Retriever Rescue

This is how we trained our dog not to jump up.

1) Buy a water pistol

When your beatiful golden jumps up at you you squirt it with water and he/she will get down. Over a short period of time (if you keep doing it) your golden will learn not to jump up or he/she will get wet!

Hope it works for you like it did for us!

I would suggest a little care with the water pistol. Yes is can work with a bold dog, but could cause big problems with a nervy or sensitive dog, which many Goldens are.

A better suggestion is to teach the word "No", or better still, to avoid the jumping ever starting in the first place. For a start, make a point of always greeting your dog at his level. As much as possible remove the desire on his part to jump up. If he does not get into the habit of jumping up then you have not got to correct it.

Regards, John

An even better solution to jumping up is to raise your knee -but there's no need to thrust your knee into the dog's chest!

When you know that your dog is about to jump up, don't make eye contact but simply raise your knee. The dog understands that this is your way of telling it, "This is my space - don't intrude on it".

Took my dog about 3 "goes" and she's never done it since! I've recommended it to lots of people and they all agree that it works with all dogs.

Let me know if it works for you too!

This may work in many cases but I would say take care if you are trying this as a Golden can be faster than the eye and can be up while you are thinking about it and a knee can really hurt. It may take a long while to get back the confidence of a Rescue dog.

As we all know goldens can be very sensitive,I always greet mine by bending down to say hello, then if they do jump up a firm "off" usually suffices, when bum is on the ground lots of praise..

I always greet mine by bending down to say hello

This really is the essence of training. Take away the reason to jump up and you are three quarters of the way there.

Regards, John

Lucy still jumps up though when she gets the chance,, but now I just hold up my hand and she sits down...guess we will get there in the end...

when we first got max he would jump up at his dad every time he came home from work,before he would stroke him he made him sit down,so after a few days max realised he would only be stroked if he was sat down the only problem is getting other visitors to do this

this will hopefully help me as Bonnie likes to jump up all the time and especially in tense situations for instance, will work on the No and turn around quickly to show I don't like her to jump up. This has been recommended by my friend who has well behaved dogs.

One thing we have also found is that Bonnie does not like small balls, or a chew rubber dog toy which we have just bought for her to play with. This is really odd. Has anyone else got a dog who doesn't like playing? It is as though she hates them and even wee weed in the lounge when I tried to get her to play with a smal ball for a bit of fun play. We have only had Bonnie since last Saturday - its just early days and we are just been very careful with her.

Not exactly what you were answering, but I'm never happy with small balls. Even tennis size are small enough for a dog the size of a Golden or Labrador to swallow and get stuck in the throat.

Happy New Year to all.

Regards, John

I would have thought that getting Bonnie settled in and happy and not worried would be much more important than worrying about jumping up and not playing with balls. She may never have been played with and hopefully not with a small ball. Just let her be and all this will come in time you may even frighten her.

Saint Jazz the perfect has never jumped up at people, we think that a water pistol would be the start of rough play as he would think it was a new toy for him and great fun. as a young dog this would probably have ended with everyone on the floor covered in water. We have not met a golden yet who does not like water.
Jazz's greeting is one of front paws pounding on the floor.
Candy on the other hand is a smiler, the right jowl is raised and quivered. The back pins are not so good with Candy .

P, S , J & C

In the 9 years we've had Ginnie, she has never tried to jump up, Cobi thinks about it until a firm 'No' is said, sometimes prefixed with her name, or a firm 'down' and she does as she's told. BUT it wasn't like this at the beginning with Cobi.... she wasn't house trained and would think that the chinese rug was the 'place to empty' even though the back door was always open when I was downstairs and she could come and go into the garden as she pleased, she also didn't know how to ask to go out. she just 'did it' which was a little frustrating at first, as when you have a puppy they usually get the hang of toilet training within a few weeks. This might sound strange to some but all our dogs have been 'taught' certain phrases and we have used this for all of them over the years, 'excuse me please' for when I want them to move out of my way (normally you would say that to a person wouldn't you ) it took Ginnie quite a while to grasp this, but she must have watched Abby's reaction when I wanted her to move, Cobi learned this quicker than Ginnie. At home and when we are away the door is opened and it's 'toilet' and they just go out and 'do it'.
Cobi hadn't been in a vehicle very much, poor little mite, 'up it came and down it went' , out came the wipes, spray, rubber gloves, some people would have given up and then don't take their dog out in the car or away on holiday....this was not an option as we go all over the country with our caravan.... BUT we've had this with Jade and Abigail (and we'd had them from pups) so it was in the car just to post a letter, or a quick visit to the shops, then a small walk each time as a reward, and now just like Abby and Jade before her, Cobi will leap into the car and just lie in the back with the tailgate up for ages when we are sitting outside the caravan in a field (but she has to ruck up and kick the vet beds to oblivion first)

None of our dogs have played with a ball except Abigail... and that was only until she dropped it and lost it, she usually 'found' it the following day whilst out walking. Ginnie was a devil for finding golf balls then not letting you take them off her, she used to take them to the back of her throat, which worried me, so we bribed her into giving them up.
Jasmine and my friends golden Lottie didn't know how to play or join in with our other dogs, and they looked a bit left out but I suppose it was the way they started off in life, they would carry soft toys around in their mouths.
All our dogs seem to prefer to carry soft toys...or liberate socks from the washing basket in the case of Gin (I think I remember Carolyn and Ian's dogs liking socks) Cobi and Ginnie just pull the toys until the stuffing comes out and the legs and arms comes off !!!! Then I spend an hour or so with strong thread mending them... it's like painting the Clifton suspension bridge !!!!!

Molly loves:

1. Jumping up - so she has to be told very firmly to sit and then she waits (although we do call her 'happy feet' because she can't QUITE manage to wait without looking as if she's going to burst any second!)

2. Water - from the sea to the shower to water pistols to water puddles to water closets (I know it's revolting but she knows how to open the bathroom door). Water pistols wouldn't work with Molly, I'm afraid. I'm not sure a water CANNON would put her off water.

3. Chasing dogs who chase balls - I was under the mistaken impression that a retriever might just possible be inclined to retrieve things but I was wrong. However, she derives endless pleasure from chasing any dog that chases anything at all. It works like a charm because she can play with any dog on the beach or at the park without making any attempt to touch their ball or frisbee.

The moral of the story is.....every dog is its own dog with its own little habits and preferences. With every day that passes I learn a little bit more about Molly. Today I learned that if I go out without locking the bathroom door, she will be in the bathroom bin like a rat up a drainpipe (and you don't even want to know what she did once she was in there). Yesterday Kate was upset and crying, so Molly went and curled up with her to make her feel better.

Life with a Golden is a voyage of discovery that is occasionally weird, mostly not TOO mucky and disgusting (unless you take the dog out in a wet field) and always wonderful. We just have to learn to relax and enjoy the ride.

Ella has never been one for jumping up at people. If we need to give her a command, we change our tone of voice so that she knows what we want her to do.
When she came to live with us 5yrs ago, like Lottie, she didn't know how to play, but once she had learnt to trust us, she started to play, but she did it in her own time.

As for balls, we don't let her have them, as they CAN so easily get stuck. She loves her soft toy's and cart's them around all day (we get them all at the charity shop's), it's much cheaper

Love the stories of Molly's antics Julie, maybe a little story-book for this year's funday!!!