Let’s say a lady drives up to somebody’s house and the man comes out and says hello then his buddy comes up to the lady and starts sniffing on her. She would probably slap the snot out of him. Or knee him…or do both! The same thing should apply to the dog. It’s really sad when you see a lady get out of her vehicle and a dog goes over to her and puts its nose between her legs. No woman likes this and there is nothing funny about it. It’s very embarrassing and makes women feel uncomfortable.

I believe this behavior is due to a lack of training of the dog by the owner. Sometimes the owner doesn’t know how to solve this problem or where to go get help or that this is even a problem at all!

It’s really common for a dog to want to go sniff on a person when they show up but the owner should not allow this to happen. If the dog is trained right all the owner should have to do is say “no” when the dog starts toward the person.

To break this habit the dog-owner needs to teach the dog what “no” means. So how do I teach my dog what “no” means? Here’s an example; whenever my dog tries to jump on me I say “no” then step on his back foot or bump him with my knee. Then I call him to me and pet him but do not let him jump on me. That way he knows he can come up to me anytime but he cannot jump on me. When someone else comes over to my place I make sure they do not let my dog jump on them. I also tell them to say “no” to my dog and step on his back foot or knee him if necessary.

Sometimes a person can stop a bad behavior from happening just by staring at the dog and saying “no” in a very firm voice, but it is more effective to teach your dog the word “no” from the beginning.

Once you’ve started this training you’ll soon be able to just say “no” to your dog and he will stop whatever it is he is doing. He will have learned that “no” means that whatever behavior he is doing will get him in some hurt and trouble if he doesn’t stop and he’ll learn not to do that behavior.

A lot of people have a hard time teaching their dogs what “no” means. To me it’s a simple command that means “you cannot do what you’re doing – STOP”.

If you own a dog that sniffs on women or does other unwanted behavior and you can’t fix the problem yourself, you should think about contacting me for help in getting rid of unwanted behavior.

Check out Marvin Pierce’s Dog Obedience Classes and Videos

One day I was building a fence for some clients. The people owned a blue heeler and it was allowed to run loose. I was there early one morning and when the people left for work the dog started chasing and biting at the horses that were in the corral. I was there the whole day and this dog would chase the horses, then it would quit for awhile and then it’d start again. The people got home that afternoon and the dog ran out and laid in the drive way to greet them. When they got out of the truck the dog ran over and got its pat on the head.

The man came over to me and started talking and I asked him if he knew his dog had been chasing and biting at his horses most of the day. He said “no way”, his dog would never do that. So I told him he should sneak home some day and see what his dog was doing while he was gone!

I build a lot of fence on farms and I constantly see dogs that chase horses and cattle when they’re not suppose to. A lot of times the owners just laugh about it. If the truth was known I bet a lot of horses and livestock are hurt due to unruly, untrained dogs. Some people don’t understand the trouble a stock dog can cause. Of course once they get one of these dogs they fall in love with it and can never part with him or her. So they’re forced to try and figure out how to keep him out of trouble. My solution to this is keeping my dogs in nice kennels with runs and then turning them out to run and play at least every morning and every evening under SUPERVISION, even though they have a big acre-sized turnout. Of course I also work my dogs on cattle regularly and start basic obedience with them when they’re just pups. Between the cattle training, the constant obedience work, nice kennel setups and good supervision I know my dogs won’t be causing a big wreak with the other livestock.

Quite often when I see someone’s dog jump on their leg they tell the dog “down”. But really they just want the dog to not jump on them. To me this isn’t good for the dog who you have been trying to teach to lie down using the command “down” because you have been teaching your dog to lie down flat on his stomach when you say “down”.

When I teach the “down” command to my pup I put a collar and leash on them. I get my foot up by their neck, over the leash, and say “down” while pushing them down using my foot on the leash. When they go to the ground I say “good pup” and lean over and pet them. After a few times of this, if done right, they will start laying down when you say “down”. Then you have to make sure that when you tell them “down”, they lay down.

For the dog that jumps up on you, use the “NO” command. This is what I do to keep a dog from jumping on me or someone else. When they’re a puppy I teach them that when I say “NO” they cannot do whatever they’re doing. When they try to jump on me I say “NO” and stop them either by stepping on their back foot when they jump at me or else I knee them in the chest and say “NO” at the same time.

After a few times when my puppy tries to jump on me or someone else, I say “NO” and they don’t jump, or if they’re starting to jump, they stop.

I feel a lot of people have difficulty telling others that their dog is in training and they’re not allowed to jump up on people. You have to be up front with people and tell them the dog is in training and not to encourage him to jump up (which a lot of people like to do, especially with puppies). Otherwise your pup is going to become confused – like why can he jump on some people and not on others!

Doing some of the things mentioned above will help your pup understand they’re not allowed to jump on anyone, that the word “NO” means stop doing whatever it is they’re doing and that the word “down” only means to lie down.

For more on these training techniques such as how and when to use the word “NO”, keep checking my recent posts. You can also drop me a line or better yet, order my dog obedience training video.

Thanks a lot and good luck,