# Agility and problem jumping



## Gypsymom (Apr 2, 2015)

So Gypsy has only taken two classes thus far, but she's started jumping up at people now. She jumps at me when I'm holding treats and jumps when people come to pet her. She's never done it before and I scold her and make her sit nicely and praise her when she does......but in class, we're not allowed to scold them and it's getting out of hand. All of the puppies are jumping all over the place and all over us. I'm loving agility, but first and foremost, I want a well behaved dog. Even their older demo dogs are doing it. Is jumping just something that comes along with agility dogs? Its.probably my biggest pet peeve when it comes to dogs.


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

Um. No, it's not just part of the package. In fact in my agility class, while we're not allowed to scold, dogs aren't allowed to interact with people not their owner or the instructor and the instructor will turn her back and fold her arms and pointedly ignore any dog jumping on her (except Molly, who got a few weeks of a free pass because she was super wary of people at first). I would actually advice using that for dogs jumping period, as it seems to make the behavior go away quickly, in general. Just turn your back on the dog doing the jumping and don't let your dog interact with the other handlers.


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

Wait, you said this was a puppy agility class. It doesn't change my basic advice, but may explain how common the problem is amongst the dogs in your class: How old are they?


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## Gypsymom (Apr 2, 2015)

They are anywhere from 3-9 months. Mine is 6. She never jumped on people prior to these classes. And the thing is......they're teaching the dogs to jump. Before we send them done the tunnel, they have us play tug of war with the dogs. They showed us to pull up the toy in the air and get them to jump and be excited before they send them down the tunnel and we throw the toy. Then tonight they showed us how to teach them to touch their nose to our hands and then we treat. We'll we'Re supposed to keep moving our hands up higher until they jump up to touch. 

That seems to me like it's all just going to reinforce jumping especially because we can't tell them no and we give them treats for doing it.


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

They don't really need to be related. My year old BC will jump higher than I am tall for a tug or frisbee but she still knows better than to do it for attention. I have some reservations about that level of activity for young puppies, based on growth and growth plates (depending on how frequently and high) and I don't think I've heard of it being included in any agility class ever but trust me, just because you reward the dog for jumping when asked or under some circumstances doesn't mean you have to reward them all the time, or that they won't learn to tell the difference.

Reward when you ask for it, don't when you don't. Do turn your back and ignore until she settles. Don't let her interact with other handlers.


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## Gypsymom (Apr 2, 2015)

What about jumping at a kid holding a toy. We have teens, but i fear that if a little kid were to hold up a Frisbee or something at a dog park that she would go for it and knock the kid over. I know that dogs can learn different behaviors for different circumstances, but aren't those too close to discern? 

I'm considering talking to the trainer to see if we could get the remainder of the class fee put towards another obedience class instead. I hate to do it as the classes are great fun for both of us, but i cant take a jumping dog.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

You just need to teach impulse control. Agility in itself is not going to make a dog jump at people. Jumping over jumps is not the same thing as jumping at people. Just work on not rewarding her when she jumps at you. Ask her for a sit instead.

I'm around a lot of agility dogs and most are well behaved for what it's worth. 


Of course I have a dog that enjoys doing backflips off of me so.....


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## Gypsymom (Apr 2, 2015)

I guess what I'm looking at is that they are asking us to teach the dog to jump up at us.....not over something. Like I hold my hand up in the air and my dog is supposed to jump up and touch her nose to my hand. If she does, she gets a treat. I'm thinking then that anytime someone holds their hand up in the air, she thinks it's time to jump up at their hand so she can get a treat. What if that's a kid....or someone elderly? I'm sure everyone's class is a bit different in technique and methods. I'm afraid ours is causing the problem. And when I say that, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the instructor or the class.....just that's it's encouraging a behavior I don't like. If we continue on with the training that we have available to us.....are we going to have a long term problem? I don't even like her jumping at me even if it's confined to only the agility course. 

How do you guys train your dog's to do hand touches?


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## parus (Apr 10, 2014)

Mine will jump for hand touches. But he doesn't reinforced for just random hand touches. He gets reinforced when he does a hand touch in response for me asking for the hand touch.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

My dog jumps up 4-5' to touch my hand and also does a rebound off of anyone who puts their arms behind their back in front of him.... I may be the wrong person to ask. 

Plus side my kid cousins thought it was super cool to have Hank rebound off of them. Even when he was knocking them over. I had to tone them down because they wore him out.

On a serious note, you just need to teach the dog to offer the behavior at the cue and that he won't get rewarded when he does the cue randomly. It can take a bit of training for dogs to learn context and when a behavior should be or shouldn't be done. You can also keep your hand low and ask for a nose touch that way the dog is touching the nose to your hand without jumping.


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

I'm going to echo Laurelin on the impulse control. I wouldn't look at it as a jumping issue but an impulse control issue. This is something I'm constantly working on with my 8 mo puppy. She has a LOT of enthusiasm in everything we do and I love that and want to keep it. But that doesn't mean she gets to snatch the toy out of my hand or jump in my face or bite my arms and legs. We do high hand touches...doesn't require her to jump on me at all. It's a trained, cued behavior, she doesn't do it to other people unless asked for it. And if you are concerned about it being related to jumping you could hold your hand further away from your body. The toy snatching is a work in progress. I can hold the toy right up to her face and she should not take it until I cue her to take it (her cue it "get it"). We practice this. We are now starting to add motion to it...meaning I should be able to run with a toy in my hand and she doesn't take it until cued. If she takes it too early, the game stops. Just like if she bites me because she's so fricking excited to play this game...game stops. I don't want to scold her because to me and for our goals, her enthusiasm for this game is important. So I just have to show her that there are rules to this super fun game and when you don't follow the rules (ie the biting and toy snatching) then the game stops.

Edited to add...

I also teach my dogs a "ready" cue, meaning time to play! And also an "all done" cue meaning, we've all done now. The ready cue signifies the start of the game and the all done signifies the game is over. When we play, I'm totally fine with my dogs jumping on me, in fact I use it as a reward. When we are all done, I expect them to settle and resume polite manners.


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## Gypsymom (Apr 2, 2015)

Ok. We'll that sounds encouraging. I emailed our instructor to tell her my concerns and we're supposed to talk later today. 

For a cue to get her to hand touch, do you use a word?


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## kadylady (Sep 23, 2010)

Gypsymom said:


> For a cue to get her to hand touch, do you use a word?


I personally don't use a verbal, it's more of a body language thing, I hold my hand in a specific way (fingers pointed down) and deliberately for her and also look at her. The context also helps. Some people do use a verbal. I think it's a personal preference thing. I do use hand touches paired with my ready cue a lot. Example: Ready!? Hand touch. Ready?! Hand touch. Go.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Maybe talk to the instructor? A lot of agility and obedience people do let their dogs jump up on them as a reward, or for tugging, though the dogs are able to figure out when it's allowed and when it's not. But if you are really against your dog ever jumping up on you, talk to the instructor and see if you can work on things in a way that doesn't encourage her to jump up. And you can teach her to jump up and touch your hand without ever putting her feet on you, depending on how you hold your hand.

I do use verbal cues for hand touches and for jumping up on me.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

I use a verbal- 'nose' is our word for a nose to hand. 'five' is paw to hand. Hand position- palm to him, fingers pointing up = five. Hand sideways = nose. My dog finds both very rewarding and 'nose' is our first go to behavior if I want to ramp him up.


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## Gypsymom (Apr 2, 2015)

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I called the trainer and explained my concerns. She said that she would work with us to train Gypsy differently since we don't have agility as our end goal. We took the class for fun rather than wanting to compete. So we'll finish out the class with confidence building in mind instead and then proceed to further obedience training instead.


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