Isabel had always loved and wanted a small dog to keep her company. That is the reason why when she got her first apartment in New Jersey, she made sure the neighborhood was dog-friendly. One early morning, she came across a nice family that was giving away some mixed breed puppies, she picked and brought home a little girl pup that was bouncy and full of energy, just like her! It was the best feeling she have ever felt in years.

When Isabel first got Tiny, she enjoyed watching her bounce up and down, and loved it especially when Tiny greeted her at the door when she comes home from work. Yet one day, when Isabel brought over her four-year old niece she noticed that Tiny would not stop running around and jumping on her, causing her niece to fall over and hurt herself. Isabel then thought of all the snagged sweaters and times that the jumping habit got out of hand. She decided then and there that the jumping behavior had to stop!

Isabel began her quest to stop Tiny from this risky behavior by seeking some expert advice. She scoured bookstores and spoke with trainers to find the right method for training Tiny on how to stop dog jumping . She learned that consistency and patience was important! She also decided that she would have to be firm in her decision and be really committed to keeping up the training in the long term, so she set her mind to giving Tiny a lot of love.

Isabel started to daunt off Tiny’s jumping behavior by commanding, “Down!” every time she enters the room. She has chosen the word “down” because it was an easy word for everyone to use. Every time she walked in the door, she would firmly say “Down!” until Tiny was no longer jumping and acting over excited to see her. The training got her a little frustrated at first, because Tiny just was not getting the command. Isabel even tried giving Tiny a little nudge to get her to back off while she firmly said, “Down.” But after a week or so , Isabel began to see that it was taking lesser commands to get Tiny to stop jumping and she felt that the hard work was not in vain.

Few weeks have passed by, and it was taking no more than two “Down” commands for Tiny to stop jumping. Once Tiny had observed that she would gain praise for not jumping at all, the behavior started to cease completely. After a few months, Isabel felt more relaxed bringing her niece again over to her house to play with Tiny, and found that the two of them now got along beautifully. Her niece even feels that Tiny is now her new best friend!

From Isabel’s status, we can see that it will for sure take some time, patience, and consistency to train a dog to stop an unsuitable behavior. But, always bear in mind that not all dogs can be taught simply at home. Isabel was prepared to use a trainer for assistance in curbing Tiny’s behavior, but found that her patience paid off in the end. The key was using a consistent command and praising Tiny greatly when she behaved.

Source: Acting