Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a dog that as soon as someone leaves the house, he jumps and lays on top of the dining room table. There are scratches now all over the top of the table. Every once in a while, we will place pans, etc at the edge of the table to prevent him from jumping up there, and that seems to work. However, we don't want to have to do this everytime we leave. Any training suggestions for this?

Additionally, this same dog will jump out of open windows in the house. If we open a window, screen there and all, he will jump out through the screen and begin running. He even did this with an open window - jumped through the blinds and screen to get outside. Any training suggestions for this as well?

Thanks so much!

This dog should be put safely in a crate when you leave the house so he doesn't hurt himself while you are away.

For the window jumping, he needs to be on a long line tied to you until he realizes this behavior is unacceptable. The reward of running free is strong and he already knows it's fun to be outside. Retraining that is a tough process. This might be a situation where a "remote correction" needs ot be used. Set the dog up to do the behavior again and use a loud noise or hose to spray the dog as he's jumping through the window. It's got to be percieved as the act of jumping through the window is correcting him and not you. Hopefully the first lesson is strong enough where it won't be tried again. If not, up the ante a bit and continue- harsher water does or air horn.

It's not ideal, but the consequences of a dog roaming free are deadly so it's warranted.
-----
Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles