My wife and I own a beagle mix - a shelter dog. Unfortunately we have different philosophies about training - for example, I don't like it to jump when greeting so I would ignore it until it sat, then reinforce; my wife LIKES it to jump when greeting. Is there a chance of training a dog when it has inconsistent "masters"?

By one person encouraging a certain behavior and one person discouraging the same behavior, your dog is going to be confused. The biggest key to dog training is consistency.

[DoggieVogue]

I'm not sure. I think your dog will definitely have a hard time trying to figure out what you want of him. My dog like to jump on people when greeting them. My boyfriend and I don't mind, but I know other people he meets do not want him jumping on them. At first we tried to train him to not jump on others, but still let him jump on us and it did not work. It actually made things harder because Luca is a quick learner and he just can't seem to get this down, since we let him jump on us for so long. I would suggest that you and your wife come to an agreement and stick with it or you will have one confused pup.

[DoggieVogue]

Originally Posted by PillarNumber7

The biggest key to dog training is consistency.

I agree. Consistency is really the only way to get results.

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by DoggieVogue

I agree. Consistency is really the only way to get results.

DITTO! I agree with everybody else--consistency is the key!

[natalie265]

you could compromise by training the dog to jump up on command only. However, your wife needs to understand that it isn't appropriate for a dog to initiate this kind of greeting. Most people don't like to be jumped on and it can actually be frightening for some people esp children.