Running off and Jumping up

I have a few concerns with Jeff, every time I take him out and other dogs are about he runs towards them to play (i keep him off the lead in the open, i live near a country park) no matter what i say or do he doesn't come back, i have to go to him, apologize to the other owners etc and carry on. Does anyone have any tips?

Also he loves jumping up at people and because he is so strong people are stumbling every time he does it, its only if i get close to them with him or if they are talking to him in a baby voice if you know what i mean? (we all do it) he jumps up at them (seems to be the baby voice more)

Any Ideas would be Helpful? he never used to do this and i don't know what has made him start doing it.

Firstly i would tell you not to be letting him off lead if you have no recall, and not to be doing so until you do.

You will need to do a lot of training with him, so the first things you will need to get are a long training lead and a clicker and a whistle.

Step one, get him use to the whistle. Blow it a few times and make sure he isn't scared of it. Anytime you blow it and he is "alert" click & treat. Do this until he is looking for the treat as soon as you blow the whistle.

Then get him out on the leash (at normal length). call his name and if he if he looks at you or even looks your way at all click & treat then make a big fuss. if he doesn't look use the whistle, as soon as he even looks your way c+t+f (click treat fuss lol)

then move on to the longer lead and repeat as necessary. this will help his running at people too, but at home you must never allow him to jump up at you. a stern NO and turn around will put a stop to it eventually. don't make a fuss if he doesn't jump up because that will just get him riled up and make him think that he has to WAIT before he can jump which is confusing.

p.s. he is now older and you will find his behaviour will really start changing now. he will be coming into himself and challenging you, so you must set your boundaries and establish good training or you will have a lump of dog that doesn't listen to you and other people hate.

By the way this will take time, not just one day. Then you must keep the same training up every single day.

Hayley wrote:Firstly i would tell you not to be letting him off lead if you have no recall, and not to be doing so until you do.

You will need to do a lot of training with him, so the first things you will need to get are a long training lead and a clicker and a whistle.

Step one, get him use to the whistle. Blow it a few times and make sure he isn't scared of it. Anytime you blow it and he is "alert" click & treat. Do this until he is looking for the treat as soon as you blow the whistle.

Then get him out on the leash (at normal length). call his name and if he if he looks at you or even looks your way at all click & treat then make a big fuss. if he doesn't look use the whistle, as soon as he even looks your way c+t+f (click treat fuss lol)

then move on to the longer lead and repeat as necessary. this will help his running at people too, but at home you must never allow him to jump up at you. a stern NO and turn around will put a stop to it eventually. don't make a fuss if he doesn't jump up because that will just get him riled up and make him think that he has to WAIT before he can jump which is confusing.

p.s. he is now older and you will find his behaviour will really start changing now. he will be coming into himself and challenging you, so you must set your boundaries and establish good training or you will have a lump of dog that doesn't listen to you and other people hate.

Excellent advice

Thank You very much, he is a lovely dog and sure he will improve with my help

You are not alone with having a dog like this, I used to see it a lot when I worked on Victoria Stillwell’s forum. Why do dogs do this, because they can, they don’t know they are not supposed to.

At the moment he should not be let off the lead, this is for his safety more than other people’s because he is a Staffy, if he knocks someone over they can report him as biting them, it doesn’t matter if it is true or not, the incident will be treated as if it is true even though there is no evidence of a bite mark.

Us humans tend to forget that our dogs don’t speak English, or any other language that we use, they only speak dog which we can’t do no matter how hard we try. Like our own children we have to teach our dogs what words mean.

First you need to get him 100% recall in your home, start with being in the same room as him, use high rewards all the time and vary them because dogs do get fed up with the same treats no matter how yummy they are. Personally I don’t use treats when teaching this in my home, I do use lots of praise and sometimes a short game of tugger depending on the dog. I only use high reward treats when out on our walks. Dogs don’t generalise so you will have to teach this in every room he uses. When my dogs are off lead I always reward them when they come back when called, I don't try to stop the rewards because I don't want them to think that it isn't worth coming back.

Once he is 100% in the same room as you are you can then walk out of the room, when out call him, do this with every room and again reward. Once he is 100% being called from any room in the house, start calling him in from outside. In the house is quite easy, outside is a bit more difficult.

All dogs will refuse to come in at sometime, I start by standing by the door to call my dog in, I only call once, if they don’t come in I close the door and wait. When my dog comes to the door I open it, give the command, if he comes in I give a high reward and will give a treat in this situation. If he runs off again, I close the door. It doesn’t take long before your dog gets fed up, he has been inviting you to play but you have refused so he gets fed up and comes in, lots and lots of praise and a high reward, this can be anything as long as it is a high reward to him.

When he is 100% when called in it is time to work out of your home environment. A long line clipped to a harness on your dog will give you control and your dog the feeling of freedom. Lots of high rewards in your pockets as he will need them. Don't use an extending lead for this as your dog will always know you are at the other end because of the tension the extending lead has on the dog.

Only every call him ONCE, we have all seen dogs that only recall after being called several times, they have learnt that they can do this and like children, only do things when they have to.

Don’t let him find the end of the long line, call him back from various distances from you but never the end, you don’t want him to learn that when he is on the long line he has to obey but when free he doesn’t, the distance from you will be a good guide to him.

When he is 100% on the long line I often add another and continue calling him back from various distances. When I am happy he is as near 100% as possible I drop my end of the long line and let him drag it behind him. It is a lot easier to put your foot on the long line to stop him than it is to get him when he runs off. When he is good with this I take one of the long lines off but still let him drag the other one. Depending were we are I will still have a long line on my dogs to drag behind them for their safety. My dogs run in and out of bushes, round trees, in and out of water etc without any problems.

I also play hide and seek with my dogs, this helps reinforce the recall. At first I stand by a tree or bush were my dog can see me then call him. As he gets use to this I move further behind it so that he can’t see me only hear.

When walking my dog on a lead if I change direction I say “This way”, I find this helps when they are off lead as well, I say “This way” and change direction, my dogs then run after me to find out what I am doing.

Teaching a dog to have a good recall isn’t difficult but does need work, especially if your dog is between 6 and 18 months old, they are teenage hooligans then and like all teenagers they have to push the boundaries.

For the jumping up, you didn’t say if this was outside when he is off lead or in your home, outside you don’t have any control if he is off lead so can’t do anything unless he has a good recall when you can call him back, if in your home you can teach your dog not to jump up.

Most people yell “No” “Get off” etc when a dog jumps up, to a dog it looks like we are joining in the game which will encourage your dog to jump up. I always see, turn your back on your dog or put your dog out of the room, neither of these have worked for me but what has worked is I leave the room and close the door, count to 10 and walk back in again. If my dog jumps up out I go again, count to 10 then back in. I do have to do this several times before my dog stops jumping up. Any longer than the count to 10 my dog can’t associate the jumping up to being left alone, dogs don’t have a good attention scan and will have forgotten why he is alone in the room if you leave it any longer than the count to 10.

What may help is mind games, if you look on Youtube you will see quite a lot of things you can do with your dog to play mind games, these help tire your dog out as it exercises their brains and helps with the bonding and obedience. My dogs love the 3 cup game, 3 plastic cups on the floor upside down with a treat under one. Move the cups round and let your dog find the treat.

Lot of of good advice. It does take hard work but dont give up. Jeff is at that difficult stage but from experience I can say it gets better as they get older.