I have two boxers and they are easiy excited dogs and can be good on the lead but tend to jump up at people when they stop to stroke them. So can anyone offer any practical ideas I can try to stop them doing this, I've tried the making them sit while stood talking to someone and they will do it for so long but get bored easily, its just now and again they will try and jump up at people when just walking by. :help:

Hi,

When people walk by and go to stroke the dogs, ask them not to bend towards them, but just put the back of their hand out. By not going overboard on the fuss, the dogs will learn that the praise they get is controlled.

It's a very difficult one, but you will have to try and get them to focus on you, nobody else. When you walk past people, distract the dogs and praise them if they pay attention to you and not the other person walking by.

When stopping to talk to someone, it's your persistance that will stop them getting bored. Unfortunately, they are dogs with short attention spans, and it will be difficult for all of you. When they get bored, you must put them back in the sit position or whatever and tell them to wait.

The key is to assert yourself, if you tell them to wait, and then they don't they will learn not to worry. You must make them do what you tell them to do, even if it means interrupting your conversation. They will get there eventually.

Can I ask how old they are/

Whilst training Brude to walk off his lead we would make him sit as another person passed us, as his compulsion to run over and greet them was far too great unless he was given something else to do first ;)

He was only allowed to approach said person if he was invited, and if he wasn't, he was given much praise and treats from us :thumbsup:

A quick question.... do you allow the dogs to jump up to greet you when you come home?

Cheers for the idea,The dogs dont jump up at visitors or myself when in house. They will sit when you ask them to when stopped in street its just they try to jump at people who walk past,in a way trying to get persons attention. I'm going to try the suggestion of getting the dogs attention with treats so they focus on me. Think it will work for younger one as he enjoys his treats but the older one would prefer the attention from people more.Its worth a try though and I'll probably need to do this with them seperatly it'd be too hard to do it with them both at same time.The oldest is biggest of them both and he's 3 and the other he's quite small for a boxer and he's 2 and half. :thumbsup:

I have had another thought that could work , biggest of the 2 is fond of his toys could be an idea to take one along then when someone does walk past just show it him it should distract him enough while the person walks past but not sure where i would take it from there , what do you think ? I just wonder if I did that for so long eventually he'd stop thinking about what the person passing will do and not try to jump up at them.

yep, sounds a great idea - anything that will distract him.

When you show it him, give him a cue such as 'watch me' or something, if he looks towards the toy and totally ignores the person you'll have to stop for a second and let him play with the toy, then tell him it's finished and carry on.

He'll eventually learn that the cue word you used, means to look towards you and he'll associate the word with the positive action of playing, even though you don't anymore.

Good idea that with keyword he's pretty good at recognising names of individual toys so if i get him used to a keyword he'll look over , ta for that , :)