Stop your dog from jumping on people by understanding why dogs jump up.
One of the most common 'nuisance' behaviors that dog guardians complain about is jumping.
There are many reasons why dogs jump on people, the most common being because they're excited to see someone and jumping is an important part of the greeting ritual. It is a communicative tool - an effective way for a dog to learn about a person, read the signals they're giving through their facial expressions, make physical contact and smell a person's unique scent signature. Jumping is information gathering.
Some dogs jump up at people because they feel uneasy when someone new comes through the door, and jumping is a way the dog copes with that discomfort. It is a habitual behavior that a nervous dog becomes practiced at, so the stress of a stranger coming through the door still has a predictable outcome.
Jumping can also be an effective way to control movement. If a dog is confused or nervous about a person's arrival or movement in a space, the dog might jump up to check that movement and use jumping behavior to influence the behavior of that other being, whether it's a person or another dog.
Regardless of the 'why,' most dog guardians want the jumping to stop because it is uncomfortable and unsafe, especially if the dog is large. Fortunately there are ways to manage and prevent jumping by understanding why it happens and using positive training techniques to prevent or modify the behavior.
How do I stop my dog from jumping on people?
To effectively manage and prevent jumping, you’ll need to use a few different approaches.
- If your dog is an enthusiastic greeter and loves saying hello to people, teach your dog a behavior that is incompatible to jumping and make that new behavior part of your dog's new greeting ritual. Teaching a passive behavior like 'stand' for a dog that doesn't get too excited works well, but if your dog is full of energy, a more active behavior like teaching your dog to go get a toy and show it to your guest gives that energy somewhere to go.
- Teach these new behaviors first without a person present so your dog becomes skilled at them and knows what to do before you use them in the context where the jumping usually occurs. This will make the learning process a lot easier and more successful.
- While your dog is learning a different skill, prevent the reinforcement of behavior you don't want by using management. If you're having guests to your home and are worried about hosting, caring for your dog and making sure everyone is safe, make things easier for all involved by putting your dog behind a baby gate before your guests come in. Management takes pressure off everyone, including dogs, and is especially important for dogs that are uncomfortable around people. Always use some type of enrichment when you use management so that your dog has something to do and her nervous energy has somewhere to go.
- You might have heard that you should not reinforce jumping behavior by giving dogs attention for the jumping. Dogs often jump because it works for them — they do indeed get attention even if it's a scolding! But if a dog jumps because she is insecure and needs your attention, if you ignore the jumping by turning your back as we used to teach people to do, it can make the jumping behavior even worse because you're not listening to your dog and fulfilling her needs, which creates more insecurity and more jumping.
- For example, if your dog is jumping up because she is uncomfortable or timid around new people, don’t force her to greet anyone. Keep her separated from your guests in her safe place or zen area with a good interactive toy or chew to play with. She will be much happier and so will your guests.
- Sometimes the jumping is a symptom of a larger issue and finding what that is and dealing with it, can stop the dog's need to jump.
The scatter technique
A dog that puts her head down to sniff something on the ground can't jump up so if your dog finds it hard to contain herself when you come home from a day of work, arm yourself with some treats and throw them on the floor as you come through the door, telling her to go find them. This directs all of her excitable energy onto the floor instead of upwards onto you and gives her something to do. You can also do this technique with toys. Once she has got rid of some that energy she is less likely to jump on you.
