Hunter's Heart Brittanys

Jumping up is an extremely common problem in Brittanys. Usually they are very excited to meet people and jump up to try to kiss the person’s face and get attention. Energetic puppies are even more likely to jump up than older dogs.

ENOUGH EXERCISE?

Whenever you have a misbehaving Brittany, be sure that your puppy is getting enough exercise before you look any further. Dogs that don’t get enough mental and physical exercise will misbehave. They often choose to get rid of that pent up energy by behaving in ways we find unacceptable. For guidelines on how much you can safely exercise you puppy, go to:
http://www.huntersheart.com/inf_puppies.html#safe_exercice

YOU MIGHT REWARD JUMPING UP
WITHOUT KNOWING IT

Consider that sometimes members of the family are inadvertently rewarding jumping up. For example, Bobby is watching TV in the living room. The puppy is lying down quietly and hoping Bobby will pay her attention, but he just keeps watching TV. So the puppy tries jumping up. Suddenly she’s the center of attention. The lesson the puppy learns is that jumping up wins attention. So the puppy continues to jump up.

In this example, the family missed their chance to reward great behaviour when the puppy was lying down quietly with the family. When your puppy is lying quietly, don’t just ignore him and watch TV. Instead, you might go over and offer a bone to chew, rewarding the puppy for quietly lying down and hopefully reinforcing the behaviour so it will increase in the future.

But that’s probably not enough to solve the problem, right?

"PUNISHMENT" FOR JUMPING UP

Because she’s jumping up to get attention, holding the paws wouldn’t be my first choice of strategies. That’s an effective punishment only if the dog finds it unpleasant. If she’s seeking attention, she may view the touch and eye contact as reinforcing i.e. she’s getting the attention she wants. (Humans realize that it’s negative attention, but puppies have a hard time recognizing the difference between good and bad attention).

If the children scream and run away when the puppy jumps up, the puppy will probably see it as a very fun game. It might also help to tell the children when the puppy jumps up to “stand still like a tree” and look away. Once the puppy knows sit, remind everyone that they can only pay attention to the puppy when he/she is sitting.

Some corrections you might consider to correct jumping up include:

Saying “no jump”, then asking the puppy to sit.
Spray puppy in the face with water.
Time out i.e. puppy goes into her crate for 5 minutes and hopefully emerges better behaved.

In many cases, it’s just as effective to deal with jumping up by “actively ignoring”: cross your arms, turn your head, look away, and take a step back.

I like the idea of sit as an alternative to jumping up to greet people. So if the puppy jumps up, you say “no jump”, then tell her “sit” instead. Then you could reward the sit with a treat and/or praise.

CHOOSE A BEHAVIOUR TO REPLACE
JUMPING UP TO GREET

It’s always a good idea in dog training to follow “don’t do A” with” I’d like you to do B instead”.

Some people choose “4 on the floor” or “down” as their alternative to jumping. Decide what target behaviour you’d like your dog to do instead of jumping up to greet people. Choose whichever works best for you and your dog; then every member of the family should be consistent so the dog can learns the rules are always the same.

Try to make it a rule for every member of the family never to reward jumping up by giving attention. Only give attention when the dog is sitting on the floor. You can remind the puppy by giving the sit command. Then reward for good behaviour.

TEACH APPROPRIATE GREETING

You can teach the puppy how to greet properly by setting up a learning situation. Arrange for an understanding friend visit to help train Pearl how to greet. You’ve prepared in advance and chosen either “sit” or “four-on-the-floor” as the target behavior. The friend has food treats in his hand. When the doorbell rings, Bella only gets the food if she sits (or four-on-the-floor). (If you’re using a leash, you could also keep her far enough away that jumping up is impossible.) The friend actively ignores any jumping by looking away, etc.. You can wait a few minutes, then have the friend come through the door again; eventually repeating several times in the session.

CONTROL THE SITUATION FOR NOW

While you’re working on training to change/solve the problem behaviour, control the situation. For example, every time a new child comes over, be sure that the puppy is on a 6 foot leash. You could put the puppy in a sit between your legs and have the child approach. By putting the leash under your foot, you can prevent the pup from jumping up into the child’s face. Tell the child he/she can only pet the puppy while she’s sitting.

Every time a visitor comes over to your house, keep the leash on for the first few minutes to allow the puppy to greet properly while they get over the initial excitement. Then you can take the leash off and hopefully their will be less jumping up.

I hope some of these ideas are helpful. (In the end, I end up trying different methods and seeing what works best for the individual Brittany; all three of my adults are pretty different even though they're related.)

NOTE ON MOUTHING VS. AGGRESSION

When people write to ask us about behaviour problems, it’s a bit difficult to tell for sure what’s going on in their situation without being able to see the family interacting with their dog. In most cases, a young Brittany puppy mouths or chews playfully rather than aggressively e.g. he’s not growling and he hasn’t caused injury more than a superficial scratch. If you have any doubt that maybe it’s aggression you’re seeing towards any human, especially your children, I’d recommend meeting with an experienced canine behaviorist, obedience trainer or vet in your area. Find someone that you feel comfortable with to work on modifying that behavior right away.

All puppies do nip as part of normal play behaviour and development. While they’re with their mother, puppies wrestle with and nip their littermates early on. In the case of littermates, they have to learn doggy communication and how hard is playing vs. too hard and hurting.

Like a human baby, puppies explore the world with their mouth (and nose). Many like to retrieve and carry objects; mouthing you and getting your attention is just another fun game to try. But playful mouthing could seem scary when an he grows up and tries to mouth a stranger, even if your dog has playful intentions, it’s a terrible habit. I suggest you start teaching your puppy as soon as you bring him home that he should never mouth or nip at any human under any circumstances.