Some Clicker Training Tips Help a Husky Puppy Listen Instead of Jumping on People

For this Omaha puppy training session we did some clicker training and shared other tips to help 9 month-old Husky puppy Phoenix behave better on walks.

After chatting with his guardian for a few minutes, it quickly became apparent that a lack of exercise was a big contrinuting factor to his unwanted jumping and pawing behavior before and on walks. Under exercise is very common factor when it comes to dog and puppy behavior problems.

I suggested the guardian start playing scent games inside the house and fetch and games of long distance recall outside 3 or more times a day. I also went over some sneaky dog behaviroist tricks to help exercise high energy dogs; feeding him out of a snuffle matt, Omega Paw treat ball and treat puzzles like this, and this and this.

I also recommended that his guardian get him some additional chew toys and items. Some of my favorites include a water buffalo horn, real bones and nylabones in different shapes, sizes and flavors. When dogs are bored and stressed, they often turn to chewing and if you dont give them plenty of good options, they can often start chewing things you dont want chewed up.

The puppy’s habit of jumping up on his guardian before and during walks is likely amplified by insufficient exercise. So exercising him a bit before walks (with a ten minute break to rest in between) will help. I suggested she try out different amounts of exercise before the walks to find the perfect amount that sets the puppy up for success.

But some clicker training can help teach the puppy to want to listen to his guardian instead of jumping. Stopping puppy jumping or any other unwanted behavior by helping the pup practice a more desireable behavor is a very effective way to discourage unwanted actions or behaviors. You can learn how to use clicker training to stop puppies from jumping up on walks by watching the free positive puppy training video below.

This is a very effective way of stopping puppy’s with a jumping problem. It also helps the puppy learn faster which makes the humans more enthused to do it moe often. A situation where everyone wins.

By conditioning a puppy that listening and the handler is rewarding, we can help him want to offer sits and downs and look for opportunities to do so by checking in with his human. All of these things will make the handler more important prominent to him on walks. If your goal is to stop a puppy from jumping up on you, teaching them other behaviors (sit and down) get treats and jumping up causes the human to stop and become boring is an easy way to stop puppy jumping. Best of all, anyone can do this exercise, even if you are not a professional Husky puppy trainer.

Shortly after we filmed that video, we took Phoenix to a section of land near the neighbor’s house and he was engrossed in some serious sniffing. This is a stimylating and energy draining activity, so the guardian may want to start taking him there and spending 10-20 minutes just following the pup around as he sniffs. If it were me, that would be a daily activity.

Id love to see the guardian walking Phoenix daily too. Since she lives in a busy area, driving the pup to a park or large open space can help reduce his growling at approaching people.

I made sure to let the guardian know that any time a dog or puppy growls, you should never correct or disagree with it. Instead increasing the distance is a great way to help the dog feel like you heard it’s concerns and took action to keep it safe. This means the dog doesnt have to protect itself.

Another issue the guardian mentioned was that Phoenix isnt a fan of kids. That isnt unusual for many dogs. I recommended she avoid large groups of kids and if she encounters them to say she is training so they cant pet the dog or have the kids form a line and then have each one approach, give or drop a treat, then hold out their hand. If the dog turns away, lowers his head or refuses to look at them, he is saying I dont want pets from you now, thanks. Even if the child only hands or drops the treat (with no pets) that will help the dog start to see new kids as a positive instead of something to growl at.

One last tip, this video covers how to help a dog learn that having its nails trimmed isnt a bad thing. You can use regular nail trimmers, but my preferred way to maintain a dog’s nails is to use a Dremel.

To help the guardian remember all the positive puppy behavior help we covered in this in home Omaha puppy training session, we filmed a roadmap to success video that you can check out below.