Jumping & Jealousy

So as I have said before I take Steff to an offleash dog park in my area that is quite busy, lots of dogs and people every day. Steff is usually getting paid a lot of attention as she is quite well behaved (usually) and everyone knows her as having a great temperament towards all different dogs and is very apt at adjusting her play to the dog she is playing with, she is very gentle to small or scared dogs but can play rough with the best of them also

Unfortunately she has developed 2 bad habits

1) when people pick up the small dogs or pups she will launch herself at them jumping in the air at them and yesterday actually nipped a pup that was in someones arms I always try to get her back on leash if I see someone carrying a pup but as I said it is usually busy and yesterday I missed this one..

2) She has in the last 2 weeks became very jealous of any other dog coming to me for a pat and will barge them out of the way and if they don't take the hint she will growl and pin them down.. I think it is only a matter of time before she would bite them but as this behavior happens near me I can always stop it..

Any advice is appreciated.. Keeping in mind that NO treats are allowed in the park. Thanks

Also just to add the pup she nipped yesterday she had played well with until it was picked up..

Are long leads allowed? If you can't bring treats a squeaky toy is good for getting their attention. Not sure what to advise about the jealousy issue as Suki is still like that and we haven't found the solution yet

Thanks J Leads are allowed but when it is busy there I think it may pose a problem getting tangled around other dogs and people, although I may need to try it.. I tried a squeaky toy which always gets her attention unfortunatley it also got every other dogs attention too I ended up with a few jumping at me to get the toy

1) wow, this same thing happened to me two weeks ago. Mani normally doesn't care about other dogs when he's busy, but as soon as the owners picked them up (there were two) and they started barking at Mani then he was off. I think picking the dog up makes it worse somehow.

Betsy goes nuts if a dog is held. And I mean nuts- growling and going for it. It was suggested to me that they think it's all a game and becomes oh I must get this.

I appreciate it's difficult to work on this in such a busy area. Is there somewhere a bit quieter where you can go and walk her with a training lead (say 50f) whilst you work on these issues?

Wow - no treats in a park I haven't heard of that one before, but could be good as can be a cause of disagreements

BetsyBoo wrote:Betsy goes nuts if a dog is held. And I mean nuts- growling and going for it. It was suggested to me that they think it's all a game and becomes oh I must get this.

I appreciate it's difficult to work on this in such a busy area. Is there somewhere a bit quieter where you can go and walk her with a training lead (say 50f) whilst you work on these issues?

Wow - no treats in a park I haven't heard of that one before, but could be good as can be a cause of disagreements

I will have to stop going to the park until we sort it out I think Just not sure how to do it.. And no treats in an offleash park is a great rule as I don't like Steff taking food from other people and most of them use crap quality treats that she just vomits back up in my car

I've never been to a park that doesn't allow treats so other than the squeeky I can't think of anything. The park we go to has a leash law. We will put Suki on the long lead and if she is running around playing we simply let go of the lead so it is less likely to get tangled and cause an injury.

When the dog is picked up and held it is restrained and knows it. This probably make the dog being held more nervous and the one reacting to it being picked up over excited. It is also the perfect opportunity for the other dog to jump on it! I don't think Steffi's behaviour is aggressive it sounds over excited more than anything. I know what you mean they get fixated and start scrambling and nipping trying to get the other dog down. I would ask the owner of another dog to pick it up and stand still, you need to desensitise her to this. when she goes to come over and jump up at the other dog body block he and step into her to make her take a step back. At the same time use a firm 'LEAVE' command. You need to keep doing this until she stops reacting to the other dog. Don't let her get to the point where she tries to jump up and nip. Eventually she will see she is not getting anywhere, get her to sit and again 'LEAVE'. When she does leave and sits nicely then ask the other person to slowly go to put the dog down. If she moves or reacts then the dog goes back up, Steffi gets another 'LEAVE' command and you start all over again. She should improve and it should get to the point where you can slowly lift and lower the other dog to the ground. When she leaves and sits and stays reward her with a pat and praise. Its really a case of doing it so many times that a dog being carried becomes thoroughly boring and something that involves periods of having to sit and wait and not play with her friends. Eventually she should get so used to other dogs being carried that she won't react to it.

As with the jealousy she has to realise that being a jealous bully will get her the opposite to what she wants. We have a dog who does this and when she does we push her further away from us or use our bodies to block her from infiltrating the attention the other dog is getting. She seems like a bright dog she will realise pretty quickly!

Hope this helps

Excellent advice from LC above, I am also going to try that with Rocky as he can tend to get a bit over excited with other dogs too.

Would a clicker be an idea to use too ?