Frustrated Because Your Dog Jump Up on You and Everybody Else -

Jerry Malcom, Contributor for Happy Dog Connections

One of the most delightful images of puppies is when you see several fluffy and excited pups jumping all over a young child, covering her with licks to her delighted giggles. As wonderful as that image is, it is also terrible training for the dog in your home. For us, the fun is seeing the fun and hearing those giggles as your youngster enjoys the affection of a puppy that will grow up with her.

But allowing puppies to jump up on children, as fun as it is, sends a message to the dog as well. It tells your new dog that jumping up on a human is desirable and acceptable. Small wonder when you encounter problems later as the dog grow and you start to change that message that it is no longer ok to jump up.

Why Dogs Jump Up

The primary reason a dog loves jumping up is to show love and excitement. Which is really cute with a puppy, but not so cute when your dog is 60 or 100 pounds. So let’s focus on How you want your dog to greet you.

Instead of jumping up, if the pooch will come to you, sit politely and wag his tail, that will become in the mind of the dog the same as jumping up as long as they get the same reward. What they are looking for is in this case is your attention.

Teaching The Behavior You Want

How would you like your dog to greet you

As we mentioned, your dog is very smart and he will quickly learn that jumping up is will not bring him what he wants. There are ways to send a negative signal without hurting the dog or even yelling at your pooch. Focusing on the behavior you want, patience and repetition are the keys to successfully train your dog.

A simple program to teach your dog not to jump up ….

Use the dog’s language ” I am not interested” and turn your body away from the dog. Do not pay attention until the four paws are on the ground. Then praise and give him rewards, cookies and petting.
If your dog start to jump up again, turn your body away again and repeat. Within a few tries he will make the connection between jumping up and no attention.

Patience and consistency are keys to good training. You should not allow jumping up one day and then discourage it the next. If more than one person is taking care of the dog, all have to enforce no jumping rule the same way. Otherwise your dog will get confused and you will loose the benefit of your training. It should always be discouraged so your dog learns that it isn’t ok to jump up on you or on anyone else.