# Nutty vizsla!



## nutmeg07 (Sep 14, 2013)

My vizsla girl is a-year-old now. She is so fantastic and love her to bits. She’s a delight at home, comes to work with me every day, gets so much exercise daily all day long, lots and lots of off leash time, plays with other dogs and gets along with the horses well at work. Her recall is great now, thanks to the e-collar, which I don’t really need to use anymore, she just wears it. We go to obedience classes, and she has progressed steadily through the levels, and is top of her class ☺ We look forward to doing agility starting early next year. She has been well socialized since early puppyhood, she comes to shopping trips, picnics and sits in cafes amongst many other things. It hasn’t been an easy road to this point, and many times I have been at my wits end and questioned myself on why an earth I decided to do this to myself  
There are still issues and things I’m not totally happy with, like she could be better at being alone, she still pulls on the leash sometimes and she still likes to chew things occasionally, but we’ve made such big progress on these things over time, that I’m not worried and feel relaxed that as she matures, she will just get better and better.
However, there is still one big problem that remains, one that has been there since day one, and hasn’t got any better, sometimes even worse. And that is jumping on people! And not just jumping, but going completely NUTS when she sees someone. Completely beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I know this is partly a vizsla thing, and therefore have been very patient with it and just been trying to be consistent and give her time to mature and grow out of it (even just a little). All that has happened is she has just got bigger and more full on. No advice so far has been helpful at all. Turning your back, pretending youre a tree, four paws on the ground gets attention, dropping treats on the ground, holding the front paws up for a while as the dog jumps, keeping her on a leash until calm, getting her to ‘touch’ or give another command etc etc. In saying this, many of these things work occasionally, and she is not so nuts with every one or every time. At work there are people coming and going all the time, and often she is quite mellow with them (mellow for her any way). If we are out walking she is relatively good, same at the obedience school, the problem is at its worst indoors, at home or somebody else’s home. I can see it coming, she can’t stay in her skin. I can’t get any contact to her, she won’t pay me any attention, no treats help, nothing works. Its like she goes into this trance and I cannot snap her out of it. Its becoming more and more embarrassing amongst my family and friends (particularly their kids), of which many people aren’t doggy people, and she is getting older and nothing is changing. I guess that’s where I’m quite lost, nothing’s working or getting better, I’m not getting anywhere. Can someone offer some help, as its getting quite exhausting and is stressful all and all. I’m officially the owner of the crazy dog, and that makes me sad as they won’t see how awesome she can be, as well as fantastically obedient and sweet and calm. 
Will she just grow out of it with age? Will she just be like this her whole life and I should just prepare myself for it?


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## emilycn (Jul 30, 2013)

This might me a silly question, but have you tried involving the e-collar in this aspect of her training? It is, after all, supposed to act like a "hey... hello over there... i need your attention please... snap out of it, and listen to what i'm saying" sort of thing, so if no other distractions or redirections work, you might want to think about employing the e-collar just like you did with the recall.


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

emilycn might be on to something there.  I know it can be done. Willie also "can't stay in his skin" when new people arrive, but he never puts paws on people. Instead, he just jumps up and down like a bucking bronco, until he can contain himself. LOL! I didn't teach him that, though. I adopted him when he was about two, and that behavior came as part of the package, so his original owners taught him that. It's pretty cute, really, and nobody gets annoyed, because he isn't actually touching anybody. Instead of concentrating on stopping the jumping up behavior, maybe you can replace that habit with another, better habit. I know this isn't really much help. Sorry.


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

emilycn said:


> This might me a silly question, but have you tried involving the e-collar in this aspect of her training? ...


Yes, especially if the prior use of the collar involved a painful level at some point. I.e., if she knows that the audible/vibrate means that a zap will follow if she doesn't listen. I know that many owners feel that pain should never be employed, but I don't. I feel that it should only be a last resort, but as a last resort it can be very effective, especially for "extinguishing" an unwanted behavior. The collar allows you to separate yourself from the pain, so she doesn't learn to fear you. It's a trade off between a little pain for her and a lot of unpleasantness and possibly pain for the people that she is jumping on.

Bob


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## nutmeg07 (Sep 14, 2013)

emilycn: No its not a silly question at all, and the answer is I haven't. Partly cause I don't quite know how to go about it, and didn't want to make mistakes where she would associate the collar with the guests somehow rather than her own behaviour. I have thought about it, since it seems logical and its the one thing I haven't tried. Any ideas on what could be a good way to go about that?
Thanks all for your replies


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## emilycn (Jul 30, 2013)

nutmeg07 said:


> I don't quite know how to go about it, and didn't want to make mistakes where she would associate the collar with the guests somehow rather than her own behaviour.


That is an excellent point that i hadn't thought of... i will ponder


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## Kristend (Apr 20, 2012)

My 2 year old v is the same. The only thing that has worked for us has been a water pistol. We give visitors the water pistol when they arrive, she sees it and she is very subdued even if they haven't squirted her. When I am out walking and she is off lead, she still jumps on people and I don't know how to stop that! I might need to start bringing to water pistol with me and giving it to people!


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

Kristend said:


> My 2 year old v is the same. The only thing that has worked for us has been a water pistol. We give visitors the water pistol when they arrive, she sees it and she is very subdued even if they haven't squirted her. When I am out walking and she is off lead, she still jumps on people and I don't know how to stop that! I might need to start bringing to water pistol with me and giving it to people!


I'm afraid that she's not been taught what you wanted. She's learned to avoid the water pistol - what you really want is for her to avoid jumping.

So try this: have the water pistol ready, but out of her sight. Just BEFORE she's about to jump, give her a squirt without her seeing the pistol. She'll learn to associate the unpleasantness of the squirt with jumping. She might be confused at first because she knows that a squirt comes from the pistol & she didn't see the pistol. But she'll get it.

It would be a good idea to keep the pistol out of sight even when it's off duty.

Bob


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## SuperV (Oct 18, 2011)

Nutmeg - try this... teach the dog "off" or "down" or whatever command you want the dog to do when he greats someone. I would suggest OFF, and OFF means all four paws are on the ground. 

You can teach these by teaching "UP", which is him jumping up on you. Say UP, when he does so, treat/reward. It should only take a few moments before he decides to get off. When his feet hit the floor, say OFF...treat/reward. When he knows the command OFF, you can overlay the E-collar.....Tell him up, now while he is up, say OFF and and NICK with e-collar, until he abides by your request. Now he is learning to stop the nick, he must obey the command. The nick is only as intense as it needs to be for him to listen.

Nate


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## SuperV (Oct 18, 2011)

nutmeg07 said:


> emilycn: ....she would associate the collar with the guests somehow rather than her own behaviour. I have thought about it, since it seems logical and its the one thing I haven't tried. Any ideas on what could be a good way to go about that?
> Thanks all for your replies


This won't happen if you teach him the up/off routine away from guests and just one and one. He'll already be familiar with the training routine and the nicking until he listens to off, and won't associate the nicking to the presence of the guest, but to him not listening to OFF as you have already taught him. 

Now you would stand a good chance of a bad association with guests, if you light him up as soon he jumps up on a guest because you haven't done your job and teach him what behavior you want of him. This is similar in concept to snake training your dog. Dog see's a snake, and he gets FRIED...the object being he'll stay as far away from a snake as possible.


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