Training Your Dog To Not Jump Up

By : Ruby Lode      Submitted 2010-10-22 12:23:33

Probably the most annoying behaviors that dogs have is jumping up. It's not only annoying, but it can be dangerous too, especially if your pet jumps on an elderly person or a child and knocks them down. To avoid any injury, hard feelings or perhaps a law suit it’s a good idea to train your pet not to jump up. Whenever a dog jumps on people it is almost always meant as a friendly greeting. He wants to get closer to your face and say “Hi”. Unfortunately we often encourage this behavior. After all, who isn’t pleased to see their pet following a long day at work and when he jumps on you within an overjoyed greeting, you usually respond by petting and rewarding him! The very first thing you must do is stop encouraging him! You have to be a little tough on this one as your first inclination would be to greet your dog in kind, but you will have to do what is the best for both you and your dog and hold off the greeting until after your dog’s 4 feet are firmly planted on the floor. As with all training, you need to get the dog to do the required behavior first before he can associate the command with what you want him to complete. In this case the behavior is to NOT jump up, but to get him to associate not jumping; he has to jump up first. One way to get your pet to “not jump” is to bring your knee as much as his chest when he begins to jump on you. I don’t mean to kick him – do this gently so that he is a little off balance causing him to go back right down to all fours. So the key is to make the jumping behavior and then while the dog is jumping up, you need to stop the behavior while issuing the “Off” command. When the dog responds when you go to all fours, you praise and reward him. Now, your first thought may be to make use of the term “Down” with this but if you have already tried on the extender as the command for “lay down” then you will need to pick another word. In this article, I suggest using the word “Off” but you are able to choose any word you want so long as it is short and doesn't sound like any of the other commands your pet already knows. The knee technique may not focus on all dogs, especially smaller ones so in this case you might like to make use of a leash and collar. When the dog starts to jump, tug sideways on the collar and issue the “Off” command. This distracts your dog from jumping and that he will likely remain standing at which you can reward him. Like with any command, repetition is key. The idea would be to observe your pet closely and see when he is about to jump up on someone then issue the command. It may be really helpful to have another person help you with this. Eventually you need to reach a place where your pet doesn’t even have a chance to jump – you can tell when he's considering it and issue the command that will keep him, and the person he would jump on, standing firmly on the floor.

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