Jumping

Dogs jump to get attention, to seek status, because they are excited, or just because they enjoy it. We often reinforce this behavior by tolerating it when our dogs are puppies and letting them get away with it until they grow bigger and it becomes annoying. The longer the behavior goes on, the harder it is to extinguish.

Most dogs jump to get attention and because they are excited. I approach this two different ways based on whether your dog is jumping on you or a family member, or jumping on strangers.

Jumping on you or a family member. This usually happens when you first return home.. The best way to address this (and the hardest thing for us to do) is to just ignore it. We are just as excited to see our canine friends as they are to see us, so we often get our dogs overly excited. When you arrive home, try to keep your hellos calm and low key. For the most boisterous dogs, completely ignore them for 5 or 10 minutes. When they are calm enough to greet you calmly, then it is time to say hi. We are making the greetings uneventful and no big deal. Keep in mind, negative attention IS attention. By pushing our dogs down, kneeing them, and yelling at them, they are getting attention. This is why ignoring is more effective. Also, eye contact is attention. So pretend your dog is invisible, pretend there is no dog in the house until he is calm. If you do this consistently your dog will be calm right when you get home, and you will not have to wait out those 5-10 minutes anymore.

Another thing you can do is to take his space. Depending on his size, move into him with your hip or leg (the bigger dog the hip, the smaller dogs the leg). When he backs away, tell him to sit. As you are doing this, do not knee him as this can cause injury. This is effective for some dogs but not all.

Another method that works well is to simply turn around 180 degrees. One reason this is effective is it avoids you making eye contact. This can be an effective technique for children to use when teaching their dogs not to jump. I often tell children to face a wall until their dog stops jumping. The child can't look or interact with the dog and look at the wall at the same time. I'll even have the child count or sing a song until the dog stops jumping.

In extreme cases, I will suggest a squirt bottle with water and squirt your dog when he jumps. To stay 100% consistent (which all training needs to be!), you will need to carry a squirt bottle on you, which isn't very convenient. Luckily, this technique is not often required. I usually suggest this only when the jumping is a safety issue and a dog is knocking down a small child or an elderly person. I also suggest it at times when I see the jumping is due to a status seeking behavior. It is often status seeking when the dog is jumping and grabbing your leg or really pushes into you with his body with force.

Jumping on guests. The above suggestions often don't work well with guests because our guests are not always enthusiastic dog trainers. When guests arrive, I suggest you put your dog on a leash to prevent them from greeting your guests until they calm down. That is usually takes 5 or 10 minutes. When the dogs are calm, let them off leash to greet your guests. If they jump, put them back on leash. If you don't want to have them on leash, give them a stuffed Kong or a chew toy for the first few minutes when guests arrive.

Don't do any methods that might frighten or injure your dog. That would include kneeing the chest, stepping on their feet, or kicking them. Focus on teaching him what is right and preventing him from practicing the behavior of jumping. Practice really does make perfect.

Meredith Gage

Pawsitive Experience

541-318-8459

Trainingdogs123@bendbroadband.com

http://www.pawsitiveexperience.com