Learn our Certified Dog Trainer's top tips on How To Stop Your Puppy from Jumping on Guests, furniture, your kids, the neighbor's kids, or the counters. If your puppy jumps on it, then follow this training plan.
Tip #1 - STOP Correcting Your Dog For Jumping
Dogs are amoral. That means they can not process right from wrong. Only you, the human thinks that a dog jumping on a human is "wrong" or "bad". And that is because you were taught by someone speaking/communicating to you that it is wrong to do something and then they also told you why. We can't communicate that to dogs. We have to teach them not to jump in a different way and that is what I am going to teach you in this blog.
Tip #2 - Do This Instead of Correcting
The 1st thing you need to do to teach your dog to stop jumping is to teach them a different behavior to do when they approach/greet you.
Right now, jumping is something the dogs love to do.
They get you to speak, they get you to touch and they get you to interact with them all from jumping. So, you have to start teaching your dog a more acceptable behavior to do like sitting calmly while they greet you.
"Dogs Only Know What You Teach Them" – Jeffrey Causby, ABCDT, CTDI
Tip #3 - Ignore Behaviors You Don't Like
In order to truly get rid of a bad behavior like jumping you must ignore the jumping and reward a different behavior so that your dog learns to do the other behavior instead of jumping. So, when you walk in the house, ignore your dog if they jump but say yes if they sit and give them attention. If you ignore them for jumping and then you don't reward them for sitting then you will never get rid of the jumping behavior.
Tip #4 - Manage Your Environment & Set Your Dog UP For Success
This means you can't just let the neighbors come in and love on your dog as he jumps on them just because they say "oh it's fine, im a dog person". NO! That is unacceptable. Your neighbors, friends, guests that don't do the same thing you do will set you back and keep you from teaching your dog to stop jumping.
Manage the guests that come over. If you know they are going to act that way around your dog and they won't do the things you are learning to stop the jumping then make sure to put your dog up so that they can't do that and so that your dog doesn't have the chance to jump more. Do this until your dog is able to be around people without jumping.
Tip #5 - The Family Matters Too!
If you have family that lives with you make sure they are all doing the same things as well. have them practice ignoring the jumping and looking for opportunities where your dog is sitting and not jumping when they want attention from you or want to greet you.
Keep it Positive
Remember to keep a positive attitude when teaching your dog and keep in mind that your dog doesn't know right from wrong. They don't know English. You have to stop jumping by ignoring it and looking for the times that your dog walks up and doesn't jump or walks up and sits so that you can teach them that behavior is what you want. Hey guys, if you want to hire us for dog training services, we offer private lessons, group lessons and board and train just simply text us at 301-231-1907 and a trainer will respond in a few minutes to a few hours.