Unwanted Dog Jumping Behavior

Okay, so it's not the barking at the door that I don't like. In fact, I think it's good since we live in a big city. It's the jumping up on the door, which is glass. I thought she would just bark behind the scat mat and not jump. I guess not. Do you have any ideas to stop her from jumping on the door other than quarantining her? Thanks, many times over!

Wow, you asked a question right when I moved cross-country, so I never got to answer it.

I don't recommend the ScatMat in this situation, because your dog will easily associate the object on the ground as the cause of the electric shock. You'd also have to watch out when little children walk around on the floor.

So what to do? There are four philosophies that deal with this problem, the last one being too impractical for a household dog.

1) Compulsion

2) Positive Reinforcement

3) Mechanical

4) Prey Drive

1) Compulsion

This means personally disciplining your dog for wanted or against unwanted behavior. I don't recommend it in this case.

In most cases, if you don't have the time or consistency to dedicate as a fulltime trainer, compulsion is not fair to your dog, because the expectations are set too high on the dog and fall too short on the trainer. With smarter dogs, compulsion usually remains a work-in-progress.

2) Positive Reinforcement

I'd suggest this for smarter dogs because your dog will begin to fixate on performing appropriately. There's no better way of training this than with a clicker.

The downside is that there's a steeper learning curve compared to other training methods. But the results are more reliable, and endlessly improve over time.

The trick is to have someone stand patiently on the other side of the door, and to click/reward when she sits calmly. With time, begin to shape the desired behavior by click/rewarding later in the process.

Here's an article I've written on my website about getting into Clicker Training.

3) Mechanical

It's perfectly okay to own a dog and not want to spend any time training. If this sounds like you, then you have no alternative but to train Mechanically. The principle is to take humans out of the equation, completely. The upside is two-fold: first, your dog will never associate you with the discipline, and second, you can rely on this when you're not at home. The downside is that you have to constantly be creative, and your dog will never associate you with discipline, so you don't win any points for respect.

So say, for instance, my dog loves digging through the trash. Just pour Tobasco sauce into the trash every now and then, and the next time the dog tries to eat scraps, BAM! Won't happen again. From that point on, I can just put a couple drops of Tobasco on the edge of the trashcan, and that will keep the dog at bay.

For those of us with short fuses and little time, this is the way to go.

For jumping on glass doors, try putting transparent sheets of double-sided adhesive on the glass. Trust me, your dog will hate the feeling of adhesive and will quickly avoid the glass altogether. I recommend transparent adhesive, because once you remove the adhesive, the dog won't recognize that it's not there.

4) Prey Drive

This is basic obedience training of the OFF command, but for a prey item. It works VERY well, but you have to maintain this kind of training for it to be effective. Also, it only works on dogs with genetic prey drive that you harness at a younger age.

If you're interested in Prey Drive training, I could discuss in a later article. But suffice it to say, that the commitment involved makes it more suitable for working-class dogs.

For more great training tips, visit my site: http://www.greatcanineadventure.com