Does your dog jump and/or climb on you? Perhaps you’re encouraging it. Perhaps you’re reinforcing it. Oops. 🙂
For Polite & Safe Greetings, the behavior to reinforce is Four on the Floor (a stand). As always, we think *BIG*, start *small* – Short Duration Behavior. We’ll grow the behavior with SMART Training.
Topic 1 of this Lesson teaches you how to reinforce Four on the Floor to Greet You (or other family members) as you are entering the house. Same method applies if you are entering the backyard and dog is already in the yard. In other words, this Topic addresses any “reunion” between you and your dog where you want a strong Four on the Floor.
Topic 2 will teaches you how to reinforce Four on the Floor to Greet Others meaning your dog is greeting a visitor or a friendly stranger.
If your dog is stressed by new people, we must first Counter-Condition the Fear & Stress of New People. That will be addressed in Topic 3 (coming soon).
NOTE: dogs should *not* be expected to hold a sit *while* people touch and pet him. For AKC Canine Good Citizen and for Therapy Dog testing, dog is permitted to stand (four on floor) for the interaction. For the Dog Sport of Obedience, dog is in a stand while Judge examines him. Likewise for Conformation. Yes, we can certainly train a dog to sit until released while people approach and say hi to us, but once we give permission for person to interact with our dog, dog is released from the sit (e.g., “go say hello”) and allowed to stand.