Are you a sheltie owner and worrying about whether your walls are tall enough to keep your sheltie inside? Seriously, how high can a sheltie jump?
How high can a sheltie jump? Usually, shelties can jump about 40 inches high, but some are able to exceed that value. The fence or walls should be 4ft or higher to stop them from jumping/climbing. They can be trained to Improve/ decrease their jumping with adequate training and proper supervising.
Is jumping a good thing for your sheltie? Are there special techniques to make their jumping efficient? Does boredom make them wanna jump? Let us find out.
How high can shelties jump? The in-depth answer
Shelties usually weigh 5-10.9 kg (both male & female), has a long double coat, and live 12-18 years. They are an agile, sturdy, and, most importantly, intensely loyal breed.
Their ears have tipped the top third to a quarter of the ear. They shed a lot. It doesn’t matter the season.
Shelties are a highly intelligent breed. Studies have found that they are one of the brightest dogs, ranking 6th out of 138 breeds. They are able to understand a new command in fewer than five repetitions.
This answer to the above question mainly depends on the dog. Commonly they can jump about 40 inches high, but some are able to exceed that value.
Commonly this factor mainly depends on the individual dog. They can jump about 40 inches high, but some are able to exceed that value.
Sudharaka Gambheera (Veterinary undergraduate)
No wonder because these super jumpers can fly because they breed a herding dog, so high physical activity is in their blood.
Recommended reading: Can shelties be left alone?
How to train your sheltie not to jump on people?
Dogs have this lovable and adorable greeting method, greeting each other nose to nose. But as we are not horizontal, our noses are not at their level. So they have to jump up to greet you or anyone in your family.
When they do it at early puppy age, we don’t resist it because it is too cute to be stopped. I mean, How can you stop a puppy jumping at you? But all we forget is this encouragement causes a disaster as they grow up.
Well, some are very playful and peaceful with dogs while some are not quite like them even to be around, so a single jump can piss them off. So here is how to train shelties not to jump on others.
And also, this jumping can result in ending up with scratches and sometimes even bruises. This could worsen with a child as they can knock down and injure their dangerous parts of the body.
This behavior can be stopped using the management of the situation and proper training.
Management means you restrain the dog, so they have no chance to jump. You can use these techniques until your dog is trained.
It is like until your dog is successfully trained when some have come into your house or your child return after school, you can
- Put your dog in a crate
- Put them into another room
- Use a leash to restrain
This can be useful to prevent jumping till they are fully trained.
In training, you can make up your dog’s mind that they receive no attention for jumping on you.
Instead, you should teach your sheltie buddy something else like sitting so they can’t jump at the same time. So the attention is only received when they do sitting.
It is better if all the family members can follow the training program. It is not a process that will selectively proceed.
Here is the training program.
- Make sure that you must assist someone that dog is familiar with and like, and most importantly, the dog wanna greet. It is useless that force them to someone they don’t wanna greet.
- Give your dog the sit command(ps- for this, the dog would have trained for the command sit before)
- If your dog didn’t sit, instruct your assist to turn and walk away.
- And command your dog to sit again and ask your assist to come again.
- You should repeat this step until the dog keeps on sitting until the greeter approached.
- So if your sheltie is still seated, your assist can treat them something as a reward.
When you take your canine for a walk, you can keep doing this process whenever you meet someone while doing the walking.
- Tell that person to stop approaching
- Hand him/her a treat
- Command your dog to sit
- Tell that person to give your dog the treat as long as he keeps sitting.
The major thing you have to understand is you need to keep the consistency of this training process. So if someone says they are okay with jumping, you need to make them understand your dog is in the middle of training and ask for their help too.
Recommended reading: Are Shelties good apartment dogs?
How to Keep your sheltie from Jumping Over the Fence?
Shelties are a more active breed than others, so they are always excited about their surroundings. This quality makes them more curious about things around them and sometimes the dangerous ‘beyond the wall.’
Streets are hazardous for pets, especially those who have never been out. They can be brought into the shelter, and the worst-case scenario is to get run over.
So you have to get a good understanding of your dog. You need to understand their desires and intentions. So you have to make amendments for these causes that drive them to leave their habitat.
1. Bored to death!
Dogs are getting bored when they are left out. If you and all your family members have a too busy schedule to spend time with your dog, they would feel loneliness and anxiety to some extent, and this would result in the problem.
You can change the play material architecture of the garden regularly so they wouldn’t be bored because it’s not the same environment they see every day.
And ensure that they have enough resources to engage in the yard while you are not in touch with them. You can also try a pet sitter and doggie daycare to break out their Bordon while you are busy with your personal stuff.
You have to make sure to get along with them the morning before you go to work and return if you are a person with a regular time schedule.
You can take your dog to the dog park and go hiking, it also gives them good exercise. You have to make your sheltie’s mindset believe he’s a part of your family.
2. Finding a mate
These creatures are a very active, playful breed and like all other dogs. Shelties are also like to play with other dogs and also look up to finding a mate.
To overcome this issue, you can get another dog, set your dog along with other dogs at the park or on walks, and socialize your dog with your friend’s dogs.
You can use keep your sheltie neutralized to keep them off from finding a mate. This also helps to prevent some health issues too.
3. Protection
This behavior of your dog’s climbing the fence can also result from a loud and annoying neighborhood. If your neighbors often wander near fences and making noises, your dog thinks they should protect their territory from them.
So they are gonna busy near the fence trying to investigate unusual sounds and chasing people away. You have to take care of it because it is a significant threat to your neighbors that your sheltie sees as a threat.
So you can ask them gently to keep it down a little with noises and stop wandering near the fences often. You can also arrange a new undisturbed place for your dog was distant from the neighborhood.
- Give them a Dog run
Dog runs are coming in a variety of shapes and lengths, so you can choose what fits your sheltie. This is a pretty good option for anxious and aggressive dogs. This also gives them a pretty good exercise to maintain their physical health.
How to make a jump proof fence for your sheltie?
Making the right fence can cost you spare time and expense. But it’s totally worth it when it comes to the safety of your dog and the neighbors.
Your fence may have blocked them from passing in their puppy age, but with the growth now, it could be unable to stop them.
One more thing you have to check is that you have to make sure the ground is not soft so they can’t dig themselves under the fence.
As I mentioned earlier, it would be better if you have a 4ft fence to stop your sheltie from jumping above. But the height is not the only thing you should be aware of as long as they can dig themselves under the fence.
So you can apply a gauge hog wire by digging a 1ft trench along the perimeter of the fence.
You can also set a PVC pipe along the top of the fence that can roll. This can be arranged using a few L brackets, some wire, and a PVC pipe. So when shelties try to jump over the top, the pipe rolls, and they slip away and fall.
And there’s also an option of electronic fences (which I do not usually recommend to apply). When your dog goes nearby the fence, the alarm is triggered, and a small shock will be received.
When should you worry about your Sheltie’ jump?
Puppies are not fully grown until 12 – 15 months old. So it is not okay for them to jump until they pass their growing age. The reason is their growth plates are not closed until their one-year birthday, so jumping on the open-grown plate can damage them.
And also, they don’t have a large muscle content to neutralize the impact of the jump. So you have to make sure to limit their jumping in usual activities.
Recommended reading: Are dogs aware of heights and keep them jumping from heights
What are the possible problems if your sheltie is used to jumping frequently?
The mechanism of your dog’s jumping is like this.
When they are going to take off, all they are doing is transfer their weight to the large muscles and the back legs’ joints. And then the activated back end thrust him up. This is exactly similar to the releasing of a coil.
The stifle joint, hip joint, and tarsal joint will be very busy during this action and also all the supporting muscles.
When your sheltie jumps, it takes more out of your dog’s joints than doing regular things like walking or running. These additional stresses on the body are called “increased load.”
So the problem with this jumping is it increases the chance of having early arthritis in your dog. And rise in frequent jumping the wear and tear on their joints.
So this will disturb them to perform their usual activities like lying down and getting. They would hardly jump long distances, and overall it would reduce the range of motion.
Things to be aware
Introducing the sporting agility
Usually, dogs compete in agility. Your puppy must have celebrated their one-year birthday, but you can bring the sports to them before that age because it will be beneficial for your puppy’s physical health.
You can introduce this sport to your dog, slowly step by step. In this sport, the shelties are taught the efficient jumping methods that cause the least stress on their joints. Grids and conditioning-like exercises are used for this.
In these grid setups, some are lines of jumps set at different angles and distances. This allows your sheltie to learn to negotiate the speed.
Conclusion
Shelties are physically active dogs, so they jump very often, even though you find it disturbing. But you can reduce their jumping on you and others by specific training. There are also special methods to train your dog to jump efficiently so they won’t get many physical health problems.
