BehavioRx Case of the Month
for June 1998

Jumping Dogs

The Christmas puppies are teenagers now, and our HelpLine and BehavioRx Instruction brochure orders are reflecting it. Puppy-McBoing-boing time is upon us.

The client phoned with a serious problem in the making. Their 6 month old male, intact Labrador Retriever knocked down Gramma when she and Grampa arrived for an evening visit. First through the door was Grampa, who faced the canine onslaught directly. He deftly followed the most unwise advice ever offered to "correct" a jumping dog... he kneed "Barney" in the chest, sending him sprawling onto his back. But Barney had been roughhoused aplenty by Jill's husband and her three kids, 8,10, and 12 year old boys. [Jill had started putting Barney out of the house whenever she was home alone.] Barney merely got up and jumped up on Gramma from the back, sending her buns over tea-kettle into the living room. This infuriated Dad. He grabbed Barney by the choke collar and dragged him out the back door, while Jill and Grampa helped Gramma to the sofa so they could check her for a broken hip. Fortunately [for her and Barney] there was no serious injury.

The time had come for some serious soul-searching on Dad's part. Fortunately, he wasn't the defensive type [we didn't hear him say "A dog should know when it's OK to jump."] and we were able to outline a program that would bring Barney back into the family fold in a few weeks.

Everyone agreed to follow a program in which all the horse play would cease. We replaced it with fetch, using a ball in the house and a rubber bone in the yard. Barney enjoyed fetching, which suited his genes, anyway.

We discovered a major reason why the clients said that Barney was "Hyper." He had spent almost two-thirds of every weekday closely confined in a crate that was designed for temporary use while traveling! The crating was supposed to prevent problems like urinating, pooping and destructive chewing in the house. Dad, Mom and the lads followed the BehavioRx programs to prevent those problems and left Barney free in the house while they left him for one hour, then two hour on a Saturday. All went OK. Sunday they left him for six hours and were delighted, but surprised, to find him just waking up
when they got home. The following Monday to Friday was without any serious problems; Barney's biggest sin was to urinate by the back door after someone forgot to let him out 10 minutes before leaving.

At the same time, the family all used the cha-cha technique to correct Barney's jumping, which usually occurred when people came into the house. It goes as follows:

    1. As the dog approaches take a quick cha-cha step toward him. The dog's defense reflex will usually stop him in his tracks. The dog must then instantly be praised and the owner should then crouch down and allow the dog to approach. If he again starts to jump, the owner stands up abruptly. This little body language game continues until the dog is not jumping, but close
enough to pet.
    2. In order to give the dog something to do (rather than jump) when he gets to the owner, he is taught to sit. While crouched, the owner should pass a hand from under the dog's chin upward through the line of vision to a spot above his head as they say its name, followed by 'sit.' . If the dog even starts to track visually upward, he is praised with 'Good sit,' 'good sit'. This will result in a 'sit' after a few patient repetitions. Then the dog should be petted for a couple of seconds, preferably on the throat and chest. Next, the owner must be still for about three seconds before releasing the puppy with a word such as 'free,' while rising to move forward, ahead of the dog. If this routine is practiced for a couple of days, even the jumpiest dogs usually become regular ladies and gentlemen. Barney, who already knew the Sit command, was quick to respond.

Gramma and Grampa were invited for another visit after Jill and Dad explained exactly what they were to do. Gramma liked the Cha-Cha part, while Grampa grumped a little about not being able to go to war with Barney again. The set-ups worked a like a charm, probably because the folks had some of their friends over to make the corrections before throwing Gramma into the breach.

Barney spent the evening learning to earn his pets and he and his family are living happily ever after. With one hitch... Barney is going to be castrated next week.

Previous Cases

May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
December 1997
November 1997
October 1997
September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997
December 1996
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