "PINK" (jump up) and the "OFF".  You can then reward ONLY the "OFF" command.

Meanwhile, scoot down when you open the crate so the dog cannot jump up onto your legs, but rather will most likely come straight into your arms.  Once he's there, connect a lightweight nylon leash immediately so you can step on it and prevent his further jumping up.  This dog is excited and happy to see you.  Jumping up is an attempt to make eye contact and also a greeting behavior.  You don't want to hurt the dog (by kneeing him) because he's happy to see you.