my 3yr.old malinois police dog jumps on me and every one some times he growls at real tall people.i haven't had this dog but 3 months and he seems real protective of me which is his job but will he chill out so other people can pet him?iv'e heard malinois are one person dogs.

Hi Mitch:

When you mean he is jumping up on everyone, do you mean your family members? Is he growling at them also? What are the situations when he is doing this type of behavior? Are they social situations with you or your family, or are they with friends who come over the house, or people at work, etc?

After a 3 month period, I would say that your bonding process should be well on the way and you should be able to give a firm correction for this behavior if it is unwanted.

Are you keeping him on a leash when not working. How is he able to get himself into these types of situations, etc? How do you know if he is "greeting" someone or if he has other intentions "dominance" or attempting to "bite" someone. Have you brought this to your trainers attention? Malinois are very quick and can go from zero to hero in the blink of an eye.

Regards,
Brandon

Mitch,
Is what you hear a real growl? Some dogs I've known make a similar sound when excited.
The fact that he jumps up and wipes his feet on people indicates that his training might have been a little substandard. Any time he looks as though he's thinking about jumping up, give him a down command. On command he should go flat on his bellie. Make him remain in that position while everyone walks away. Leave him there for a few minutes. He will soon discontinue that behavior.
As far as the Mal being a one man dog, that's a myth. There is no established breed characteristic to indicate that.

For a dog that jumps up there are two type techniques I like to apply. They are first always trained with just you and the dog.

The 1st one is hold on to his front legs, once he tries jumps up on you hold him/her there for couple of seconds. Release him and place him in a sit walk around him and come in front of him again. If he stays put priase him/her. If he jumps up again holds his paws and say 'No or bad girl' this time walk around alittle with her. After a couple seconds, release walk around and praise if she stays put. I call this the passive approach, I taught this from this board.

The second is the knee lift, its a more self corrective lesson. As the dog jumps raise your knee jab him/her hard enough to move the dog back but I'd don't knock them over. You say nothing.
Walk away and come back in front of the dog, if he sits ....., if he jumps up repeat step 1 adding a little more knock. Eventually the dogs learns this is not approapiate action.

Once the dog learns this lesson with just you bring around your friends watch him and now either he/she will wait for attention or a command can stop her.

If she trys this with these distraction have your friend use his/her knee. With this technique the dog does really know its you doing this correction.

Grabbing the paws of someone else is dog is not adviseable your hands are too close to his/her mouth.
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Correction!!!
I taught this from this board.

I didn't use the "was".

I was taught this technique from advise on this board. So it should have read that "I was taught this from this board". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />