Today we’re going to tackle jumping up. A regular challenge that frustrates owners but can also get your dog into trouble with strangers at the park. Often this starts as a puppy, when jumping up is a puppy’s meet and greet natural behaviour to say hello. People very often suddenly change their mind when they have a soaking wet spaniel springing up their best summer dress!
Most of the time dogs are jumping up for attention or to grab something out of our hands. The trick here is making sure we completely stop rewarding the dog for jumping up, remembering that reward comes in all sorts of forms including food, toys, affection, eye contact and even talking to your dog. The message to communicate to your dog is that you only greet dogs who keep their four paws on the floor.
Most of the time dogs are jumping up for attention or to grab something out of our hands. The trick here is making sure we completely stop rewarding the dog for jumping up, remembering that reward comes in all sorts of forms including food, toys, affection, eye contact and even talking to your dog. The message to communicate to your dog is that you only greet dogs who keep their four paws on the floor.
So that means, no cuddling when they jump, if you’ve got their toy you wait until they have four paws on the floor and importantly it also means stopping telling your dog “NO” or pushing them off for jumping up too. Most to the time this makes the problem much worse, as your actually rewarding the dog with that attention they were searching for in the first place.
Simply ignore the jumping up, turn your back and walk away, this is a process known as extinction. Note that dogs learn through consistent consequence so to be effective the whole family needs to follow the rules, all the time.
We then combine this with a series of training exercises that reward your dog for keeping four paws on the floor and then by teaching them a concept called ‘sit to say please’. Sometimes to begin the learning process we throw treats on the floor behind the dog to encourage them to make the right behaviour choice on their own.
For dogs that are struggling with jumping up at people they meet or are overly friendly greeters, we take a few sessions to teach the dog a new greeting routine and practice that impulse control with different people approaching. Remember we want them to make the connection that four feet on the floor magically results in attention and affection from people!!
If you need help with jumping up please drop us a line. A few simple sessions can help us take the spring out of your Shepherd or that bounce out of your Boxer.
Simply ignore the jumping up, turn your back and walk away, this is a process known as extinction. Note that dogs learn through consistent consequence so to be effective the whole family needs to follow the rules, all the time.
We then combine this with a series of training exercises that reward your dog for keeping four paws on the floor and then by teaching them a concept called ‘sit to say please’. Sometimes to begin the learning process we throw treats on the floor behind the dog to encourage them to make the right behaviour choice on their own.
For dogs that are struggling with jumping up at people they meet or are overly friendly greeters, we take a few sessions to teach the dog a new greeting routine and practice that impulse control with different people approaching. Remember we want them to make the connection that four feet on the floor magically results in attention and affection from people!!
If you need help with jumping up please drop us a line. A few simple sessions can help us take the spring out of your Shepherd or that bounce out of your Boxer.
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