Trading 1 bad habit for another jumping up to pawing
So now how do I help her learn to keep those paws on the floor. I have been trying to have her go into a down thinking if she is laying down the paws can't come up. Does anyone else have any ideas. I think she just does not know how to control all that sheepie happiness when I come home. The tough part is that I have been getting a lot of new responsibilities at work - and as I am figuring it all out I have been spending more time there and the poor baby is just so happy to see me when I get home. In truth - I love the excited welcome home but if she gets any bigger she will knock me over and I figure I better nip this in the bud before its too late. Thanks Becky & Miley |
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| Congratulations on getting her to sit when you come home. That's definitely a good start (took us a while to get to that point). If I remember correctly, Miley just celebrated her first birthday, so she's definitely still a puppy.
I don't have a success story to share (Barkley'll be a year old on Sunday), but we're going through the same thing. He'll sit at the door when I come home, but still paws at us to get attention. We've had some success with getting him to bring us toys when he wants to play, but occasionally he forgets, or gets impatient. At those times we ignore him (for him, no reaction/attention is the worst kind of correction) until he sits nicely, or brings a toy. He seems to be getting the idea, slowly... ETA: I just re-read your post. If you mean that she sitting (butt on the floor), but still lifting both paws onto you (sitting pretty? Perhaps an opportunity to teach a trick?), then maybe I do know something that might help. In that case, get her to sit, and stand far enough away that she can't get her paws onto you. At first she'll break the sit a lot (wants to be close to you, touch you, excited), but if you're consistent, she'll get the hang of it. Once we had Barkley sitting when we came home, this second stage only took a couple of weeks (however, second one home still gets a very excited puppy running to greet them at the door, and sitting is a little less likely to happen). |
| You are almost there with the sit. You want her to sit to control the jumping, so that means her butt is down and the front feet are on the floor. No praise or loving until that happens. She wants the attention so badly, I doubt that it will take her long to get the idea if everyone in the house is consistant with it. |
got sheep wrote: You are almost there with the sit. You want her to sit to control the jumping, so that means her butt is down and the front feet are on the floor. No praise or loving until that happens. She wants the attention so badly, I doubt that it will take her long to get the idea if everyone in the house is consistant with it.
Ditto... and making sure everyone is consistent is so very important. |
| ABsolutely ignore her unless she's down and no paws on you. It is hard--I'm going through this with Sophie. Natural reaction for me is to pet her when she puts her paw on me, obviously asking for pets and scratches, which I love giving. However, she is a pest. The good thing is that this does work. She'll still start off putting a paw on me but if I ignore it (or push it away) and DON'T pet her, she quickly 'remembers' and puts her paw--and head down. THEN I give her plenty of affection. This is a big training issue for ME since I have to go against my natural inclination, which only reinforces bad behavior. I have to consciously remind myself no petting.
She also knows that she only gets treats if she's sitting calmly. Sherman knows, too, but he's very enthusiastic and so it takes him a little longer to calm and sit down--but he does not get any treat until he does, but does get to watch sitting Sophie and sitting Archie get plenty of treats. |
| Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of standing back further so the paws have no where to go. I guess I am glad we are making progress now we just need to go to the next step.
By the way Miley did just have a birthday. She celebrated with her first camping trip. She had a great time - 2 sites over were 5 dogs (4 goldens and 1 lab) and a couple of times we let them off lead to play in a huge open field. She made a great foot warmer at night when it got cold. |
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