> Training
How to stop
Fence Jumping
Adam G. Katz
www.dogproblems.com
Copyright 1999 By South Bay K-9 Academy
Basically, the dog
needs to associate a negative experience with jumping up on the
fence. But, this negative experience must have three things going
for it.
First, the negative must happen right as he is jumping up on the
fence.
Second, it must be motivational. Kinda like when a cop gives you a
ticket for speeding, but the ticket is only for $2, you'll
probably wait until you get 100 tickets before you even consider
changing your behavior. But, if it's a good $250 ticket, it won't
take too many (maybe one or two) to make you stop speeding.
In other words, you must find your dog's sensitivity level. For
behavior modification, I'd tend to error on the side of slightly
over correcting, rather than under correcting. You don't care if
the dog never jumps up on the fence again, and you don't care if
he has a poor attitude when it comes to it. (Unlike obedience
exercises.) Bottom line is that the correction must be
motivational.
And third, he must get the correction every time he does the
behavior. Again, if it's a motivational correction, he'll only try
it once, twice, or at the most, three or four times before
deciding it's not in his best interest.
What should you do? You can try several things. Have a kid hide on
the other side of the fence with a high powered garden hose. Tempt
him to jump up on the fence. When he does, blast him!
You can also set him up with a training collar and tab (short
leash) and go out and give him a correction when he does it, but
make sure you keep the dog confined when you can't be there to
correct the behavior.
At night, confine him to either a crate or a dog run... so he
can't do the behavior and not get corrected for it. (Or if you go
out to dinner, and leave him unsupervised.)
Until he drops the behavior, he can't be allowed to do it and not
get corrected. So, everytime he has a chance to do it, you must be
in a position to correct him.
There are
at least three more ways to do this.
1.
Take a sunday afternoon. Put the training collar, and the 1 foot
leash on the dog, and leave him in the backyard.... but keep your
eye on him through the kitchen window. Have the kid in the next
yard create a ruckus, and when the dog jumps up on the fence, you
immediately yell "No, no, no!" as you run out the door,
and up to the dog, and correct. (No, no, no forces him to remember
what he's being corrected for.) Even if he's no longer got his
feet on the wall, he should be able to associate the correction
with the behavior (within 7 to 12 seconds after the fact.)
2.
You can get a boundary and perimeter electric containment system,
similar to what Gene described. The collar will be triggered when
he jumps up on the fence. Or you can do the same thing with an
electric collar. Set the collar to your dogs sensitivity level
(check the manual).... and watch him through the window. When the
dog jumps on the wall, you push the button. Shouldn't take more
than catching him twice before he never jumps on the wall again.
3.
The poor man's solution is to glue mouse traps (not rat traps!) to
the top of the fence, so when the dog jumps up....
"snap!" he receives a negative. This also works well for
house plants, too!
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