Starting Training to Reduce Jumping
Jumping on family, visitors, and people on the street? Let's go over how we prevent this common challenge, and teach more appropriate behavior instead.
Training with rewards teaches our dog what we want from them, and in return they are reaching their goal. It is a two-way street. This reduces the risk of escalating frustrated emotions and behaviour. If we never teach our dogs what to do in place of the unwanted behaviour (jumping), they may escalate the behaviour themselves to try to figure out what will work if jumping won’t.
Management During Training
It is so important that you set up for success by minimizing their opportunities to jump on people - the more our dog rehearses a behaviour, the more likely it is to continue in the future. Training will go so much faster if they aren’t able to practice this unwanted behaviour.
What does this mean? Using leads, crates, pens and gates wherever possible. If you have two people, you can use leads to ensure they don’t rush or jump on guests at the door; if you don’t, you can utilize gates, pens, and crates to the same effect.
Don’t open the door to a jumping dog. If possible, put a pen around your front door to prevent them from jumping when people enter the home.
Tell people how you want them to greet your dog - don't let people decide for you! If your dog is unable to contain their excitement and is likely to jump, you will need to prevent them from interacting with that person. Every successful jump is rewarding for the dog, as they are making the contact that they're seeking, even if they're being pushed off. Either keep them on lead at an appropriate distance, or put them away for a few minutes to calm down then try again.
Your dog may initially get frustrated with your management tools. Reduce their frustrations by pairing your management tools with calming, engaging things they can do instead of jumping on you (e.g. Kongs, Snuffle Mats, LickiMats, ‘find it’ activities etc.)
Management is only one piece of the puzzle; training your dog is the next step, and is absolutely achievable.
Step-By-Step Training Exercise:
Teach 4 Paws for Attention
Stand somewhere your dog cannot jump on you (e.g. on the other side of a baby gate or puppy fence, on a lead being handled by someone else).
Ignore your dog every time they jump towards you by turning to the side and looking away.
In the moment they have all four paws on the floor, mark with a ‘yes!’ and deliver a treat straight into their mouth. It is important to deliver the treat down and towards them, almost under their chin, so they are not tempted to jump up for it.
Mark (e.g., say yes!) the moment they have their paws on the floor, and reward them with a treat in quick succession at their level to prevent them from attempting to jump to get the treat.
Slowly build up the duration they can keep all fours on the floor before getting rewards, half a second at a time at their pace.
When they are no longer scrambling to get to you, you can scatter treats (or throw a Kong) away from your entry point and tell them to ‘find it!’, encouraging them to pursue a quiet activity while you enter.
Be ready to deliver treats straight into their mouths as they come towards you before they get the chance to jump on you.
Take the time to mark and reward the paws on the floor behaviour during quiet times as well.