Don’t jump for my love

How to stop your dogs from jumping on visitors

Dogs jumping up on people can be a frustrating and somewhat embarrassing habit, but with patience and positive reinforcement, it’s possible to teach your dog not to jump and to remain calm when meeting new people.

THE PROBLEM

Dogs jumping up on guests is a very common behaviour. They jump up to get attention and to try and greet you face to face, just as they greet each other. Ultimately, the behaviour is then a natural one, so even dogs with basic obedience training can struggle to ignore the impulse to jump on you.

To exacerbate the issue, when dogs jump up, they often get the attention they seek when you push them down or talk to them; whilst we are trying to stop the behaviour, they feel we are playing or giving them positive attention. This rewards the jumping with the attention they seek and perpetuates the problem.

TACKLING THE ISSUE

The best way to stop a dog from jumping on guests is to teach an alternative behaviour that allows you to help your dog to understand what you want him to be doing instead of jumping. This other behaviour must be incompatible with jumping, i.e. he can’t perform the behaviour and jump simultaneously. We don’t want to correct dogs for jumping, but instead, proactively teach them to perform this alternative behaviour.

To do this training, you will need to have your dog on a lead and have lots of highvalue treats cut into small pieces.

Once you have your dog on his lead and plenty of treats, use these steps to teach an alternative behaviour to stop your dog from jumping:

STEP 1: Have a friend approach you and your dog, but before they reach you, scatter a small handful of treats on the ground and encourage your dog to eat them while you briefly greet the person.

STEP 2: While your dog is still eating the scattered treats, have your friend turn around and walk away without engaging your dog. Praise your dog, and when your dog has finished eating the scattered treats, get his attention with a treat in your hand and turn and walk the other way.

STEP 3: When your dog is comfortable eating scattered treats as someone approaches and retreats, you can build up the duration of the greeting. To do this, repeat the above steps and then continue to throw a treat for your dog to find while you talk to the person. Then, get your dog’s attention with a treat in your hand and turn and walk away.

STEP 4: When your dog can comfortably eat treats on the ground while you greet a person, try approaching the person and tossing treats for your dog as you go. Then, give your dog the command ‘Say hi’ and allow your dog to quickly greet the person with all four feet on the floor. Keep the greeting short and positive and before your dog gets too excited, throw more treats for them to find.

STEP 5: As your dog begins to understand the game, he will make the connection that what gets rewarded is keeping all four paws on the floor and not jumping up. As your dog gets better at the game, reduce the number of treats you need to throw and scatter. Eventually, you should just drop a couple of treats as you greet your guests.

TROUBLESHOOTING

The key to success with this training is tossing treats before your dog can jump at the person. If at any point he does succeed in jumping on someone, don’t correct him. Instead, have the person turn and walk away. Then re-engage your dog by tossing treats and have the person approach again as you continue to throw treats to reward your dog for keeping four paws on the ground.

FINAL THOUGHT

Although jumping is natural for dogs, it is essential to teach them not to jump on you or your guests. A dog jumping up can frighten people or even cause someone to fall or get injured. Jumping up is often rewarding for dogs, as mentioned above, due to the additional attention they receive, so teaching your dog not to jump on people is easiest to do by giving your dog an incompatible behaviour to perform. By throwing treats as described in Steps 1 – 5, you’re rewarding your dog for keeping his feet firmly on the floor. Over time your dog will offer this grounded stance automatically when he meets people.