Boy, it sure can be embarrassing when you have guests come over and your dog jumps on them, not to mention they
You don’t want your dog jumping on people
could injury a child or an elderly person or scratch whoever they jump on. I know how bad it is, I have had a jumper. So, how to stop a dog from jumping on people is what we have to solve.
If you have a dog that jumps on guests or you when you get home, now is the time to make it stop. I am going to discuss why dogs jump on people and how to train them to stop.
Table of Contents
Why Do Dogs Jump On People
There are a couple of reasons why your dog might be jumping on people when he sees them. It starts when they are puppies. We reinforce that behavior every time we let our puppy jump up on our leg or when we are sitting on the floor with them. We many times allow it then, because they are so cute and they either just want to give us a kiss or to have us pick them up.
Since they are getting what they want as puppies from this behavior, they just continue doing it as they grow up. This can be a real problem as they become adults and get much larger.
Also, getting nose to nose is how dogs meet and greet other dogs. They believe they are a part of your pack, and getting to a person’s face to them is normal behavior. That is their style of greeting whoever they meet along the way. It shows social politeness and deference to other animals that they meet.
Dogs meet each other by going nose to nose
Manage The Situation To Prevent Dogs From Jumping
You need to manage and control the situation so your dog doesn’t have the opportunity to jump on you or others. Before a guest arrives, put your dog in a crate, another room, behind a gate or put them on a leash. This will help prevent your dog from jumping on guests when they walk into your home and give your dog some time to settle down before they are actually allowed to greet your guest.
It is also a good method used to help prevent jumping while they are in the learning stage. The more they jump on people, the more the behavior is reinforced to continue with the jumping behavior.
A gate can help calm a dog down when a guest comes to your home.
Training Your Dog Not To Jump On People
You are going to need the help of someone else to help you with this training and you should continue repeating the training until your dog understands how it works.
- Put your dog on a leash and have them sit next to you as a guest arrives.
- Have your guest walk in. If your dog stands up, the guest should immediately turn and walk away.
- Have your guest walk in again, and keep repeating with leaving if the dog stands up. You are trying to make your dog understand that if they aren’t sitting, the guest will leave and they won’t get any attention.
- When you get to the point that your dog remains sitting, your guest can reward them with a treat and some petting for staying put.
If your dog jumps on you when you come home, you can follow similar training. Turn and walk back out of your home, no petting or greeting of the dog until they remain calm and until you are sure that they won’t jump up on you.
Once your dog is settled down, you can get down to your dog’s level and give them love. Just be careful that if your dog might periodically jump that you don’t lean over them. They could jump up and hit you in the face.
Keep your dog’s feet on the floor
You Have To Stay Consistant For The Training To Work
You have to be diligent to never let your dog jump up. Even if someone says they don’t mind, you can’t allow your dog to jump up, or you will have to start over on your training.
Don’t pet a dog that jumps up, that is a reward to them. It is best for you to ignore them until their 4 feet are on the floor. They will start to realize that they won’t get your attention if they are jumping on you.
If you are sitting down and your dog jumps up on you, don’t start the pushing down game. That is what it becomes for your dog, a game and they will likely continue jumping up. Instead, get up and walk away. Come back and try it again. If your dog sits by you, pet them. They are looking for attention, but you don’t want the attention of pushing them down or jumping up on you.
Your dog should be sitting when they greet people
Summary
It is important that you do your best to avoid the situation where your dog can jump up. You need to control the
A sitting dog is a dog who should get attention
situation before it can happen. Then you need to work on the training with them. Be consistent with ignoring your dog that jumps up. No petting or talking to them. Keep repeating the training until your dog understands what is expected of them and that is how to stop a dog from jumping on people.
Provide your dog with at least 30 minutes of exercise per day and also provide them with plenty of mental stimulation. A tired dog is a well-behaved dog.
Don’t punish a dog for jumping. It is a submissive appeasement gesture. They will become eager to appease and will jump more. Walk away instead, don’t pet or touch or talk to them.
If you don’t have a gate, get a gate. It will give your dog time to calm down before they greet your guests.
If your dog gets anxious and excited when guests come, give them something to do. Give them a toy to carry, give them a food puzzle to keep them busy or toss some treats out for them to find.
You can also put your dog on a lease when you have company and stand on the leash so they don’t have enough room to jump up.
When your dog has settled down, get down to your dog’s level, because that is what they are really hoping for. They just want to meet nose to nose.
Good luck with your training. It shouldn’t take long if you remain consistent with your expectations.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also follow my articles on Pinterest, FaceBook or Twitter.
Great article!
To be honest, I didn’t know about most of these techniques.
Getting a gate seems like the smartest decision for the dog and the guests as well.
I’ll remember this advice.
Thanks for sharing that info!
Thanks for reading Boby. I’m glad you found some useful information. If you don’t have a dog, it is information you can share with others when you visit friends if they have a dog jumping on you.
Great post!
My daughters boyfriend has a dog with a lot of bad habits, and the owner is not interested in formal training, so I will forward this to my kid and she can work on it when she is around the dog.
Apparently the dog is from a shelter and may have developed bad habits at its former home, so this should help! Thank you.
I hope my information will help with your daughter’s boyfriends dog. The training will have to be consistent for it to work. If she spends enough time with the dog, she might be able to get some improvements, but if the boyfriend lets the dog jump, it will be hard to change the dog’s behavior. Thanks for forwarding on my information.
Hi Marla. As with any training, the younger the dog when we begin, the easier it will be to teach them to behave in an acceptable manner. It is consistency that will get the results that we desire, so we should never be weak and give in on occasions. I agree that a well-exercised dog is less likely to misbehave as they will be too tired. Thanks for sharing. Great post!
Thanks for reading Andrew. It is important to remain consistant when training your dog so they know what is expected of you. Sometimes the problem can be others that your dog interacts with that don’t follow the same training you are trying to teach your dog that can give you the most challenges. I agree, it is important to keep your dog excercised. The care for them is always easier when they have gotten their exercise. Thanks for reading my article.