Dog jumping up?
If you have a dog that jumps up at other people whilst you are out and about,
you are not alone! It's a really common thing for dogs to do, whether they're
puppies, teenagers or adult dogs. In this blog, I'm sharing 7 tips to help your
dog learn appropriate greeting behaviours. Follow these and your pup will soon
know how to say “Hello!” to people in the way that you want. Please share these
this blog with someone that you think might find this helpful.
Are they calm enough to make a "good" decision?.
Often dogs are jumping up because they're excited, or they want to gather more
information about the person they are jumping up at. They can get this
information by licking directly or air licking close to our faces.
When you are in a space that involves being close to other people, what
behaviours can you reinforce, or games can you play to help them feel a little
calmer before approaching people? This week Bodie and I have been practising
Boundary games on a towel in the middle of a park, playing Hand touch, Rewind,
Middle and Aeroplane feeding.
Another tip I use is to spray Pet Remedy Calming Spray to my shoes and lower
legs before I see in-person clients. It's amazing how many of the dogs go to
sniff my shoes rather than jump up at me when I arrive. You could do the same
onto your legs to take the calming effect wherever you need it.
Teach an alternative, incompatible behaviour.
I'm not a big fan of teaching a Sit early on with puppies (there are more useful
skills to focus on), but it can be helpful to give them something to do that
means they're not jumping. So, in this situation, being in a Sit or a Down can
be useful to help stop jumping up. When teaching your dog anything new, start
away from distractions, like your living room. Then practise it in situations
where it is still easy.
Make sure you reward them.
You get more of what you reward! Make sure that you have some super tasty treats
with you and let them know they did a good job by not jumping up and displaying
the behaviour that you wanted, keeping all 4 paws on the floor. We tend to
ignore all the great things they are doing.
To keep their focus downwards, you can also try placing or dropping food on the
floor when they are close to people, but not too close to jump up. That way you
are capturing them doing something great - being around people but not jumping
up.
Ask people that you meet to help you
If you've got a real cutie of a dog, if people are making excited noises and
playing or petting them when they're jumping up can be very rewarding for your
dog. And make it more likely that they'll keep doing it.
Ask people to help you by altering their behaviour. If they're keen to pet your
dog, then they'll probably be happy to help! Ask them to wait until your dog is
calm, perhaps once you have rewarded them for keeping all 4 paws on the ground.
Then, if your dog is calm enough, you can choose to let the person approach and
calmly stroke your dog starting with the chest or shoulders - this is a better
choice than patting a dog's head or excitedly rubbing their body or lower
back.
If your dog does jump, ask them to calmly stand up and turn away slightly and be
very still and boring. If your dog continues to jump up at them relentlessly, I
would move away completely and focus on practising some of the calming games I
mentioned in tip no.1.
Use kind management techniques
While you're working on their skills of not jumping up, management makes a big
difference. Some people don't mind a dog jumping up at them, but some people do.
Having a dog that's over 30 kilos has made me very conscious of this, but I
think it's perfectly reasonable for people not to want a dog jumping up at them
no matter how small or cute. They might be scared of dogs or perhaps are simply
walking to work and not going to appreciate muddy paws on their clothes!
Using a long line safely or having your dog on lead may be the only way to
guarantee your dog doesn't jump up at someone. As their skills grow, you might
be able to keep them focused on you with games like Magic hand or the odd
Attention noise. Do whatever you need to help your dog in each situation that
arises. The less a dog gets to practise jumping up at people, the less likely
they will be to do it. This needs time and consistency.
A powerful helping hand
Use yellow "space awareness" products
If you've got a dog that is nervous of approaching people, you can use yellow
space awareness products like those from My Anxious Dog. A simple message like
Anxious or Keep Away, on their lead, collar or harness, could help people
realise they shouldn't reach towards your dog. On many occasions, it can also
help facilitate an enlightening conversation with those well-meaning people who
think that all dogs like them and will rush up to greet your dog without
considering how the dog might be feeling.
Top up your skills regularly.
You may have got to the point where you are happy with your dog's greeting
behaviour. But as with most things, some skills need topping up from time to
time. If you notice your dog reverting to bad habits like jumping up, go back to
practising the tips above whenever you need to.