CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Behaviour & Training => Topic started by: Londongirl on June 16, 2016, 10:59:38 AM
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Henry is a very determined jumper-upper. We've worked very hard on it at home, and he now rarely jumps up on any of us. When he does we turn and step away and he quickly sits his butt back down. When anyone comes into the house we do the same. Butt down to say hello.
However, he is still jumping up on people he meets on on our walks. In fact, it's got worse. If anyone just makes eye contact he takes it as an invitation to jump up in greeting. We had a horrible situation the other day in the woods when he met a man wearing cream trousers just after Henry had been in a black sticky mud puddle... The man was VERY angry and yelled at Henry and waved his arms at him which of course made it much worse.
The problem is that about 50% of the time he gets positive reinforcement from the person he has jumped on, and it happens too fast for me to ask them not to encourage him. I try to minimise his chances of doing it in the first place, whistling him back, using distraction, sometimes a sharp ah-ah will stop him before he starts and the he gets rewarded for not jumping. But it's happening often enough to be a problem, and he seems to be doing it even more in the past few weeks.
Any suggestions or tips from COLers on this one?
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My first thought is, what the hell was a man doing in the woods wearing cream trousers? :dunno:
He deserves what he gets.
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Yes, he was asking for trouble! Cream trousers in the woods, what next? >:D
(Confession: I feel very sheepish). I now realise that in the past I have inadvertently reinforced this jumping up behaviour in other people's dogs by responding with joyful affection and delight. As a new puppy owner, it's all about to come back to bite me on the bum...
So I will be very interested in any solutions people can offer.
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Maddie is very much like this. In fact she would jump up at people we pass on the pavement. It's something else I should have corrected when she was younger. I am working very hard on..... see person, come back to me, walk close, past the person then reward. (A high value treat would probably be a good idea, we have to keep those just for dogs). You probably have to keep working at it.
When we pass people on the pavement I say close, watch her body language and if she's been calm, I click and reward.
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Blueberry - I still inadvertently reinforce other people's dogs too, before I realise what I'm doing! So easy just to smile and say hello and then remember, no!
Lescef - that sounds like a good plan when he's on the lead. I have some sprats I've been saving for anything needing extra special reinforcement, I might crack those out for lead walks as he sometimes tries it then too. Not sure what I can do when he's running ahead or behind me though, when he's too far away for me to distract.
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We had a horrible situation the other day in the woods when he met a man wearing cream trousers just after Henry had been in a black sticky mud puddle... The man was VERY angry and yelled at Henry and waved his arms at him which of course made it much worse.
:rofl1:
Sorry but- yes!- cream trousers, what's that about? (I did have a woman shout at me once in similar circumstances 'And these are my best shorts!'). I've always had this problem with my sociable cockers and had some success with the clicker training. I can't say they were ever totally reliable though. At least the corgi is so short he can only muddy people below the knee.
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I don't think I will ever forget the HUGE black paw-plus-slide mud prints on his thighs and the look of pure fury on his face. Henry once muddied an immaculately dressed Italian lady who just ruffled his ears and called him 'piccolino'.
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OK well if things seem to be getting really ugly you could try, 'You're that flasher the police are looking for!' and get your phone out. ;)
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Martha can do this as well sometimes, very annoying but how to stop it ?
Europeans seen a lot cooler, my Bryn cocker once pee'd against the leg of a French gentleman we were talking too - he just shook his trouser leg and shoe and continued the conversation without blinking an eye about it.
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A good argument for voting in, then!
So we're all agreed that smartly dressed potential flashers must take their chances if they venture into the woods?
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My first thought is, what the hell was a man doing in the woods wearing cream trousers? :dunno:
He deserves what he gets.
:005: Have to agree
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A good argument for voting in, then!
So we're all agreed that smartly dressed potential flashers must take their chances if they venture into the woods?
:lol: :lol:
Absolutely.
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How many of us have 'doggy' clothes and 'everyday' clothes? Lol! ;)
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How many of us have 'doggy' clothes and 'everyday' clothes? Lol! ;)
I have some doggy clothes and deffo some dodgy clothes, but sadly peeps without dogs probably don't, and I suppose there is an argument (and most likely a law) that folk should be able to walk around where they like wearing what clothes they like without getting mugged by a four legged muddy menace.
I do try my best with a 'no jumping' that works as long as the dogs don't recognise that ahh this is the person who always has treats on them and feeds us. There is an old bloke who systematically and deliberately ignored me when I asked him not to feed my dogs - and gave them extra to boot, now I avoid him if possible but if the dogs see him before I do and pester him, I don't respond.
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How many of us have 'doggy' clothes and 'everyday' clothes? Lol! ;)
I certainly do. Sometimes I have to nip into a shop on my way home after a walk with the dogs and they must think 'here's that tramp again' :lol:
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hmmm, now Martha has reached 18 weeks I only seem to own rather tattered doggy clothes, I'm sure they were smart before she arrived though ph34r
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I see lots of people WITH DOGS smartly dressed, whereas I look like I've just come off a trek in the Himalyas. None of the people, I should say, have a spaniel.
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OK well if things seem to be getting really ugly you could try, 'You're that flasher the police are looking for!' and get your phone out. ;)
:clapping: :clapping:
Martha can do this as well sometimes, very annoying but how to stop it ?
Europeans seen a lot cooler, my Bryn cocker once pee'd against the leg of a French gentleman we were talking too - he just shook his trouser leg and shoe and continued the conversation without blinking an eye about it.
We're currently in the Provence (and if its any consolation, its POURED all day :005:) but have to agree, the French are quite amazing, there're very little restrictions anywhere, their dogs are totally laid back and we've been welcomed everywhere!
(And Londongirl - Henry's not on his own, have exactly the same problem, but was told by a french lady today, I shouldn't worry, he'll learn - humans have to go to school for 9 years, I shouldn't expect perfection at 12 months! I replied that I hope it doesn't take him that long!) :005:
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*packs bags, moves to France*
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*packs bags, moves to France*
We're here for another week, so hurry up, Henry and Humphrey ('umpfriiee) will have a ball!!! :005:
:005:
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*packs bags, moves to France*
We're here for another week, so hurry up, Henry and Humphrey ('umpfriiee) will have a ball!!! :005:
:005:
Umpffiiee. :005:
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This is Bonnie's one remaining (well, there's more than one but hey who's counting?) issue that we just cannot stop. And we also had an incident with a man in cream trousers and this was only last year, not the puppy stage :005: He was not amused even after I apologised. Why walk a dog in cream trousers??
We have tried from the very beginning to stop this little cocker quirk but after 3 years plus I give up. I think it's an impossible one when people (unintentionally) reinforce the behaviour and I'm not about to shout at lovely people who fuss her when she jumps up. We have always ignored jumping up and do not fuss her until she has 4 paws on the floor but others walk past, stop to fuss her and then carry on fussing her while she jumps up. So I'm not going to tell them to stop or ignore nice people just so I can have a perfect dog......but it would be soooooo nice to have a perfect dog ;)
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That's the thing, isn't it? Just this afternoon, after I'd posted this, we ran into a lady on the street who remembered seeing Henry as a tiny pup. As soon as she said hello, up he went and she was so delighted, chatting away to him about how lovely he was and how much he'd grown, ruffling his ears and chuckling his chin, and I just couldn't bear to drag him down or ask her to stop.
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Yep, this is Dylan's biggest thing, we've managed get him to just say hello to other dogs and then move on, but it,s the people thing, he just thinks it's his mission in life to say hallo to every person in the world. And when we try and get hi to stop, some person comes along and fusses him and rewards his bad behaviour. So what can you do :dunno:. At least he's not biting their feet, li,e our Jack Russell did :011: :011:
Lesley and dylan
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I think you're doing the right things, it just is a very hard one. We pre-empt it as much as we can and if he does jump up to someone we tell him sternly 'No, Ollie, get down', regardless of whether it is a welcome greeting for the person in question or not. If they are welcoming it we just say nicely and with an apologetic smile 'sorry, we're trying to train him not to jump up!' because a lot of the time they'll say 'o he's ok!'