I’ll start by saying that all dogs jump up at one point or another in their lives. It’s totally natural, normal behaviour for dogs to jump up on each other to greet and play. That’s why they jump up on us too- to communicate. It could be excitement that you’re home, investigating what’s in your hand, asking for affection or many other things. It’s absolutely fine if you’re happy with your dog jumping up on you too. But if you’re reading this, your delightful but giddy Labrador has taken Grandma out too many times already and you need some proper strategies to manage your dog jumping up!
The first step in any training plan is management. How can you prevent your dog from practising the habit of jumping up? If your dog is likely to jump up on visitors to your house, then you’ll want to have them in another room, behind a baby gate or on a lead when your visitors first come in. Same goes for counter surfing doggos- they can’t steal food from the counter if they can’t physically access the counter. In public, be sure to keep an eye on your surroundings so you see people approaching before your dog does.
Good habits for preventing your dog jumping up
You’ll want to get into the habit of rewarding your dog for having four paws on the ground whenever you’re in situations in which you think your dog will jump up. The conventional advice is to ask your dog to sit, but this can be really hard for a dog who is excited or stressed (check out our post on body language here). Tossing treats in the opposite direction to the ‘trigger’ (whatever/whoever your dog wants to jump up on) gives them something to do and makes it much easier for your dog to succeed.
With all dog training, it’s best to train your dog when you don’t actually need them to do the skill, so that when you do need it, they’re ready. This is why you’ll struggle to teach your dog to walk with a loose leash when you’re already at the park. When it comes to jumping up, teaching your dog to jump up and off on other objects is helpful. Have a watch of this video on our Instagram to see what I mean.
You can see Truffle is learning to jump up on a path and come off again. I really recommend teaching your dog the cues ‘up’ and ‘off’ with this game. Then, you can cue your dog to jump up when it’s appropriate to do so, and ask them to come off if it’s not. Remember, reinforcement drives behaviour. If your dog gets petted and fussed over when they jump up, they’re probably going to keep doing it! Make sure you are consistently rewarding your dog for having all four paws on the ground when you know they may be tempted to jump up.
What next?
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