One of the most common questions I’m asked as a dog trainer, is “how do you stop a dog jumping up on people?”
If you’ve owned your dog for awhile, it can be difficult teaching him to behave differently, especially if he was never trained as a puppy. But it is possible to stop him from jumping up, if you have the right techniques and plenty of patience.
You see, when your dog was a puppy, it would have been natural behavior for him to jump up and lick his mother’s face. This behavior is then also applied to humans by your dog. So when he jumps up and tries to lick you, he’s actually just very excited and pleased to see you.
But still, this isn’t how we always want our dogs to behave. So I’m going to give you a simple exercise that will train your dog to not jump up at humans.
Here’s the exercise:
Firstly, for this to work, your dog needs to know how to “sit” and how to “stay”. If your dog already listens to these commands obediently, it will be much easier to do this exercise.
By making sure your dog knows these commands well, you will be able to avoid using negative commands when he jumps up at you, such as “off”. This doesn’t work very well. It’s much better to be able to walk in and just command him to sit.
So, when you walk into the room, and your dog is looking like he’s about to jump up on you, command him to “sit”. If he doesn’t sit, then he needs more sit training.
When you dog does sit like you commanded, you should reward your dog with praise. But make sure you don’t stroke his head, or even touch his head/ Why? Because his reaction will be to want to lick your face.
A much better way of rewarding your dog is to crouch down to his level, and stroke him along his sides or even under his chin. This will stop him from looking up at you, and wanting to jump.
Now this exercise may not work perfectly the first time you try it. But with some persistence and patience, I promise you that you can train your dog to stop jumping up whenever he’s excited.
Amy Howells is owner of the Dog Owner Blog, where she gives free information on how to train your dog. You can learn everything from dog crate training, to teaching your dog basic (and advanced) obedience. And it's all free!
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Stop Dog Jumping Up
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