Teach Your Dog To Stop Jumping Up 

When working out a way to teach your dog to stop jumping up, it may be useful to consider why they do it in the first place.

There are few things cuter than watching a litter of puppies jumping excitedly and playfully with each other. This behaviour is not just for fun, however. It also helps the puppy to develop both physically and socially.

Some experts believe that a puppies desire to jump may come from its feeding instincts. Female wild dogs such as wolves will feed their litters by regurgitating food for them. By jumping up at its mothers’ mouth, a puppy can let her know that he is hungry.

Whatever instinctive reasons a dog has for this behaviour, they will quickly learn as they grow up that jumping up is a very successful tactic in getting our attention.

And dogs love attention.

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Jumping up at a family member or visitor as they come though the front door is almost guaranteed to get attention for the dog - whether we shower them with affection, or tell them off - any attention is welcome to a dog.

Jumping up can be dangerous, however- particularly to children or elderly people, who could easily be knocked to the ground by an excited dog launching themselves at them.

Dogs will also jump up at people in an attempt to assert their dominance.

Clearly then, in a domestic situation, you should try and teach your dog to stop jumping up at people.

But how do you teach your dog to stop jumping up?

Whether your dog is a puppy or an adult, the key is to remove any attention given to him when he jumps.  You then need to replace his unacceptable behaviour with an acceptable one, and then reward him when he responds with the new behaviour.  

Here’s an example of how to teach your dog to stop jumping up when you come in through the front door:

1.       Completely ignore the dog when you enter the house. Instead, go and carry out some other tasks which do not include the dog, e.g. take off your coat, make yourself a drink, check the post etc.

2.       When your dog attempts to jump up at you, simply turn your back on him so that he falls away. Give him no eye contact, and do not talk to him. Your dog may continue to jump up at you several times, as it has been a successful way of getting your attention until now. It is essential that you remain consistent at this point, and ignore these attempts.

3.       When you feel that he has calmed down (but not before), you may now turn to face him, and calmly but firmly give him the ‘sit’ or ‘lie down’ command.

4.       If he jumps at you, turn your back again and continue to ignore him until he has stopped.

5.       Once he successfully sits or lies down as you have asked, you can kneel down and calmly greet him, and reward him for his new correct behaviour.

6.       While you teach your dog to stop jumping up, be consistent with this routine. Only ever greet him when he is in a calm, obedient and attentive state, and has followed your command to ‘sit’ or ‘lie down’.

By repetition, your dog will work out that the only way to get your attention is by remaining calm and patient. He will also learn that jumping up will result in him being ignored, and so he will stop using this technique.

To read more tips on how to teach your dog to stop jumping up, see Stop your dog jumping at visitors (page 2). 

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