One of the most common dog behavior issues is jumping.
Or perhaps ‘issues’ isn’t the right word. Certainly there are times when I want my dog to jump on me because I’m a big fan of boisterous greetings and enthusiastic cuddling. At the same time, my dog also needs to be able to greet people politely—especially my 75 year old grandmother!
Dogs don’t need to be perfect all the time—and they often can’t. I don’t expect my dog to always greet me by sitting. But I do expect him to only jump up when I say it’s okay. Just like with children, it’s important to set rules, but also to make sure that they’re fair and reasonable.
To understand how to cure your dog of jumping, it’s important to first think about why dogs do that.
Dog Greetings
If you watch two dogs greet each other, you’ll see a lot of movement. Dogs tend to meet by sniffing each other, first at the head, and then at the other end. With two very curious dogs, you can end up with a spinning circle as they each try to get the most information out of the other’s hind end. To animals with such powerful senses of smell, the hind end is enormously valuable. Just by sniffing, dogs learn about each other’s age and health.
Humans stand on two legs, so our head—not to mention our hind end!—is much higher off the ground. It makes sense, then, that a dog is going to jump when you come home. He wants to get closer to those interesting areas to learn where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to.
Excited Dogs Jump
When humans are excited, we might talk louder or faster, or gesture more wildly. When dogs are excited, they bounce. Happy, playful dogs are easy to spot at the dog park, because their style of running involves a lot more up.
At the same time, we know scientifically that dogs form very close bonds with their owners. (See here for some cool research on dog-owner relationships.) We also know it on our own, emotional levels. What dog owner can’t say, “My dog loves me”? So our return home is a very exciting, happy time for them, because someone they love has arrived.
Furthermore, many dogs like to meet new people. Dogs readily learn that new people smell interesting, and dogs also like some (but not too many!) changes in their daily routine. It’s understandable that new people are exciting for dogs—think how exciting it is for us to have guests over!
Excited dogs bounce, and people arriving is exciting whether the dog knows the person or not.
When you add that to the usual canine greeting of butt sniffs, it’s no surprise that many dogs have a jumping issue!
Jumping is Rewarding for Dogs
The fundamental basis of all dog psychology is that, on their own, dogs only do things that they enjoy. You’ll never see a dog filing paperwork, and it’s not just because they lack the cognitive ability. Dogs simply choose to do fun things, and they choose to do them a lot.
If your dog is jumping up on you, she’s doing it because it’s fun. It may be fun because she’s excited to see you, or wants to see what new smells you have on the bottom of your shirt, or many other reasons. But first and foremost, jumping is fun, and she likes doing fun things.
This means that jumping is a self-reinforcing behavior.
Some behaviors will end themselves without any input from you. A dog, for example, who wants to get up at 6 am, will quickly decide otherwise if you consistently ignore them and do not get up until 8 am (easier said than done, I know!). This is because whining alone is not very rewarding, but sleeping (for dogs as for humans!) is quite rewarding, so eventually the dog will go back to sleep (as will you).
Jumping, however, is intrinsically fun. It is its own reward. If you stand like a statue and ignore the dog, the dog is still getting what he’s after: you, your smells, and the pleasure of bouncing around.
Punishing Jumping Dogs
Possibly the most common advice to owners with bouncy dogs is to make them stop.
The methods here vary. The one I see the most is owners raising a knee as the dog jumps, in order to make jumping painful. I once read a post where someone advised stepping on the dog’s feet! Other trainers have the dog constantly wearing a leash attached to her collar. When the dog tries to jump, the owner steps on the leash so the dog gets a painful yank to the neck.
All of these techniques share a methodology: If what the dog is doing is fun, the way to get the dog to stop is to hurt the dog until the pain outweighs the enjoyment.
Trainers defend these practices in various ways. Perhaps it’s that a little old lady obviously cannot have her Labrador knocking her over every time she comes home, and so any technique is valid when it comes to preventing this. Perhaps it’s that the pain isn’t that painful, or that the dog doesn’t meaningfully feel pain.
All of these ignore two problems.
Why I Don’t Punish My Dog for Jumping
- I did not get my dog in order to hurt him. I really don’t like hurting my dog, so I don’t. If I can, I find another way to teach him what he needs to know. So far, there have been zero instances where he needed to be hurt in order to learn something.
- Dogs form associations really easily. When I give my dog a treat for sitting, not only does he learn that sitting makes treats happen, but he also learns that I am a good source of treats. Similarly, if I hurt my dog when he jumped up, he would learn that jumping up hurts, but he would also learn that I am the one who hurts him.
So I need to do something else to teach my dog not to jump.
Consistency is Key
Every time I walk in the door, my dog gets up and runs towards me. And every time, if all of his feet are on the floor, I bend down and greet him. This puts my interesting parts near his nose so he doesn’t need to jump. If he jumps, I remain straight, and turn away. Jumping on another’s back is very rude in the world of dogs, so many dogs will take this turning away as a sign that they need to stop and think again. If he jumps anyway, I’m now in the perfect position to walk right back out the door.
The most important thing is that he doesn’t get to jump up. Whether that’s because I moved away, or because I changed my posture so he didn’t need to, he no longer gets the reward of jumping. Instead he gets a reward (greeting me!) down on the floor.
It took less than a week of this approach, and now my dog, who still comes running when I enter, keeps his feet firmly planted.
Transfer of Learning
Teaching him not to jump on me had other benefits as well. At the moment, we have a baby gate set up to divide our home into a cat-space and a dog-space while the two get used to each other. The gate is only two feet tall and he can easily clear that, but he chooses not to. Even when the cat is being obnoxious (she likes to sit on the end of the bed and dangle one paw over the gate), the most he does is raise himself slightly into a begging position. He’s restraining himself from jumping over the gate because jumping has never worked for him. That is, it’s never resulted in him getting what he wants. He sits, or he noses the gate, but he doesn’t try to jump, which makes everyone’s life much calmer.
Reinforcing Your Dog for Not Jumping
In addition to not rewarding the dog for jumping, you also need to make sure you’re reinforcing good behavior. Sneak some dog treats into your pocket before you leave the house. When you come back, drop one on the floor any time the dog has all four feet planted (“four on the floor”). Dropping, rather than just handing it to the dog, encourages the dog to look down, rather than anticipate your movement and jump up.
Make sure to greet your dog with the same enthusiasm (or more!) when they’re not jumping. Far too often, owners fall into the trap of only paying attention to their dogs when the dog is misbehaving. This quickly produces a dog who misbehaves in order to receive attention, just like a toddler. Cover your dog with love and affection when they’re being good, and you can end poor behaviors without ever punishing the dog.
Further Help for Dog Jumping
Jumping can be a persistent problem to eliminate because of the reasons given here. If you’re still struggling with your dog jumping up on you, please reach out to me and I would be thrilled to help you.
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