How To Teach A Dog Not To Jump Up

One of the most common questions dog owners have is how to teach a dog not to jump on people. Jumping up on people is something that every dog does at some point in their lives.  When he’s a cute little puppy, it is sure hard to resist that adorable bundle of love jumping up, trying to get closer to your face to let you know just how elated he is to see you.  After all, how many of our fellow humans give us such an enthusiastic and loving greeting?  

Why Does Your Dog Jump On You And All Your Guests?

Dogs jump on us because they love us and jumping up has worked in the past to initiate interaction with us. They’re demonstrating how happy they are to see us and a desire to interact with us as closely as possible. Dogs don’t jump up for any other reason. Dogs are not out to rule the pack or dominate us. They are just trying to do what they think will help make them fit in. Think about this: We humans are always touching one another in greeting with hugs, kisses, arm touches and handshakes.  A dog sees this, and why wouldn’t he want to try the same behavior we do?

Dogs learn human social behaviour from watching and interacting with us and imitating our behaviour. Some rare dogs even learn to smile by showing their teeth, just like humans, which can be a little disconcerting if you don’t know they are smiling in a happy greeting ritual. It’s called imitative behaviour. When they are developing puppies, most of our puppies usually don’t have other dogs to learn social behaviour from, so they learn it from us. 

Why Does Your Dog Jump Up on People?

Dogs jump up because jumping up is somehow reinforcing for them. Dogs do more exaggerated forms of any behaviour that gets them what they want. So if your dog is jumping up, it’s probably to communicate a desire to interact with you, and when they get any sort of interaction, they are successful, and likely to repeat that behaviour.

As they grow up, jumping up on people becomes a much bigger problem. It’s best to teach a puppy how to greet people politely from an early age, but if you have an older puppy or an adult dog, you can still teach him appropriate greeting manners with a fun game called the Four on the Floor Game.

How To Teach Your Dog Not To Jump Up

The Four On The Floor Game was developed to make all four paws staying on the ground the most reinforcing behaviour for your dog.  When all 4 paws are on the floor, the fun begins, complete with the food reinforcers that let the dog know a party is underway. Don’t worry, you won’t always have to use food reinforcers for this game. However, it will help to really instill in a hardcore jumper’s mind that staying on the floor is the best thing ever. As soon as any paw comes off the ground, the human breaks any eye contact and backs out of the dog’s range. 

Food Reward Delivery

Food reinforcers are given on the floor beside or behind the dog to draw and reinforce his attention downward. This makes it easy for the dog to remember to keep 4 paws on the floor vs giving food reinforcers by hand. Delivering food reinforcers by hand draws and reinforces attention upwards to the hand. Being reinforced for having attention drawm upward makes it more harder for your dog to keep all 4 paws on the floor.  

Keep it Fun!

This game should be played with a sense of fun where the dog wins prizes when he does the right thing and doesn’t win anything at all if he doesn’t follow the rules. Don’t say or do anything in the way of correction if your dog’s paws leave the ground. Correcting your dog will make him anxious, and his anxiety will be expressed in nervous energy. As a result, he’ll be more likely to jump up again.

The Rules Of Four-On-The-Floor

1. Have your dog on a 5-6 foot leash or houseline attached to the back of a harness. Have a handful of kibble in your pocket or training pouch in case you need it.
2.  If you are by yourself, tie the leash or house line to a door handle or another stationary object. If this isn’t possible, get a helper to hold the end of the leash. 
3. Starting outside of the dog’s zone, far enough away that his front paws are on the floor, step toward the dog in a normal manner. Set him up for success.  Do not stare at him as you do this as this will probably make him more excited. Do not talk to him as this will arouse him and increase the likelihood that he will jump up. 
4. Before his front paws leave the ground roll or bowl a kibble or two to land beside him. Rolling it will make the reward even more reinforcing than just dropping it. Bowling adds a an element of chase and catch. It’s like extra reinforcement. This will help to take the focus off ofyou and make it easy for your dog to stay off. Continue forward as he consumes the kibble. 
5. If your dog’s front paws leave the ground, immediately step back. Wait for his paws to be on the ground again. As soon as he has all four paws on the ground, you can step back towards him. Now bowl some more kibble. This will take a few tries, typically. 
6. When the dog remains on the floor, you can approach and greet him. If he’s hard core jumper, offer food on the floor directly beside him.  If his paws leave the ground, step back out of his zone. 
7.  Repeat this exercise two or more times a day until you have consistent results.
8. Only stay in and interact with the puppy when all four paws are on the ground. If paws come up, step quickly out of the way.
9. Have other family members play this game too.  With children it will usually be necessary to be beside the dog dispensing kibbles or treats on the floor beside the dog.
10. Increase the challenge:  After your dog really knows how to sit well, cue a sit before you begin your approach.  The criteria for your approaching will now be a sit. 

Don’t punish or correct your dog or puppy for jumping up, with “no”, or “off”, and especially “down” (because down means one thing and that’s “put your belly on the floor”. Besides, from the dog’s perspective, the whole reason for jumping on you is to interact with you. Saying anything to him is interaction, and he’ll do more of what’s working for him to get more interaction with you. A physical correction will make a dog puppy anxious.  An anxious puppy will act more excited and will be more likely to jump on you even more.

So what do you do?

Prevent Your Dog From Jumping Up!

• Use a babygate to prevent interaction when you or guests come in the door.
• Use a leash to prevent jumping up when you are training him to keep 4 paws on the floor.
• Don’t look at the dog when his paws leave the floor -be dramatic enough that he notices-turning your whole head in another direction.
• Step away from the dog as soon as his paws leave the floor.
• Don’t talk to the dog when you come in the door
• Don’t pet the dog until the initial excitement of someone coming through the door has worn off
• Desensitize to activities involving the door- make things like the sound of the door handle a non-event.
• Don’t teach your dog “shake a paw” or other tricks involving putting paws on humans until he knows to always stay 4 on the floor around people.

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