Does your dog get excited and jump on you and others? Dogs jumping on guests is a very common – and annoying – behavior. Dogs jump at you to get attention and try to greet you directly. When dogs jump, they attract their attention, making it very easy to accidentally reward the jump by pushing the dog down or talking to the dog. With consistent training, you can teach your dog to stop jumping on you or your guests.
Why do dogs jump at you?
While we may find it rude for dogs to jump on us or our guests, this is actually a very common and natural behavior for our dogs. Even dogs with basic obedience training can struggle to control the urge to jump on you. Dogs greet each other directly, and this can contribute to dogs trying to greet us in the same way, which often involves jumping up. While your dog may just be trying to say hello, a jumping dog can mess up your work clothes or, especially with large breed dogs, could accidentally lose someone. balance and fall.
When dogs jump on you or your guests, they are looking for attention and engagement. And the interaction they receive, although we can see it as negative by asking them to get off the car or push them away, they can feel like playing or being given positive attention. for dogs. Therefore, while you may feel frustrated when your dog is jumping, he doesn’t understand you want the behavior to stop. In fact, you may have inadvertently rewarded the jump. Dog training can help you curb your dog’s natural inquisitive and social tendencies that lead to jumping behavior and give your dog something to do instead of jumping.
How to stop a dog from jumping
When teaching your dog not to jump on people, ask a friend or family member to help you set up training opportunities so the dog can practice calm interaction. The goal is to help our dogs achieve success by removing the temptation to jump. Practice greeting your dog on a leash and have many high-value gifts cut into small pieces.
Teach your dog an alternate behavior for jumping
The best way to stop your dog from jumping is to teach an alternative behavior that allows you to help your dog understand what you want them to do instead of jumping. We don’t want to fix the dog to jump. Instead, we want to proactively teach dogs to perform an alternative behavior of jumping on your guests.
Use these steps to teach your dog to stop jumping with an alternative behavior:
Step 1: Ask a friend or family member to come close to you and your dog, but before they approach you, scatter some treats on the ground and encourage your dog to eat them while you greet the person. that in a nutshell.
Step 2: While your dog is still eating the treats, tell your friend to turn away without interacting with your dog. Praise your dog and when your dog has finished eating the leftovers, get their attention with the treat in your hand, turn around, and go the other way.
Step 3: Once your dog is comfortable eating treats as someone approaches and leaves, you can increase the amount of time someone greets someone. To do this, repeat the steps above and then continue tossing the treat your dog finds while you talk to the person. Then, get the dog’s attention with the treat in your hand and calmly turn away.
Step 4: Once your dog can comfortably eat food thrown on the ground while you greet a person, try getting close to the person, tossing your dog’s food as you did before to get him into the state. calm in mind. Then, if you have a dog that enjoys meeting people, say to your dog, “Say hello and allow your dog to quickly greet that person. Keep the greeting short and positive, before the dog gets too excited, toss the treat again for the dog to find.
Step 5: As your dog begins to understand the game, he will look at you when you approach a person instead of jumping up. Your dog will make the connection that what is rewarded is keeping all fours on the floor and not jumping up. As your dog gets better at playing, reduce the amount of treats that you need to throw and scatter. Finally, start dropping the dish as you greet your guests.
Time to train your dog to dance
The key to success in teaching your dog not to jump is to make sure you throw the treats before the dog can jump. If at any time your dog jumps on someone, don’t fix your dog to jump. Instead, just let the person ignore your dog, turn away, and walk away. Then re-engage your dog by tossing the treats and have the person re-approval as you continue toss the treats to reward your dog for being on the ground.
While jumping is natural for dogs, it’s important to teach dogs not to jump on you or your guests. A jumping dog can scare people, or even cause someone to fall and get hurt. Jumping is a self-rewarding behavior for dogs, so teaching your dog not to jump on people is the easiest way to do it by having the dog engage in an inappropriate behavior. By tossing treats for your dog to find when you talk to someone, you’re rewarding your dog for keeping his paws on the floor. Over time, your dog will learn to offer to keep his feet on the ground when you greet people.
