One More Question..

Question
Hi, Shelly.

I asked about my aussie digging dirt and chewing things a while ago. But I forgot to ask you one more question.

You said I should walk my aussie to keep him from getting bored. But he's always jumping on people. The last time I took him for a walk, he was just out of control; chasing things, jumping on me...Once at home he came very close to biting my face. He even took a few strands of my hair out when he jumped on me behind my back.

How can I make him stop? Thanks!

Answer
The first thing you need to do is establish yourself in a leadership role with your dog. Your dog must see you as pack leader and to do this, you must start making him earn his rewards.

Anything he wants to do must be purchased in the form of a behavior that you command. If he wishes to eat dinner or go outside, he must first sit/stay. If he wants to walk on a leash, he must be taught to heel. When greeting strangers or family members, he must learn to sit before he is petted.

In most cases, his desire to jump on people is to greet them. Dogs greet by face to face interaction, so he is trying to reach a level where he can greet you dog style. He must learn that is not acceptable and teaching him to sit before greeting him is a good start.

If the dog succeeds in getting any attention for the jumping behavior, then the dog will continue to jump. Attention may be petting, pushing away, (which resembles play behavior), and even mild reprimands and it is this attention that is reinforcing the dog to misbehave.

To change this behavior you need to remove all reinforcement. This may mean that you do not look, speak, touch or interact with the dog in any way when it jumps on you. Walk by the dog, give a command such as sit, but do not interact with the dog. When the dog successfully submits to your leadership by doing what you ask, then it may receive it's reward of attention.