Stop Dog Jumping Up: The Secrets

Your  puppy or dog jumping up is one of the common problems of dog behavior. As with most behavior problems, it's easiest to prevent this during puppyhood. It's quite common for the the behavior to be reinforced unintentionally by people during this stage. >>For stopping your puppy or dog jumping up and other behavior problems, the best guide is: Secrets To Dog Training. When a puppy gambols up to us in excitement and jumps up at our knees, we quite often lean down and give affection and attention. This action reinforces the behavior and the puppy learns that jumping up is a good thing to do. However, when a large dog jumps up on us, we don't appreciate it so much. So, it's best to learn not to reinforce this behavior during puppyhood. You need to make it clear to a puppy that this is not an acceptable behavior.

With an older dog and especially the larger breeds, even if the owner does not mind the jumping up, other people certainly do. So, every dog should be taught the "Off" or "No jump" command. If your dog is off leash and you are not close at hand, this command is essential to prevent your dog harassing other people. A larger breed can be quite frightening to people when it jumps up and may even be taller than a smaller person. He may even knock such a person over.

A dog is capable of scratching a person's exposed flesh and damaging clothing when it jumps up at him. A responsible owner should be able to prevent this.

Reason Why Your Dog Jumps Up

Excitement is the most common reason for dogs jumping up. If a dog's owner has been out of the house, it'is natural for a dog to get excited upon his return. If your dog only jumps up when excited, you can assume that excitement is the reason.

A more serious and unacceptable reason for jumping up is that the dog is trying to exert dominance over you. There is a social hierarchy in a dog pack as in wolf packs. The leader of the pack, the alpha dog, has to show its physical superiority over the other dogs. One way he does this is to throw one or both paws over the shoulder of the other dog. If your dog jumps up when he is not excited, this may be the reason. In this case, you need to use techniques to reassert yourself as the alpha dog of the pack.

There is a great bonus when you get Daniel Stevens' Secrets To Dog Training guide which goes into this in great detail. I recommend it.

Be Consistent and Persistent

As with correcting all dog behaviors, you need to be consistent and persistent. He needs to be taught that jumping up is not acceptable. Consistency means that you cannot allow him to jump up under any circumstances or you will undo all your effort in training him.

Ignoring As A Negative Reinforcement

The most effective method is to ignore him whenever he jumps up. It's like giving the cold shoulder to someone. You don't give him any attention, not even negative attention. Just turn your back on him immediately. Turn your face away and avert your eyes. You should be clear that you are ignoring the dog, not his behavior. It's the most effective way to communicate your displeasure to him.

When you cease to give any encouragement by your attention to him, he will quickly calm down. As soon as he is calm and all four paws are on the ground, you should praise him and give affection. Praising the dog only reinforces what is happening at that instant, that is, all four paws on the ground. It will not be connected to what he did before that. Dogs are in the immediate present.