I Got A Jumper!!!

THIS IS GREAT, THAT YOU ARE ALREADY MAKING PROGRESS!!!!!WHOOOT!! YESsssssss!!! Yay for you! I bet you must feel very pleased to be getting progress so so quickly!!!
Re: your questions above, here's my two cents:

#1) it's hard to always tell how a dog tolerates a sudden burst of strenuous exercise til the NEXT day......that's when dogs limp, etc.
I don't know if TL's 30 minute daily run is comparable to the distance you went today,(?)no idea, but your dog is one lucky dog to get to be able to RUN every day!!!! So few dogs seem to get the chance, except for fetch in their backyards. sad. Your dog, having the benefit of daily runs, is probably way better off than many dogs are, to get in shape for 5k run. (I don't even know kilometers, i know miles.)

Probably you could slowly build her up, observing for any limping the next day or two, and if it all goes well for your particular dog** you could slowly keep adding on extra distances a lil bit at a time. Seems like a good plan to me anyway. (**i myself think all dogs are individuals, many various individuals within a breed, there's laid back border collies even)

#2) Well, if your dog has razor sharp recall on land,
you could let her take some steps into water, and call her back. Let her go some more, call her back. Let her know, even in the water, it's same ol rules---she still has to come when you call her.


Can your dog swim? Not all dogs can swim. (mine can barely swim, he is very slow at it, and tires really easily. My dog is such a lousy swimmer, i suspect the other dogs are chuckling at him, and i watch Buddy closely for signs of exhaustion, cuz he is lousy swimmer.).

Pugs drown real easily, so do some other breeds. No idea if boxer bodies are good for swimming. EVen if your dog can swim in a lake or a pool, swimming in a river can be different, there are sometimes currents, undertows, and trees under the water that snag at things. Some rivers aren't much more than creeks, though. I'm picturing an actual river, no idea what all your river looks like, how deep, how fast, etc.

Of course, if you do choose to let in her in the river, no leash of course, cuz they can get snared on the all the branches that are typically in most rivers. Also, if your dog swims away downstream, swimming back upstream is a lot harder usually.

but, if your dog doesn't come to you on land,
even with distractions around him, even long distance he comes to you,
if your dog can not do that, well,
your chances of getting her to come back to you in water are very very reduced.

Well, let me think... about 5 km would take an hour of walking at a normal pace.
That doesn't sound too bad to me, for a high energy nine month old. I'm guessing she is trotting next to you, not in a gallop? Because a trot is better for a dog, than a gallop.
But I might be the wrong person to give you advice on this A lot of people think I overdid it with my pup, taking her along with me when I walked the other dogs for an hour.
She was fine with it and I did build up graduatly. She is a high energy girl, knows only one way to go... fast!!!

As for playing in the creek, oh boy, would you have to be more fun then playing in the water
I guess the safest and easiest way would be to have her on a really long leash, so you can "help" her to come when you call and she doesn't listen. Of course I don't mean you should jerk her back towards you!
A great recall takes a lot of effort and a bit of time.
I used to play a lot of tug games. Call my dog, run away from her and play tug as soon as she caught up with me.
BUT I don't know if this is the right way to go for your little monster as she jumps and bites you. Could work though as long as she goes for the tug and not your hands.

Reading Tigerlily's advice makes me realise that she is right about the leash... I was thinking about a shallow place where she can't swim, only splash around in...

Well, Anneke, it might be a lil shallow creek thing, is what she means by "river". Lol, there IS A LOT OF VARIATION in what someone means by "river" Where i live, we call small shallow rivers "creeks".
OHhhhhhhhhh, 5 k is only 3.1 miles? ohhhhh, well, all righty then! I was thinking it was like, 10 miles or something.

Alyssa the 5k for Pet adoptions it is 3.28miles. Sorry I should have told you how long a 5k is, I didn't think about it. You can go on http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/67202228/?open_ive_done=1&new_route=1 to see the route there using. Maybe some time we can go run it so the dogs will already know it.

Fabulous idea, i think, when dog is built up, to give it a pre-run a week or so prior to the actual race. Great great idea!!!!!

I agree with the others, that if you build her upto it, she should be fine, as long as she is not running that whole 5K. She is still growing, and with joint issues that can crop up in boxers/larger breeds, you don't want to possibly overdo it. Lots of water and don't force her to do more than she can (My dog Kitana will go until she falls over dead, so I have to make her stop most of the time)

About the offleash thing, the only time I will trust Kitana off leash is if I have a tennis ball in hand. She would die for a tennis ball, she will ingore anything and everything if I have the ball, I can't even use it as a reward for training, she focuses that much on it. But otherwise, she is not offleash. Sierra, my other dog, she doesn't go off leash in an unfenced area. EVER. She can be on a long line, but never off leash, she has a mute button and uses it often. Her recall is awesome on leash, even the long line, but she knows when she can get away and in 2 years we have not been able to convince her we are cooler. No toy, no food, nothing. (One wierd exception, flyball. She can be surrounded by stuff but listens beautifully).

Ok, so that long history about my dogs is just to explain every dog is different. But in the beginning I wouldn't trust a dog off lead that won't come back in your yard.

It is a creek. I never said river, the deepest it gets is like 2 ft at the most.

"First of all, I would not tell a dog to go get a toy if they are acting aggressive. Thats a reward. You dont ever want to reward bad behavior. " This is what Whipple said but in kikopup's biting and mouthing video on page one on this thread, she says exactly "1-interrupt and redirect- call your puppy away from the person being bitten pup, pup, puppy and redirect him to a toy or something more appropriate." at the end. I am a little confused here? I am not saying anyone is wrong, I am just trying to clear things up.......

It's great to clear things up. Questions are almost invariably a good thing! The more you fully understand what and why your goals are, the better off you will be.

If your dog is doing something you don't want, and you get the dog to stop it, and put his att'n onto you, or another object, instead of doing whatever bad thing he WAS just doing,
you are rewarding the dog choosing to stop doing the bad thing/re-directing him/distracting him.

It's not quite the same thing as going up to a dog diving through your trashbin, and handing him a treat for pawing through your garbage. See what i mean?

But, if you lure dog to choose to take a step away from the garbage, and get dog to choose focusing on something ELSE, that is great. But it is great idea to reward a dog for choosing to focus on you,
for choosing to halt his naughty behavior
and for choosing to focus on or do something else, than whatever bad thing he was just doing..



Kikopup has a second video, where she discusses, how to be sure you are not setting up a cycle of "bad behavior/reward stopping...bad behavior/reward stopping... (my dog gets it, understand the difference, and improves his behavior when rewarded for stopping.......my dog, like most dogs, is very tuned into exactly WHAT behaviour he is doing to get a treat, my dog is so tuned into to that, that if i even click a wrong move during tricks training, buddy now thinks he has to always do that extra thing during the trick cuz of one wrong click......sigh. Dogs DO note what they are currently doing when they get the click, or reward )


I think Kikopup discusses that cycle concern in THIS video:


Asking questions is always great. It's hard to go wrong if you follow kikopup. Keep watching her "stopping biting" video, over and over, til it clicks. And do read that link on Jumping Dogs
that was sent to you earlier on this thread. that thread had quickie 5 minute long videos in it, too.


i really do believe, you can solve your dog's jumping up, and biting,
as a matter of fact, i KNOW you can solve this. If you do hit a snag, let us help you, cuz you sound like you are headed in right direction now!!

oh, and sorry i said river, when you said creek. Lolz. Guess it is a matter of how great her recall on land is, then. Being in water won't improve it, if TL's recall is not great on land.

I think you can safely use the rediricting method with a toy, since your dog is not acting agressive. She just has no clue that she is hurting you. At least that is how I understand your explanation.
You are not rewarding her with the toy, you are redirecting her focus. It is like chewing stuff they are not supposed to. Say if she is chewing on a shoe, you take the shoe away and give her a chewbone instead.
So if she is jumping, you call her away and give her a toy. You don't say NO or anything like that. It is just getting her focus away from what she is doing.
I know it sounds like rewarding, but it isn't.
Something you could do, if this doesn't sound right to you, is: She is jumping on somebody, call her and show her the toy. Then when you have her attention, ask for a sit. Then give the toy or play tug to reward the sit.

Thank you I will try that!

For recall you could use her monkey. When you want her to come show her you have her monkey and squeak it with how crazy she goes when u have her monkey she will probably come. When she does come reward her by giving her the monkey. u can also use this for getting her to come back in the house after uv taken her to the bathroom. Hope this helps.

To me, as most everyone else has said, this is your dog thinking "OMG!! mum !!theres someone here!! theres someone here!! look look, I'm really excited! i'm really excited! "

then you ask to get a toy and she barks - barking is a tension/energy release, so thats a good thing! Maybe you try having the toy on you and showing it to her? She will most likely bite it as it's the quickest way of satisfing the energy within her... Let her win!! thats more fun and in time she will bring the toy back to you.

The jumping up at you in excitement is just her not knowing what to do with her self - pushing her off adds excitement to her as it's like a game.

does she know how to get a toy? if she does, trying playing with her for a bit then throwing the toy a short distance away and saying "get the toy" if she goes towards it. By working with her in a "energized/excited" state it will work much better when there is someone at the door.

I just re-read my response and realize how backwards that sounds. I blame it on pregnancy hormones, but I rarely make sense, haha.
Anyhow, I think I was confusing redirecting with rewarding. But my dog also works differently. I have to calm her down completely as redirecting will just get her more excited. But different strokes for different dogs and all.

aw Whipple, i think your posts are great, no idea what you are referring to in your criticisms of your own self there, but, i agree, i can see how it can seem confusing, how redirecting can seem like rewarding a dog.