Sit For Greeting

Have a dog that jumps up on everyone he/she meets? Learn how to teach a sit for greeting.

The first thing you need to ask yourself is: has my dog been reinforced for jumping up? Do you pat your dog when he/she jumps up? Do other people? Do you push your dog off of you and reprimand? Have you used your knees or legs to kick him/her? Have other people?

What you need to know about reinforcement is that good or bad reinforcement can encourage a behaviour. So it doesn't matter whether I'm petting my dog for jumping up or pushing him/her off of me. My dog is still being reinforced for jumping.  Makes things harder doesn't it?

Alright here's a few steps to get you on the right track and remember practice makes perfect!

Step #1 - teach your dog to sit on voice command or hand signal but without touching your dog. It's crucial that you have this basic obedience command down pat.

Step #2 - begin to practice sit around more and more distractions. Ask for sit and then as soon as that butt hits the floor reward. Practice this at doorways, on walks, in the park, around friends, etc.

Step #3 - when you come home from being out don't make eye contact or speak to your dog until he/she sits (without a command). As soon as your best friend is sitting then shower with praise, toy, pets, food, etc. If he/she jumps go back to ignoring. For those really high energy dogs keep your vocal praise low key so you don't trigger the jumping up again from excitement.

Step #4 - start to add friends/family to training session. Have your dog take a sit position before the person even becomes visible. Reinforce continually to keep your dog sitting (meaning giving a kibble or treat every few seconds). As long as the dog is sitting the person can come closer. If the dog gets up then the person immediately needs to back up and leave.  You then start again. Eventually the person will be standing beside the dog while the dog is sitting. You can then have your friend/family member give the dog a treat for sitting. Practice until this is easy.

Step #5 - slowly fade out the food reward until you can do this without food. Meaning over the course of several training sessions use less and less food. If the dog regresses then go back to the basics.

Step #6 - begin to ask your dog for a sit whenever a person comes into view. Over time your dog will learn that he/she is expected to sit when greeting a human. Once your dog is reliable on leash then move to practicing off leash.

If your dog does jump on someone unexpected have the person become a "tree" and if they need to they can turn around so their back is to the dog. This works great for kids. 

Cleaning Up Your Cues

 "Charles, Charles, Charles" this still gets a laugh in my house. One day my family and I were enjoying a walk at River Park off leash area when this lady started to call her little Bichon mix to come. She must have said "Charles" over a hundred times with no response from her very cute fluff ball. He never did come and she resorted eventually to following him around and continued to call "Charles, Charles, Charles" in a very nasally voice. 

The point of this little story? When humans are frustrated we tend to repeat ourselves. This happens all the time. We tend to change the tone of what we've said but generally not even the words themselves. This can be blatantly obvious when someone is speaking to another person from a different language background. The same thing goes for dogs. If they aren't responding the first time it could be because: 

• Rover is distracted 
• Rover doesn't understand the cue word 
• Rover doesn't care about the cue word

Now what? Well it's time to clean up your cues. When training begin with using a consistent training cue. Sit = Sit, Down = Down, Name = Look at me, Come = Come to me all the way and let me catch you, etc. Don't say down, lie down, lay down and use down when you mean off. This confuses your dog. 

Only say your cue word 1 time when you are asking for a behaviour and then wait. So if I'm practicing sit at the curb I will state "sit", wait 10 seconds, add my hand signal and then simply wait for compliance. By not repeating myself I am making that cue word matter. It's not being lost in all that chatter that humans are so often associated with. 

It's also important to ask yourself if your dog was ready to listen and demonstrate obedience skills in the environment you're in. If you've only ever practiced down indoors then maybe asking him to do it at the busy dog park is going to be too hard. Take things in steps and remember just because you taught a cue in one situation doesn't mean your dog will understand what it means somewhere else. Be a fair leader. 

The other issue can be that we've already diluted or poisoned a cue word so the dog doesn't care about it anymore or worse has a negative association with it. This can be seen commonly with rescue dogs or dogs who have had a harsh training background. Suddenly "come" means I'm going to yell, scruff and roll you. That's a poisoned cue. When I get a new dog I'll often use a different recall word than "come". Some good options include "here", "hurry", "hustle", "let's go", etc. It doesn't matter what the word means in English as long as your dog thinks it means "BEST PARTY EVER". 

Remember to use your cue words sparingly, associate them with positive rewards and make sure you have compliance when you ask your dog for something by setting him/her up for success. Dogs don't speak English (or any other human language) so we need to go slow, be clear and mean what we say.