# Help Needed With Dog Jumping On Other Dogs :-(



## Malibugirl

Does anyone know a way I could stop my lurcher / lab cross getting over excited and jumping all over other dogs?

Basically, Lolly loves all people and dogs, but when she is out for a walk and she sees another dog, all she does is pull so hard to get to them (you wont believe the burns I have from her long lead). I dont stop her from seeing other dogs, but when she does, she starts off okay by just sniffing and then she pounces on them, jumps on / over their back, play fights and rough and tumbles with them. This is fine on some dogs (ones she knows and where I know the owners and they are happy for the dogs to rough and tumble), but obviously for most dogs this is just not acceptable (I wouldn't like it if a dog did that to my dog). Some dogs have gone for her because they just find her far too exciteable and yet she doesn't get the message, even if she is nipped or warned off. 

Im really worried that either she is going to get hurt or that other owners are going to have a go at me if she upsets or unintentially hurts their dog with her boistrouseness. I try hard to hold onto her (she is on a lead in public places, but we go to a big field every day near home where we can let her off) and her recall is normally brilliant (both on and off lead), but as soon as she sees another dog, she goes totally deaf! Ive tried distracting her with toys, treats etc. but she is just not interested. She shows no aggression whatsoever to any other dogs, but I worry that if she pounces on a small dog she may hurt it as she is big and strong. My Dad has a rescue grehound who is quite old now and when we went to visit last week, I had to keep her on a lead the whole time in their house because she kept jumping on my Dads dog and annoying her causing her to go for Lolly several times.

She is such a wonderful dog in most ways, but I would love to let her off the lead more without worrying about her doing this. For info, its not because she is on the lead that she is this bad, when she is off the lead she is exactly the same. Our friends have a labrador and she plays like this with him at our house and theirs quite often. The other night, they were still going strong 5 hours later, she just doesn't give in! She has one to two long walks / runs every day and has plenty of play time with toys, kongs etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks


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## PoisonGirl

I am just about to look after a dog with this problem....

I am hoping to get him walking on a Canny Collar, and possibly using clicker training, I am going to be rewarding him for calm behaviour.
I hope to get him to sit instead of jumping.... 

I'll be interested in other replies!

x


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## Colliepoodle

Will your dog play with you? Tuggie, or ball-chasing games?

IME if you can get your dog OBSESSED with a toy, and therefore view you and the toy as the most fun thing ever, he'll be less likely to want to have fun with other dogs.

My dog went through a stage of being obsessed with other dogs. I got her obsessed with her tuggie instead; plus she's now pretty ball-obsessed too.

You also have to play it a bit clever; find some very calm, sensible dogs to let him socialise with (a training class will help, if you find the right one). I did this with my dog; the only time I let her play was with dogs I knew weren't that bothered about playing LOL! She'd bound over to them (with their owner's permission of course; that's where a training class can help), they'd sniff her and then ignore her and you could see it sinking in gradually that other dogs really ain't all that after all.... it really helped her learn that most of the time, I was more fun 

You can't keep them from ever socialising with others; you then risk them becoming even more frustrated. What you CAN do is teach them that playing with other dogs is less fun than they thought; far inferior to playing with you.

Alongside that, get to a distance where he can cope with other dogs without going silly, and treat him for paying attention to you. Don't get too close to start with - that's self defeating. You need to be far enough away so that he learns to be calm/ignore. Then graaaaaaaaadually get closer....


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## Sylvestris Kennels

Malibugirl said:


> Does anyone know a way I could stop my lurcher / lab cross getting over excited and jumping all over other dogs?
> 
> Basically, Lolly loves all people and dogs, but when she is out for a walk and she sees another dog, all she does is pull so hard to get to them (you wont believe the burns I have from her long lead). I dont stop her from seeing other dogs, but when she does, she starts off okay by just sniffing and then she pounces on them, jumps on / over their back, play fights and rough and tumbles with them. This is fine on some dogs (ones she knows and where I know the owners and they are happy for the dogs to rough and tumble), but obviously for most dogs this is just not acceptable (I wouldn't like it if a dog did that to my dog). Some dogs have gone for her because they just find her far too exciteable and yet she doesn't get the message, even if she is nipped or warned off.
> 
> Im really worried that either she is going to get hurt or that other owners are going to have a go at me if she upsets or unintentially hurts their dog with her boistrouseness. I try hard to hold onto her (she is on a lead in public places, but we go to a big field every day near home where we can let her off) and her recall is normally brilliant (both on and off lead), but as soon as she sees another dog, she goes totally deaf! Ive tried distracting her with toys, treats etc. but she is just not interested. She shows no aggression whatsoever to any other dogs, but I worry that if she pounces on a small dog she may hurt it as she is big and strong. My Dad has a rescue grehound who is quite old now and when we went to visit last week, I had to keep her on a lead the whole time in their house because she kept jumping on my Dads dog and annoying her causing her to go for Lolly several times.
> 
> She is such a wonderful dog in most ways, but I would love to let her off the lead more without worrying about her doing this. For info, its not because she is on the lead that she is this bad, when she is off the lead she is exactly the same. Our friends have a labrador and she plays like this with him at our house and theirs quite often. The other night, they were still going strong 5 hours later, she just doesn't give in! She has one to two long walks / runs every day and has plenty of play time with toys, kongs etc.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks


It sounds like you have a dog with plenty of extra energy, large dogs need 3 30 minute off lead walks a day, before you are able to have success with distraction training you will need to reduce the levels of excess energy in your dog, I would increase the number of exercise sessions as a starting point.


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## goodvic2

I have had that problem with Sammy, my ridgeback x stafi. However, because of the way he looks I have to be very careful People are not so understanding with these breeds.

What I do now is control his approach by introducing him on a lead. When we get to the other dog, if he is calm I allow him off the lead. I have to be very vigilant as if he see's another dog before I do, he still has the potential to get over excited.

He has actually calmed down a lot (thank god) and I put this down to:
1) Playing with his ball at lot, as colliepoodle has suggested. This keeps him occupied and makes me more entertaining. However, does your dog play?
2) Spending time doing 1-1 training with hm, so that I am more in control
3) Allowing him to meet with other dogs, so that they are not so "appealing"

Best of luck x


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## Malibugirl

Thank you all for your advice so far.

Lolly loves playing tuggie, in fact I would go as far as to say that she is pretty obsessed with it, however, when she sees another dog, she just doesn't want to know  She also loves her walk / training special treats of cheese, but she doesn't want to know that either when other dogs are around. So I really dont know what to do in that respect?

She comes to work with me and because I work opposite a large park, she goes for three or four 20 - 30 min walks a day then she goes for at least one if not two (depending on my husbands shifts) hour and a half walks / runs (hubby either takes her running with him through the fields / woods - around 6 miles, or she is taken to the fields and plays fetch). On top of this, she is also played with during the day / evening, with tuggies or ball and she has her kong or weeble pot for treats, to make her work for it all. 

We tried clicker training for all her other training and that worked fine, but it falls on deaf ears when other dogs are around. We also took her to puppy training / socialisation classes and although she was the best out of the class, it hasn't helped the excitement of other dogs. In fact, if anything it taught her to bark as there was one dog there that wouldn't stop barking and until she went to that class, she hadn't found her voice. Now she barks a lot!

Our friends next door, they have a labrador and they get on well. Their labrador is really well behaved, very calm and ignores other dogs when out for a walk, but Lolly still just jumps all over him. He doesn't mind and lets her do it. Sometimes he barks at her to say that enough is enough, but she doesn't take any notice and carries on. He just lets her and as I said in my first post, they were like that for 5 hours the other night. Occasionally he rough and tumbles back with her, but most of the time he just lies there and takes it. We thought that the fact he doesn't do much would make her get bored with it, but she just doesn't! 

We never stop her from socialising with other dogs, because we know how important that is. I never drag her away from her another dog, but always keep her on a lead if it is a dog she doesn't know so that I can pull her away if need be. She does love other dogs and I really want her to play with them, but I just need to know how to stop her from being so rough and jumping all over them.


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## Malibugirl

Bump!

Sorry for bumping this, but would appreciate any more help :smilewinkgrin:


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## gungirl

Maybe you could try teaching her a pay attention command???

do it in the house first, then in a feild with dogs waaaaaaaaaaaaaay in the distance then closer etc. 

every time you hold her attention, reward. extend the time etc etc

I use "look" with Tilly as she's the same, we've not mastered it when she nose to nose with another pooch yet but she can now walk off leash about 10 yards from another dog without getting excited, (it's a work in progress!!) LOL

Maybe you could try a really special treat for this command (something you only use for this) like cooked liver??? Tilly's the same and will ignore normal treats, but liver . . . well if she could do flips she would for liver!!!!!!


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## staflove

Hiya what you must remember is that a dog will do anything that it finds rewarding and jumping is one of them, if your dog raides the bin and finds left over chicken dinner he will do it again, if he goes in there and comes out with his nose full of pepper then he may not, see were i am coming from. 

If your dog as jumped up from a pup and been allowed to he knows no diffrent but we forget these little pups grow in to big pups and then get problems, is he up to speed with basic training, if so i would ask for sit when he approches and follow it through i would also suggest you find calm realaxed dogs we want him to socalise with dogs but 2 giddy kippers will not help. 

His he food motivated in the chance we can use treats as his reward or even a toy to keep his attention on you. walk him pass calm dogs ask the other owners to get there dog in a sit so you can keep passing them he will in the end relise he as to walk passed nicley but when he dose reward always end on a posative note good luck


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## sigurd

It sounds like your dog is displaying Alpha characteristics. Its not necessarily bad in the dog world, but may be in the human world where you want to establish control over your pet. I have a Great Pyrenees female age 3 1/2 months that is already thinking that she can be the Alpha female when I have a 3 year old Maremma female who I've had since a pup and a 3 pound Papillon on board. This is creating disharmony in my household and I intend to nip the problem in the bud. She is now in her XXL crate stewing and thinking about how she disrupted our morning walk by jumping on the 3 year old female, grabbing the Papillon by the neck and nipping me in the thigh when I attempted to discipline her by pinning her to the ground while holding the tiny dog and keeping the other one calm. A prong collar is in order, and the only way to establish control while on lead. I will be walking her solo until order is established. Her father is 130 pounds, mother 110, so she will fast become terrifying if I do not train her well. Walking a dog on a close "heel" while you pass other dogs will prevent the jumping on other dogs you describe. This you should practice with the prong collar. I strongly suggest you work with a trainer before attempting to use a prong collar. If your dog is too excited to heel, then I suggest making him sit, and if he is too excited to do that, I suggest, making him lie down, with the down command, while letting the other dogs pass. Whenever my Maremma gets too excited, i.e., when the puppy jumps on her, nips and her and otherwise becomes a nuisance I make her sit, stay and then I discipline the puppy. You must make sure one dog is completely under control and calm before attempting to control the out of control puppy. I realize that walking 3 dogs is a recipe for disaster, especially in a neighborhood of barking dogs and, at time, loose pit bulls, but I accept the challenge, because I am confident in my dog training abilities.


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## Malmum

Obviously you are aware of the problems this could cause with a dog who doesn't know her and I am glad to read you keep her on lead - for her own safety. You could use a long line for exercise in order that if another dog does come in sight you have control over her because she sounds like she would be too excited to come back to you. Don't worry about off lead exercise, some breeds like my Mals are never off lead unless there is a secure place where they can't run off - their prey drive is too high to allow them off lead, they would run after a rabbit etc. ignoring you no matter how well trained in other area's. As long as she gets enough exercise, plus mental stimulation such as training she will be fine. In house training is also good to help her enjoy doing things for you, just the usual sit, down, stay, close, down, twist etc. with her favourite treats. You can deduct an amount from her meals while training so as the treats don't add weight. 
As has been mentioned if you can get her to love a favourite toy that would be a bonus - just use it for going out though, otherwise it may become boring for her. A flirt pole is also a good tool for field play and to distract her from focussing on dogs. You want her to focus on you and if you can be seen as fun in her eye's you're most of the way there. At the moment dogs are her fun thing, you need to turn that around and make it you. 

The Flirt Pole: Dog Toy or Life Changer? | notes from a dog walker


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