I am writing to hopefully get some insight to my (what I believe to be) pack issue.

My dog and I train together nearly every day...walks and/or workouts daily. He has come a long, long way and I work very hard at being consistant with my pup. (10 mos). Yes, it is "get up off my arse" to be consistant with this hard headed puppy, but it has IMO, paid off and continues to do so...

Issue is with my husband. Dog still jumps up at him upon greeting. Dog still jumps on husbands lap when husband sitting in chair.

Initially, I requested my husband stay out of commands, as it made sense to me to get the dog at least consistant with responding.

How can I now incorporate husband into pack leadership? It is clear the dog does not respect him.

GO back to groundwork?

You need to establish with Cato that your husband is above him in the rank order. Right now he is looking at hubby as "low man".

So, basics, and you stepping in and correcting him for the unwanted stuff.

Doug does tell my dogs what to do and they pretty much listen. I make sure that my dogs know that Doug is not a human spring pole or chew toy.....

Just my two cents....

Maybe it's not really a question of respect or pack structure. Maybe it's just excitement from a 10month old puppy. Since your husband isn't training him, he's without it being obvious encouraging him.

mmmmm, I agree with this, but Michele still needs to teach him that it is not acceptable behavior though.....hubby will probably get tired of it after a while.....mine did...

Your right, I didnt mean to say don't teach him not to. I just don't think it's always a question of respect, at 10mos. excitement could kind of overide it.

Yes excitement could very well be one of the things, but he is starting to come into the adolescence, test boundaries phase.

Does your husband ever feed the dogs?Just a question

I would like to know what technique and command you all use for the jumping thing. When my daughter is around or comes over my dog does this to her. I have used the command "no jump" and put him in a down. He still attempts to do it bc he is so excited to see her. I put him in his crate ,however, I want him to learn how to correctly greet people he gets excited over- w/o the jumping. So what specifically do I do to correct for this behavior? thanks

 Quote: Doug Williams

Does your husband ever feed the dogs?Just a question

Have started doing this the last few days. Having husband give command (sit) and incorporate NILIF with this pup.

Speaking of food.

Dog is fed 2x per day. (am/pm) In the morning, I always show Cato that I am eating, and make sure he sees my son eat too. However, my husband has a different schedule than us on the breakfast thing. Sometimes he eats, sometimes he doesn't. If he doesn't, I've gone ahead and fed the dog. Then, husband has come back and eaten!!!

Do you guys think this is playing into this structure issue??? Should husband come in and grab some food and leave to eat it???

I don't buy all that much into the eating before the dog theory, especially if that is virtually the only thing that your husband is doing that goes against the grain of alpha behavior. In a vaccum by itself, it's not an issue. I almost never eat before my dogs, as my life just doesn't work that way. Eating after a dog will only create a rank issue with the most dominant of dogs, and I would be willing to bet in that instance there are other things contributing to the rank issue.

In this case, I would be willing to bet your husband is encouraging and rewarding this behavior without knowing it. In addition to the NILIF (which is a great start), really watch your husbands reactions and body language with the dog. First, when your husband comes home he should ignore the dog completely. I mean not even look at him, or acknowledge if he jumps. No frustration, no nothing. Calm relaxed dominance with shoulders back, chest out and a smile or smirk at you. You can command him off, or whatever your "don't jump" command is. A few minutes later (or longer) when the dog shows calm submissive behavior like sitting quietly in front of him then your husband can acknowledge him and praise him... CALMLY. Same when sitting around, the dog is completely ignored if he tries initiating interaction. Again, calm dominant - there is no struggle and you do not excite or upset me when you jump on me - it is just unacceptable. The dog only received affection from your husband if he calls the dog to him and the dog sits calmly and submissively in front of him.

This behavior is not neccesarily dominant. It absolutely can be, but it can also just be that the dog is very exciteable at this age and yoru husband has inadvertantly established a bad pattern where the dog gets success (attention) from acting this way. I just got a 3.5 year old working line male that acts this way towards me in the house. He is getting much better, as I am working on this all the time, but he is not trying to dominate me. We have no conflict on the field, he has no issues with me cradling him and he outs for me perfectly. He is just very very exciteable and was never taught proper interaction because he spent most of his life in a kennel. Good luck!