Jumping Dogs Case Study

 

Germaine in a eight-month-old German shepherd that greets any visitors to the Lupus home by jumping. Since Germaine is a larger dog, he can easily knock an adult down, not to mention a child. The Lupus family has three smaller children who are quickly becoming scared of Germaine because the dog repeated knocks them down by jumping when they enter the door. Germaine has no aggressive behavior, nor does he have a temperament problem, he is just overly enthusiastic to meet individuals at the door. The only time Germaine seems to jump is when individuals come into the home, so the Lupus family has a good starting basis for their training.

First of all, Germaine is entered into a training program for obedience at the local dog training academy. The Lupus father and young daughter attend the classes to teach Germaine the basics of obedience. The instructor of the class also wants to work on problem areas with the dogs, so Germaine begins his training to stop jumping. Once the instruction is fully informed of the situation, she develops a training program that everyone in the home must follow.

The training plan has the Lupus family incorporating a new command into Germaine's training: "off." Everyone in the family practices saying this command in a clear, firm tone so that Germaine knows they are serious. The adults in the family are to use a raised knee to keep Germaine off balanced while the smaller children use a spray bottle kept at the front door. This raised knee method does not injure or abuse the dog, as the individual does not kick or knee the dog. An individual's knee is raised that will put the dog off balanced and cause him to stop jumping. Since the children are not of the appropriate size to use this raised knee method, they use a water bottled filled with water to get the dog's attention when they use the command.

This training plan is also used by visitors to the Lupus home and the plan seems to work well. In the end, Germaine stops jumping on all individuals who enter the home and the children no longer have a reason to fear the dog. The methods used for training Germaine do not leave a negative connotation to the dog and neither human or dog loses trust in each other. In addition to completing this training that teaching him not to jump, Germaine also exceeds in his obedience training and becomes a happy, healthy, and productive member of the Lupus family.

The case study of Germaine turned a potentially dangerous situation into a training opportunity to produce a fully trained dog. Instead of fearing Germaine and letting him jump on anyone who walked through the door, the Lupus family turned to positive training methods to stop this inappropriate behavior. No dog should be allowed to engage in inappropriate behavior simply because of his age. Keep in mind that puppies grow into dogs and carry their bad habits with them during this transformation. Unless you stop bad habits when they start, they are a great deal harder to stop.