Jumping is often an attention getting behavior or dogs learn this is what they must do to get attention from us. When your dog jumps on people, attention happens. Other times dogs may learn they can create a game of irritating you by jumping. Sometimes we teach dogs in order to get a treat or other reinforcer, they have to jump then sit. Jumping is one of the top canine complaints I get from clients.
The best way to stop jumping is to teach a better way to get attention or to greet – the dog gets attention for the better behavior. Even better is to teach an acceptable attention getting behavior from the start – SIT! SIT GETS ME WHAT I WANT! PLEASE NOTE – if I have a lower confidence dog, one who is older, one who may have aches and pains, obese, etc., I will have them stand with all feet on the floor – it is saner for them). So how to I do this?
Instead of waiting for you dog to jump, get proactive. When your dogs comes to you, ask for a sit (or at least reinforce when all four feet are on the floor) before a jump happens. What we are doing is showing your dog that putting feet on humans gets no attention. Feet off humans and butt on the floor (or at very least all four feet on the floor) will get him attention, food, play, etc. If your dog keeps jumping on you and harassing you as you try to walk away, step over a baby gate, go through a door and close it behind you, remove yourself from the dog’s presence. Give three to five seconds, return, and try again..
Now, let’s look at a behavior chain: dog comes up, jumps on a human, then immediately sits. The dog is often doing what in his mind he has been taught to do to get a treat or pat. This can happen if we treat fast after a jump and a sit. This is something common I see with client dogs especially when humans were told after the dog jumps, tell him to sit, then praise/treat. If your dog does not sit or keep four feet on the floor, he gets NOTHING. You are not ignoring the behavior, you are not giving him something for an undesired behavior.
Imagine a bubble around you. As your dog crosses into your bubble, you will tell him to sit before he gets to you – before he gets that jump started. This is important to get in the habit since we did not call your dog; pup was approaching to see you. Your dog still needs to give us the same behaviors whether he was coming to us on his own or because we called. If you have trouble imagining that bubble in the beginning, stand inside the center of a hula hoop and use that as your perimeter.
This is the goal: a dog who comes to us and sits (or at least stands with four feet on the floor) waiting for the next direction or attention.
For greeting other people, I put greeting and not greeting on cue. This helps alleviate confusion. If my dog shows me it is OK to greet someone through their body language and the person wants to greet my dog, I set parameters:
1 – walk nicely up to the person
2 – keep four feet on the floor
3 – greeting is kept short and calm to reduce the risk of the dog getting too excited and beginning to mouth or jump 4 – if at any point I start walking towards the person, my dog starts to pull, lunge, bark, etc., I walk my dog away and the person is asked to turn around. IF my dog does not follow, have the helper walk away only. I do not want to drag my dog.
BE PROACTIVE! It is OK to tell people the rules of greeting your dog and what to do if your dog starts to give undesired behaviors. I do not care if a dog is a tiny Chihuahua or a giant Great Dane, dogs need to be taught good and safer greeting. If your dog’s body language indicates they do not want to greet then
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