My Rhodesian is almost 11 months old and is very smart, but isn't one to do repeated sits, downs, etc. Gets bored easily. She is clearly mom's dog and wants to be around me all the time instead of husband and son. My two dilemmas if you will are concerning "leave it" and her greeting me. She always gets so excited to see me when I come home or have left and come back that she still likes to do gentle hand biting and if I happen to be sitting in a chair she jumps on me and wants to lick me. I have corrected the jumping by grabbing her front lets and saying "NO" and holding her there for a few seconds or make her back up and was surprised when she jumped on me while sitting. Also, if there's a glass or a cup of coffee sitting on the end table, she may come running from just being let in and start licking the cup and I'll give her the command "leave it" in a deep voice and usually she'll stop. Any suggestions? Also, for the sit and stay commands in making them actually work. I've used all the treats and praises, etc. and we work this daily multiple times throughout the day and she'll still pop up. Do you correct by saying "down" in a deeper scolding voice or is that giving negative attention which they may be seeking like unruly kids do? I'm confused on what to do since we're still making the same corrections (voice) for the same things.

Hi Robin.

If I was you, the first thing i do is to put your dog on its lead. When giving commands, you must be in the position to follow it through, restricting the dog is a must so put him on his lead.

The must important word i believe that a dog must learn more so than any other is "No". You dont have to roar it, but look straight at your dog when saying it. If he continues not to listen, at least you have him on the lead and continue in a calm but enforcing voice saying "No". When he does stop what he is doing, praise him, "good boy" rub him, or even use treats. The treats that i use on Cyber for training is his kibbles. I started Cyber off on Pedigree Junior Large dog kibbles, and he didnt take to it much, i had to add a spoon full of natural probiotic yogurt with for him to eat his dinner. I did a bit of investigation into the different make of kibbles that are out there, and i found that Pedigree and the rest of the food (so called best foods) in your local supermarket are full of colorings & flavourings, which makes a dog very loose. I eventually found a guy that specialises in dog food and delivers to kennels here, and after ordering a bag of kibbles i have never seen a dog love his food so much. The kibbles are raw full of vitamins and stuff and none of the artificul colorings etc. He eats a max of 350g of food a day that equals to approx 2 1/2 standard mugs of coffee, and the difference that it has made on him has been exceptional. Remember he is 40kg in weight and thats all he eats. His coat, he doesnt go to the loo that much, hes overall apperance and especially i believe it calmed him down alot.

So have a loook at the food your feeding him, it may help.

Getting back to the commands, some people recommend when a dog jumps to hold their front paws up, this is confrontation to a dog. You always have an alpha male in a litter, and this dog will try it when you bring him home with his new family (not talking when you are greeting each other). I dont recommend you doing this especially if he is alpha dog, instead after mastering the command "No", everytime you greet him you get down to him, this will stop him front jumping up as he is only trying to say hello, and your up there and he is down there. Now and again he may jump up all you do is say no and go down to his level and greet him, eventually he wont jump up anymore, this is important especially if there are kids in the house as he may knock over a child by jumping up.

I suppose the second must important command is the word "sit". AGain on the lead, say sit and make him sit, when he evetually does sit, make a big fuss about him, keep it up and when you dont have to make him sit, give him a few kibbles as a reward. In no time he will sit before you get the word out of your mouth. Mastering a dog sit overcomes alot of problems, like jumping, calms the dog etc.

Now the leave it command, itend only use one worded commands, for this i say just "leave".
Again on the lead, make her sit, then take a kibble, keep saying the word sit, place the kibble a few feet away and use the word leave, initially he wil lgo for it, just say "No" and use the lead to take him back and make her sit again and repeat the process, when he is focused onto it, keep saying leave, when he is leaving it, start moving the kibble towards him in small steps and after each step say "leave". After awhile you should be able to place the kibble on his paw and he will leave it until you say "take". Why i use a kibble is simple, if he will leave food alone he will leave anything alone.

The down command again on the lead get him to sit, again use a kibble as an object focus for him. When he sits, pull down in very slight jerks downwards on the lead at the same time saying "down" and start bringing the kibble down to floor level. Again after awhile he will go down with the lead off, you could also train him to roll over onto his back, by using the word over, and in a semi circl movement using a kibble while he is in the down position he will focus on the kibble and he will evetually get the message, this i find handy when grooming his belly.

remember you its all about education, heck im still learning, i still have a few issues that i need to master with him, but the most important thing to remember is to educate your dog that your the boss. Don't leave him up couches and especially no feeding from the table. But also remember the ingredients for having a dog.

1 A full bag of patience
2 And an ever supply of unconditional love.

Best of luck

Robin,
The training for the "leave it" command is explained in nice detail on the Leerburg Training Video "Basic Dog Obedience" video 302.

Training tips to stop a dog from jumping on you are explained in the Leerburg Training Video "Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months" video 120


Roy,
I disagree with your comments about training a dog for the "off" in regards to jumping up on people. I could see your method working sometimes for a low drive pet dog that wouldn't be a problem to train, but for any high drive dog, your method simply won't work.
A high drive working dog ( and this is pretty much a forum for those types of dogs ) are usually *not* going to be trained to stop jumping with a generic "no" command and then leaning down to greet them. What happens if you're carrying an item and can't lean down, or if you simply don't have the time to do that? This is a common pet owner's complaint that leads them to seek professional training, and if it was that easy to fix in high drive dogs, most of us as trainers wouldn't be seeing it as such a common complaint.
The vast majority of dogs are going to require either the toe pinch method or the classic knee to the chest method to learn that jumping up is not rewarded. Those are not pretty training techniques, to be sure, but they work with almost all dogs in a real world setting, which is why most professional dog trainers use those methods ( and why those methods are explained in good detail on the Leerburg tapes )

Thanks for your comments. In regards to feeding, we feed Eagle brand and The honest kitchen as well as raw meat in the evening in additon to yogurt every now and then and some cottage cheese for an especially busy day. Her excitement at seeing me I believe has to do with our bonding because she's mom's girl. She doesn't greet my husband or son that way or others for that matter. So I've tried to be more calm in the greeting, but she caught me off guard yesterday when she came upstairs and jumped on me when I was sitting. I guess I'm concerned that at close to a year old she's still not holding sit or down and I read that others have it perfected at under 12 weeks. We work with her everyday, so I feel like maybe we're not doing something right. Thanks for your input.

Robin,
A dog's drive level will often determine a individual dogs ability to learn certain obedience commands at differing levels of speed. Dogs are individuals, just like people, and they also learn at varying speeds, just like us.

Calm dogs, or dogs with lower drive, tend to be able to hold a down more easily ( yes, this is a generalization, but it holds true ).
I see many high drive dogs literally quivering with anticipation ( it was *SO* hard not to insert the joke from the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie right there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> ) and they can just barely hold the down - they want to be in movement, and that is genetic for them. I have also seen some breeds that have actually been able to fall asleep during a long down exercise and *snore* during an obedience competition ( an Old English Mastiff, I laugh about this still <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> )

What I'm saying is that you should take peoples statements that their dogs have a reliable down at age 12 weeks with a grain of salt, and evaluate your dog as the individual that it is. I've instructed many obedience classes ( probably in the hundreds over the years ) ranging from puppy kindergarten up to utility classes and I can't think of a single 12 week old puppy that could hold a reliable down under distractions.
I'm not staying that it couldn't absolutely be done, but I've never seen it....

Will, I'm only giving my own personnal experience, thats all. I am not a trainer by any means. I found that raising the knee or holding the dogs front paws which was recommended to me, neither worked on Cyber especially when he was around the 9 month mark. When id raise my knee to his chest he saw this as a challenge and sometimes would actually mount my leg, so i changed the method by using the one that worked for me. As you do say every dog is different, in the end its whatever works for your dog i guess.

My pup sees me as his primary, and greats me enthusiastically also.
Personally, I've trained him to "OFF" anything I don't want him touching with his front paws. These things include.... me and other bipeds, dinner table, end tables, beds, couches, gates, kitchen counter(surfing).... the list keeps growing.
I don't want to ruin the 'down' command. (What do I want?? down? or off? 2 very different things)and I keep 'leave it' for anything I dont want his mouth on.(whether poisoned food or my best shoes) With the exception of my hands (that gets NO, see below)
I see 'NO' as a command that relates to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, UPON YOUR VERY LIFE GOD AND ALL OF HEAVEN WILL COME DOWN UPON YOU!! I mean business when I say no.

Basically what I did was set him up to get caught good. He hated being gated in a different room then me. I gated him in and waited with my water bottle. When the inevitable happened and he jumped up on gate to see me, he was met with some cold, sharp squirts of water and a VERY loud "OFF"...I kept squirting him till he was in 4x4 again. Then gave praise "good boy, good Off". Only took a couple of rounds of this that he figured it out.