Dog Jumping Behavior - How To Stop Your Dog From Jumping

A jumping dog can make company over to your house a frustrating event. You may also find that your jumping dog can turn into a big nuisance if you walk into the house with your arms full or carrying a heavy object. Making sure your dog won't cause harm to you or any guests you may have should be your first priority.

The first step is to understand why a dog feels the need to jump at all. The next time you visit a dog park, take some time to observe how dogs interact when they meet for the first time. The first thing they tend to do is to try sniff out the other dog's face. This is simply their way of greeting and sniffing out the other dog - in short, learning just who that dog is. In most situations, a person's face will be much higher up than a dog's, and so the dog, not having been trained or taught otherwise, will jump up to try to reach your face to greet you in the same manner.

Unless you can be certain that your dog will never encounter the elderly, very young, disabled, or those people afraid of dogs, this is a behavior that should not be tolerated.

Over the centuries, dogs have generally been bred to be very submissive towards humans. They will tend to avoid doing things that irritate us and perform tasks or commands that please us. Your dog will most probably be very happy to see you after a long day at home alone. He will jump up and try to greet you in the best possible way he knows. One of the popular approaches that works for many dog owner is to simply ignore your dog when he is jumping until he keeps his four paws on the floor. Give him attention and praise immediately if he can remain on the floor. It will not be too long before he understands the association between jumping and not get attention.

You may need to work through some training exercises with your dog. It will be much more effective to go through the routine several times in a row than simply to repeat it every time you enter the house. When your dog begins to jump up on you, ignore him, fold your arms, look away and stand straight. When he settles down on the floor, praise and reward immediately. If he tries to jump up again, repeat this.

Once your dog understands what you want, you can add some other commands. See if he will sit when you enter the door. Try this by opening the door just a little, giving him the command to sit, and then entering and praising as soon as he does so. Once he has the hang of this, try him out on a couple of friends and neighbors. Ask your friend to help out with the training routines and access how he react to different people. If he jumps again, the training will have to go on just a little longer.