How To Stop Fence Jumping

by Adam Katz

Basically, the dog needs to associate a negative experience with fence jumping. 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 into fence jumping. 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 be fence jumping 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 starts fence jumping, 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!

That's all for now, folks! Adam Dogproblems.com

About the Author Adam G. Katz is the author of the book, "Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer: An Insider's Guide To The Most Jealously Guarded Dog Training Secrets In History." Get a free copy of his report "Games To Play With Your Dog" when you sign up for his free weekly dog training tips e-zine at: http://www.dogproblems.com