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One of the biggest problems that dog owners face, is a jumping dog. This usually starts from puppyhood and continues on into adulthood, usually do to lack of training or consistency with not allowing the behaviour.
Some reasons that you would want to stop your dog from jumping are: It's rude behaviour, not everyone likes it, not everyone likes dogs, they can hurt small children, they can hurt elderly people and if you are dressed for work or a night out, they can ruin your clothing.
Rewards
What do you Rewards and Jumping have to do with each-other? Simple. We unintentionally reward our dogs all the time especially when it comes to jumping. It's very important to understand how we do this and what it means to the dog. There are 4 different kinds of rewards, 3 of which we have on us all the time.
1) Sight- Looking at your dog is rewarding to your dog. Look at your dog and watch it's reaction, it will probably start wagging it's tail a little
2) Praise/Talking- Talking to your dog is also rewarding to your dog. Start talking to your dog and see what happens
3) Touch- Every dog loves to be pet by their owners or other people, even when you are trying to push them off of you.
4) Treats- Giving your dog a treat is of course a HUGE reward, what dog doesn't like food
Knowing that these rewards exist and how you unintentionally use them with your dog, you are going to learn how to avoid unintentionally rewarding your dog for unwanted behaviour.
How do you stop this unwanted behaviour?
There are different solutions to this problem but I will be discussing three of the most common ways. Most importantly though when training your dog not to jump, everybody involved has to be onboard. Your husband, wife, kids, boyfriend, girlfriend, parents, in-laws ect... The reason everyone has to be onboard, is if they aren't, you will be putting in a lot of work that will be counteracted. To help, you can put a sign up on your front door stating that your dog is in training and to please ignore all rude and unwanted behaviour.
The first technique I am going to talk about in order to stop your dog from jumping is teaching the "OFF" cue. This teaches the dog to back up from you and give you space. When you walk into your home or you have a visitor coming over, you can use "OFF" to get the dog to back up. (Watch video for demonstration on how to train "OFF"). NOTE: My dog moves to the side and away,
Another thing you can try, is to completely ignore your dog when you come home. This is when remembering those rewards we just spoke about comes in handy. Avoid eye contact, avoid physical contact, avoid verbal connection and no treats. Take your shoes off, take your jacket off, put your stuff down, get something to eat or drink from the kitchen. You are going to wait till your dog calms down and offers you a different behaviour such as a sitting or laying down. Once the new behaviour is given, you can start to interact with your dog. Remember to mark the behaviour with a "Yes" and reward it with praise or play or a treat. By ignoring your dog when you walk in the house, the jumping behaviour will be curved fairly quickly once your dog realizes that jumping up on you no longer gets the response it used to. If you dog starts to jump again once you start to engage with it, back off and ignore it again.
Since jumping usually starts in puppyhood, you will find yourself sitting on the couch and your puppy jumping up on you. One way of stopping this behaviour is by, standing up and turning around. By standing up, you are getting the dog off you without touching it, by turning around you won't be giving it the attention it is looking for. It will learn that jumping up no longer gets the attention it wants. WARNING: This technique is meant for puppies not bigger dogs. A bigger dog can hurt you if it jumps on your back.
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