Tips to Keep Dogs Calm to Stop Jumping and Dog Fights

For this Omaha dog training session we worked with 7-year-old Corgi / Aussie mix Tippy (right) who is starting dog fights with her room mate Mars, a 2-year-old Aussie / Lab Mix who is starting to react to Tippy’s attacking behavior.

After chatting with the dog’s guardians for a few minutes, it became clear that loosing a leader dog had amplified a lack of rules and structure. Because the humans were not taking over the leadership position (in the dog’s eyes), Tippy was trying to step into that role; going after the larger Mars to correct what she perceived as inappropriate behavior.

I also learned that many of the dog fights had occurred when the dogs were in an excited state of mind. I pointed this out as simply disengaging when the dogs start to get excited can help stop many dog problems like these.

I went over a number of small things the humans can do to help the dogs start to see and respect them as being authority figures. These were small things like introducing and enforcing rules, redirecting attempts to demand attention and rewarding desired actions and behaviors to motivate the dogs to behave better.

To help Mars stop jumping up on people when excited, I had the guardian put him on a leash and walked her through an exercise that will help.

The great thing about this technique is we don’t direct the dog what to do. We simply set up a staged scenario where we can control things and put the dog into a position where it can figure out a new, more desirable behavior on its own.

You can redirect a dog’s attention or prompt them to offer a behavior on command, but the most effective way to stop dog jumping is to help them figure out not to do it on their own. As soon as they get excited or jump up, the person moves out of reach. Once they calm themselves or sit down, the human reengages. It takes practice, but this positive dog training technique is easy and effective. If the guardians practice this each time they come home it shouldn’t take long to train a dogs to stop jumping up.

To help the guardians remember all the dog behavior tips I shared with them in this at home dog training session, we shot a roadmap to success video. You can get some free dog training tips by watching the video below.

Roadmap