[Evin08]

I love my dog, he is trully a friend. He's intelligent, obedient, careful with kids and beautiful. He has so much energy to spare, which suits me perfectly because I love to take him out and play, run around at the park, meet some girls or just play fetch with my tennis racket.

There is however 1 thing I'm trying to get him to drill in his personnality though. He's a golden retriever... so.. everytime someone comes through the door he jumps on them. I really don't want to punish him for showing enthusiam, it would feel wrong. So I've been looking for some alternatives:

http://petyourdog.com/articles/jumping/jumping_on _guests.html

That goes over a few key points such as
-Establish yourself as pack leader
-Don’t shower your dog with affection when you walk through the door
-Correct bad behavior
-When your guests arrive, ask your dog to sit patiently
-You can’t be a leader only some of the time

Those tips kinda worked, though I didn't try "correcting bad behavior" as I really am against hitting my dog... or even calling him a bad dog for being happy to see me. He doesn't do it as often on me, but what would be a good way to make him finally stop completely?

 

[RedyreRottweilers]

A good way to eliminate this behavior is to teach your dog conflicting behaviors meaning, behaviors that when he is doing them he cannot jump on people.

The first thing is to PREVENT his opportunity to jump up on visitors. So I would keep a crate in your living area to confine him when people come over. Instruct people to ignore the dog when they come in. For the next while, take your dog out on leash when he is visiting people, and make sure he sits for all petting and visiting. Food reward him and praise him gently for good behavior.

Work on getting a very good sit command on your dog. He cannot sit and jump up at the same time.

Teach your dog to stay in his crate with the door open, or to go to a rug or pad and stay. He can't jump on people when he is on his bed or inside his crate even if the door is open.

A basic obedience class that focuses on positive reinforcement would also be good.

Also keep in mind that correction does NOT mean abusing your dog. It generally means preventing a behavior, or interrupting a behavior.

 

[natalie265]

First of all, if you really want him to change his behavior you need to change your attitude about it. I'm sensing that on some level you think it's okay for him to be jumping up on people because he's just "showing enthusiasm" and happy to see you and/or others. Dogs are pretty intuitive and he's probably picking up on your approval.

Second of all, you need to get everyone on board who ever interacts with this dog. Too many times, well meaning friends will say, when a dog jumps up on them "Oh it's okay" and they'll pet them and coo at them and reward the bad behavior. Explain to your friends and family that they may not give attention or affection to your dog until he is calm and has all four paws on the floor. The stuff you read about being a pack leader is important. Jumping up on people is not sweet, it's a dominant behavior and many people (myself included) find it very annoying.

By the way, correcting bad behavior doesn't mean hitting or yelling at your dog.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Spirit_of_Cotons]

You can try with a friends, tell your dog to sit and when they come through if your Golden (by the way they're beautiful dogs!) jumps on them, tell your friend to exit and try again. Only when your dog doesn't jump on your friend, reward him. Only pet your dog (people too) when he's calm and tell him he's a "good boy!"

Also when he does jump you can use a word to correct him such as "down" or "off", so he knows when he hears those words it's, "Ut oh I can't do this or I won't be given attention."

When I'm training my dog I use Victoria Stilwell's approach and do the "eh eh" noise instead of saying "no", but you can use that as well. Your dog does need to know his boundaries and helping him know what he can and can't do will help.