[valebar]

Hi,
Not been on the forum lately but just trying to catch up with whats been happening.

My poodle is just over 2 years old now and her main problem is whenever I come back into the house or leave her for any time at all and it could be for as little as 5mins she'll go mad jumping up and down screaming etc.

Does anyone else have this, I have tried everthng to stop this but it still goes on. Any help would be great.

 

[Poodlepal]

Have you tried intensive desensitization? Devote an hour or so each day to practicing coming in. If you have a leash on her and she jumps, step on the leash so she cannot jump and repeat the words "down down down" and give her treats when she stops struggling.

 

[Birdie]

I agree with Poodlepal, practice coming inside as if you were coming home from being gone, give her treats and praise when she behaves herself. Another good strategy that may help is instead of giving her the opportunity to jump, get down on your knees to greet her so you're on her level. This makes it so she doesn't really have to jump up to get to you, but still reinforce that she should be calm when you see her.
Have her sit before you give her any attention, and give her a few minutes to cool off before petting her. Basically ignore her if she's being bad, and reward her with attention the moment she sits or is quiet and behaved. She will learn that the sooner she calms down, the sooner she gets pets from her mom.

I don't recommend repeating a command like "down, down, down!" several times quickly, though. By saying the command over and over like that, they learn that they don't have to really listen until you physically force them to. The command essentially becomes "white noise" and they don't learn it to be a command.
Work with her a lot on the down command, as if you were training any other behavior. Start in low stress situations (not when you have just come home, but if you went outside the door for a few seconds, come in the door, praise/treat when she is calm. If starting there is too much even, try just the sound of the door opening/closing), and work up to being gone 1 min, 5 mins, 10 mins, etc.
Say the command once clearly and firmly and wait until she obeys to give her treats (of course wait until she understands what "down" means to try and enforce it, otherwise it's a silly thing to ask of her).

Good luck!

 

[Alicia]

Everytime I come home, I ignore Gracie. When I first started this I ignored her for 5 minutes (I timed it each time). If she jumped on me, I made no eye contact, did not speak to her or touch her in any way. I went about my business of taking my coat off, putting groceries away etc. After the 5 minutes was up. I called her to me, gave her a treat and praise and pet, but not too excited really low key.

It did not take her long...when I come home now, she greets me at the door with out jumping and going crazy. I still ignore her, but not nearly as long now. Just about a minute or so. Again, I call her to me, give her a treat and lots of praise and greetings.

Usually, after she greets me at the door, she goes about her business....laying down, watching the birds etc. Until I call her to me. I was so amazed at how this worked. Hope it helps! You HAVE to be consistent.

 

[Underpants Gnome]

How NOT to train the Down command: When we got our 2 year old poodle chinese crested mix, she would run over to me and jump up, and up, and up, and up. My training technique was to say Down, down, down, and push her down if she didn't go down. And I would do this over and over, not realizing that she didn't get it at all. So a few days later, my husband starts to teach her to lay down, and he says Down. Immediately, she ran over to me and jumped up on me. :doh: So she had learned exactly what I taught her, which is that when someone says Down, she is supposed to jump up on me. So we use Lie for the lay down command and we never say down to her.

Better technique: Ignore her whenever she jumps on me and reward her only when all 4 feet are on the ground. It's been 3 months and she has improved somewhat. Sometimes she will sit in front of me and just vibrate with contained excitement because she really wants to jump up.

Good luck with the jumping, it has been a tough habit to break.