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
f 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.
