Solving the Right Problem

Jumping up - solving the right problem

Pinpointing your problem is essential to finding a solution. If you are a bit loose in how you describe it, you might not be solving the right problem, or even understanding what that problem really is.

Working this through may take a few iterations to get the details right. On a first call with clients I ask a lot of questions, and it’s all about ruling things out so that I can get to the root of the issue.

Problem Solving Jumping up

Let’s use jumping up as an example to illustrate. The headline problem is this:

My dog is jumping up at visitors.

It’s a simple statement that seems to sum up the problem. It would be easy to jump straight in with some training. The usual approaches are keeping four feet on the floor, turning our backs, or asking people to bend down to the dog’s level to say hello.

For me, that statement does not give me much information, certainly not enough. I need to find out more. I need to rule things out.

The sorts of questions I might ask are:

• Is it every person that comes into the house?
• Is it every time?
• Is it only certain people?
• Is it only at certain times of the day?
• What are people doing when they come in?
• What has the dog learned works in that moment?

By asking these sorts of questions, you can start to pinpoint the problem:

• My dog is jumping up on visitors who come into the house.
• My dog is jumping up on visitors who come to the house, but especially those who come in all excited and wave their arms in the air.
• My dog is jumping up on visitors who come to the house, but especially those who come in all excited and wave their arms in the air. If they bend down to his level, he is calmer as he gets to say hello.
• My dog is jumping up on visitors who come to the house, but especially those who come in all excited and wave their arms in the air. If they bend down, he is calmer. When my friend who ignores him comes in, he goes to play with a toy. When deliveries come, I put him in the back room.
• My dog is jumping up on visitors who come to the house, but especially those who come in all excited and wave their arms in the air. If they bend down, he is calmer. When my friend who ignores him comes in, he goes to play with a toy. When deliveries come, I put him in the back room. He is far worse during the day, particularly after he has just eaten, when he is more excitable and trying to get attention.

Can you see what is happening?

We are starting to define the problem and what it actually looks like in real life. At the same time, you can start to see how much of this is influenced by what the humans are doing. How people come into the house, how they interact, what the dog has learned works, and what gets reinforced.

Once you can see that, you are no longer just looking at a dog who jumps up. You are looking at a situation that can be changed.

Solve the right problem

Let’s continue to use the jumping up example to think about solving the right problem.

Hattie, a young Yorkshire terrier cross, was jumping up on other residents in the sheltered accommodation her owner lived in.
Simple? Not so much. Let’s add some more layers.

• Hattie was a young, vibrant dog who craved attention. For her owner she was a great conversation starter. She loved people and cuddles, and that’s why she had chosen her.
• She had permission to have Hattie live with her as long as she was not causing a problem with any of the other residents.
• Hattie loved the other residents. She was a real people dog.

If people brought their hands down to Hattie’s level, she was fine, no jumping up. If you paid no attention to her, she did not hassle you. However, asking some of the residents to bend down to Hattie’s level to say hello was fraught with danger as their balance and physical capabilities were variable. Her owner didn’t want Hattie jumping up on them, so contact was limited, which was frustrating for everyone.
There was a potential conflict between being safe and being sociable.

The problem was less about jumping up and more about how we could teach Hattie to meet people appropriately, and how we could set things up so that she did not keep practising the behaviour. We had to be creative. Our solution was to reinforce no jumping up unless asked. We taught Hattie to place her front paws on someone’s knee on cue, which meant that this could happen with residents either standing or, more safely, sitting down.

Everyone was happy.

The Missing Piece

The missing piece of jumping up training for me is about how you get your dog to understand how to interact with people.

If we are constantly reinforcing our dogs for four feet on the floor, feeding the floor to keep them down, asking them to sit, shaping into a sit, or whatever else you might try…
when do they get to say hello?

If we don’t address that, there will still be frustration in the dog, and when they do get the chance to interact, it can tip into over-excitement.

Most people want their dogs to go up, say hello calmly, and then get on with their own thing.

My top tactics for this are:

• Gentle hands down at the dog’s head level, palms up and close to your knees. This allows the dog to come into your hands and interact. Your hands barely move. Often dogs will come in and lean part of their body against your fingers for a calm scratch. Hands move slowly and calmly, more like a massage than a greeting.
• A nose-to-hand touch to go and say hello, then back to the owner for reinforcement. This keeps the interaction brief and the value with you.
• Food around the feet, so the dog can interact calmly around the person.
• Or a combination of these.

This is about helping the dog understand they can interact calmly, start to make good choices around people, and often means the dog gets over it very quickly.

Lots of rehearsals of this and you will have a dog who understands that meeting people does not have to be about high excitement.

Just to finish off, one of my favourite jumping up stories is from years ago where a large collie was struggling with over-excitement around people. His owner invited friends around, briefed them on what she wanted them to do, and gave her dog multiple opportunities to rehearse the behaviour that was more socially acceptable.

Amazing work, and what a difference in that dog the following week.

I have used jumping up as an example, but this could apply to any training problem.
Define the problem properly so that you are solving the right problem.
Be creative, look at the whole situation, including your own role in it, and put in the practice. That is where you start to see real change.