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What’s it all About?
One of the most common annoyances owners contact me about is their dog jumping up. Jumping when greeting people, jumping to grab things from their human, jumping at doors, jumping at the kitchen counter. It’s almost as if the dog really likes to jump up. Well here’s the thing. Jumping is often what we call a ‘self rewarding behaviour’. This means that even without feedback from the person they are jumping on, making contact can be hugely rewarding so the dog is likely to want to do it again. This is why the advice to ignore your dog when they jump-especially at people- is such bad advice.
Here’s a list of the most common jumping scenarios and why your dog does it.
Jumping at people?
Appeasement. This dog may be intimidated by a person, and they are jumping as a means of saying ‘please don’t hurt me, I’m a little wary of you’. We often see this on greeting and owners commonly mistake it for over-excitement.
It feels good to physically push against people. This can be breed specific but can also be seen in confident individuals of any breed.
It’s been rewarded by people in the past. Jumping up often gets the dog attention, gets the ball thrown, gets their leash clipped on for a walk, gets food released to them (see the helicoptor game below).
Jumping at a doorway or access point?
It’s been rewarded. Think how many times you have opened a door, immediately after the dog jumps up at it; heading out for a walk; going into the garden; getting into or out of the car. Now watch the behaviour generalise to other scenarios where they dog believes that jumping and being pushy, gets them positive results faster.
Jumping at the kitchen counter or table?
It gets them attention, especially if they are bored.
It results in a high value reward such as a food item, a dish towel, a food wrapper or engagement.
Like all behaviours, if you want to change the dog’s actions, you need to ask yourself, is my dog being rewarded for something I don’t want him to do?
This is key because rewarded behaviours get repeated.
Management is Key!
Even without any training, you can prevent jumping up from becoming a habit in certain situations. Being proactive, before a behaviour becomes a problem, is often the key to raising a good family pet.
Management is about roadblocking your dog’s choices so that behaviours don’t become practiced and bad habits aren’t formed. Good management means you control the outcome of certain situations so that your dog isn’t making decisions which may get him into trouble. This is especially true when it comes to jumping up.
You’ll see below some examples below of good management in common situations where dogs are likely to jump and get rewarded for the behaviour.
-a dog behind a dog gate into the kitchen while meals are being prepared can’t jump and and grab goodies off the kitchen bench.
-on walks, control the leash and you control the dog. Stop further away when you stop to chat and be prepared to step backwards if people get too close. That way making contact isn’t possible.
-Use your puppy pen when guest arrive so your dog can’t jump on greeting. When everyone calms down, get guests to approach the pen and offer a treat when puppy stops jumping or better still, he sits.
Training Games
If jumping up results in annoyance, complaints, dirty clothes and overall a more pushy dog, it’s worth putting the effort in early on to help your dog learn that jumping never gets results. You need to ensure that your dog is never rewarded for pushy behaviour or jumping up by you, your family or other people. You’ll find lots of training ideas below for the most common jumping up scenarios.
Remember, since jumping up is so rewarding for most dogs, it’s really important to limit their opportunity to jump. Management will help greatly with this. Use leashes (yes, even indoors), dog gates, pens and crates to avoid bad habits forming. Training means your puppy can learn fun alternatives to jumping. Teach behaviours which are equally as rewarding, but totally incompatible with jumping up.