Having a dog that regularly jumps up is a very common problem that can cause lots of distress to owners, if not the actual dog. What can seem amusing in one situation, the dog greeting you when you return home, can be embarrassing and potential dangerous in others, for instance when your dog jumps up at a stranger, or worse a small child.
This behaviour is often something that we as loving owners have encouraged when our dog was a puppy. It’s hard to resist giving a cute puppy lots of attention when it tries to jump up at our knees. The puppy will learn to associate jumping up at humans as something that brings the reward of attention and praise.
When that puppy grows up and can now jump up at our chests, or above a child’s head, then this behaviour soon becomes less welcome. Even when we own a small dog, jumping can still be a nuisance, causing scratching of legs, muddy paws on our clothes, and can be upsetting for children.
How To Stop A Dog From Jumping Up
Unfortunately you can’t sit your dog down and explain that he’s grown older and that he’ll have to give up the joy of jumping up at you that he’s enjoyed since being a puppy. You therefore have to take control of the situation and show your dog that jumping is no longer acceptable.
Like most areas of dog training its best to first understand why your dog jumps up at you or other people. Often this is just their way of showing their excitement and that they’re happy to see you. This can also be rewarding for you if you’ve had a bad day and get home to an enthusiastic response from your dog – it’s nice to know that someone’s pleased to see you! This kind of jumping, along with jumping during play is less serious as it just shows your dog’s excited state of mind.
Dominant Dog Jumping
A perhaps more worrying reason for a dog jumping is that they are trying to show you that they are dominant. This behaviour is an example of how dogs act in the wild. Within a pack situation a dog with a higher social ranking will sometimes exhibit its dominance over another dog by jumping up at it or by resting one or both paws on the other dog’s shoulders.
This kind of jumping tends to happen in a wider variety of situations. This is perhaps more difficult to deal with as it involves re-ordering the hierarchy of your own pack. This basically means training your dog to understand that you and your family are in control. A lower ranked dog would not naturally try to exert his dominance over higher ranked dogs in a pack situation. Secrets to Dog Training has some excellent information and advice for coping with a dominant dog.
For more advice on how to stop a dog from jumping up check out part 2 of this article – prevent dog jumping.