|
This is a lot easier to fix if she jumps on you, too, so you can address the problem more directly. In either case, first the instant she does it, she needs to be corrected by redirection. This is easier if the redirect comes from the person she's jumping on, but not essential. As soon as she starts to jump up, redirect by using a sound command she associates with stopping a bad behavior while giving her a strong physical touch like a poke with your whole hand. The energy of the redirect has to be slightly higher than her energy in doing the bad behavior. What you're trying to do here with redirection in any behavior correction is take their attention away from the bad behavior they're doing and focusing it back on you so that you can tell them what type of behavior you want. Dogs can't focus on more than one thing at a time, so redirection is easy as long as it's strong enough to take their attention off of what they're doing and putting it on you.
If the redirection is done properly, the dog will take their attention off the person they're wanting to jump on and put it on you. She'll probably look at you with that classic expression of "WHAT???" This is when you tell her what behavior is expected from her. Combine whatever stopping word command you use like no, down, sit... whatever with a hand signal. This is the one behavior problem where a hand signal works wonders and is a lot more efficient than a word command. Hold your hand out flat over her face several inches above it. Don't put it there like you're making a motion to strike her, but calmly and deliberately place your hand in that position at the same time you use the word command (no, down, sit, etc.). The attention will instantly focus to your hand, and she'll look at it as the barrier it is intended to be. She won't try to jump up through that barrier although it may take a few times for her to get that message. Take your hand away once she has focused her attention on it and has complied with your word command to sit, get down, stop, etc. If she tries to jump again immediately do the dual word command/hand signal again.
Go very easy with the praise on this one when she does what you want. Praising her can trigger excitement which is what is causing the jumping to begin with. A simple calm, "good girl" is good enough here.
Teach the people who she normally will jump on this way to do the dual command themselves to stop this behavior immediately. It works a lot better when the person being jumped on is the one to tell her to stop.
Friendly dogs or dogs that are friendly with certain people tend to do this as a way of showing their excitement and happiness in greeting... they want to be closer to your face. It just tends to be more noticeable when larger dogs do it because their size means they are physically capable of getting close to it... nobody ever seems to notice much when a small dog does this since they aren't getting higher than around the knee area.
Both my Akitas were jumper greeters, and once I figured out how to finally fix this problem it was the easiest one to teach. The Akita I have now is a lot more demonstrative in wanting to show his loving excitement and sticks his head up in the air in the direction of the person's face and licks the air as if he's wanting to lick their face. It looks really silly, but it's his way of saying "I'd lick you all over the face if Mommy would let me!"
|