Jumping up at visitors

by Niki Elliott & Kay Aitcheson 
www,puppiesingbalance.co.za

  Niki and Kay are one of our Recommended Puppy Schools.  They run Puppies in Balance Puppy School in Bryanston/Sandton. CLICK HERE to find out more about them.

If you put your knee up to stop a dog jumping on you, all you are doing is teaching your dog to start jumping up at your back! rather teach the dog a totally alternate behaviour such as sitting to be greeted.

 

Dogs love to jump up; it is a natural greeting Behaviour. In the canine world they greet each other face to face and nose to nose. Jumping up usually becomes a problem in adolescent and adult dogs, as most owners don’t really mind their puppies jumping up to greet them. It is cute and rewarding for the owners as well as rewarding for the puppies. We reinforce their belief that jumping up is a good thing to do and it gets them loads of attention. The problems come when the dog is now rather big and/or has muddy feet. The dog has already a learnt repertoire from puppy hood and doesn’t understand why he can no longer jump up.

In order to succeed with teaching your dog not to jump up on visitors, he must not be allowed to jump up on anybody. This means that the whole household must be in agreement and nobody must reward him for jumping up and nobody must reward him for jumping up. You must manage the environment so that visitors do not inadvertently reinforce this Behaviour. 

Teach a sit, so that whenever someone comes in your dogs is rewarded for sitting. Start off with him on lead and have a visitor come in and stop just out of leash range, holding a treat against their chest.  As soon as your dog realizes that he can’t jump on them and sits, you click and the visitor gives him the treat. As soon as he is sitting, relax the tension on the lead. Have the visitor repeat this a number of times until your dogs starts to sit as soon as he sees the visitor approaching. If he jumps up say “Oops” and then when he sits again click and reward. Repeat this exercise with as many people as possible in as many different situations as possible.

If there is nobody to help you, attach his leash to a sold object. Have your dog sit and turn your back on him or walk away. If he gets up as you approach, turn and walk away. If he sits again turn, click and walk towards him, as soon as he gets up walk away again. The reward is you coming closer so if he gets up the reward goes away. Negative punishment – his incorrect Behaviour makes the good thing go away. This exercise should be practiced in all situations where your dog is known to jump up. When you come home from work do the same thing. If he jumps up on you turn your back on him and walk away. If he sits, click and reward him. Keep some treats in your car and put them in your pocket before you get out of the car. That way you will be able to reward him as soon as he sits. If he is consistently rewarded for sitting and never rewarded for jumping he will eventually realize that sitting is the better option.