Don't Like a Behavior? Reward Your Dog For It.

If we don't like our dogs jumping, barking or pawing, we can teach our dogs to do those behaviors only when we ask for them. Professionals call this putting a behavior under stimulus control.

Caution. Discuss jumping with an ortho vet before proceeding. Too much jumping can be bad for dogs' joints.

My Lupe used to paw me for attention. I started putting my hand in the way as her paw came down so she had to slap my hand with her paw. Eventually, we were able put that pawing behavior on cue (doing it when I asked for it) and she learned "shake" and other behaviors that required the use of her feet.

My Matt-Matt used to get a little bit barky at times. I used some advice from a couple of articles, including this one and put the barking on cue. Matt-Matt is still a barky dog. But he is a little bit less barky now that we have some control over his vocalizations.

See this video that illustrates how a pet parent was able to reduce her dog's bounciness by putting it under stimulus control




See all posts on jumping up here

Tell us about your bouncy or barking dog in the comments section below


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