A dog that is always jumping on people can be so annoying and embarrassing.
There is no easy fix for this behavior, however, with the correct training, patience, and commitment this can be eradicated.
If your dog is jumping on people it can be so annoying.
It is one of those annoying habits that your dog has always done, or suddenly and out of the blue, started doing, just like eating grass, continually barking, eating poop, and so on.
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For that reason, every bad habit that your dog has or starts up can be stopped naturally.
Mostly, he needs training. More on this later.
Millions of people all around the world enjoy having dogs as pets.
Dogs can provide companionship that no other kind of pet can, making them one of the most popular pets all around the world.
But chances are that when you visit someone who has a dog, he will jump on you.
Many people find this behavior endearing but the truth is that it can be difficult to manage for the dog’s owner.
When it comes to teaching a young dog what they can and cannot do, you have to make it clear that certain behaviors are unacceptable.
While it might be adorable to see a young puppy stand up to greet you, it should never be an encouraged behavior.
If the dog learns that it is okay to jump up on people as a greeting, it can result in some serious injuries, especially for younger or frailer people.
Thankfully, there are ways that you can reinforce that jumping on people is not a good idea.
Why Do Dogs Jump on People as a Greeting?
One of the first steps to solving a problem is understanding where the problem comes from.
Professionals agree that one of the most likely reasons why dogs jump on people as a greeting comes from the way dogs greet other dogs; they attempt to touch noses.
However, the location of a dog’s nose is very different than where it is on people.
Because of this, dogs try to take the matter into their own hands to make noses meet, resulting in your dog jumping on someone.
While there might be some other, more individual reasons why your dog jumps on people, this is considered to be one of the most well-known reasons.
Now that you understand why your dog is trying to jump on people in the first place, you can now take the steps needed to prevent this behavior.
How To Keep Your Dog From Jumping on People?
What can you do when someone answers the door?
Even people who don’t own dogs know that dogs are easily excited when someone rings the doorbell. This excitement also contributes to the fact that your dog jumps on top of people.
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Because of how excited your dog gets when someone else rings the doorbell, you can make some efforts to help your dog calm down.
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For example, you can delay greeting the person at the door until your dog has calmed down sufficiently, as in all four paws are staying on the floor.
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This will reduce the chance that your dog will jump on him or her, especially if this person goes to your house regularly.
If your dog is not calming down properly and is too excited to answer commands, you might want to take a different option instead of waiting for the excitement out.
You could try allowing your dog to approach the guest but leading the dog away if it attempts to make a jump.
Not only will this prevent the jumping but it will be actively showing the dog that jumping on someone is not acceptable behavior.
Stop dog jumping on people – Give him something to carry
Another option that you could choose is to give your dog something to carry.
This, of course, depends on your dog but for dogs who enjoy being able to carry a treasured belonging around the house, this can be a quick and simple solution.
After all, if your dog tries to jump up to greet someone, your dog risks dropping its toy. In the mind of a dog, this is never a good trade-off.
If this is not enough for your dog, you might have to move your dog to another area of the house and remove any ability for the dog to greet your guest in the first place.
Depending on the size and athleticism of your dog, you might be able to keep your dog away with something as simple as an exercise pen.
A baby gate is also a good way to keep your dog from leaving the room, provided that the dog cannot simply jump over the gate.
If you have a larger dog, you could simply lock the dog in another room altogether.
This can discourage the reaction that your dog has to the doorbell ringing, decreasing the chance that your dog will react this way again.
In turn, this makes it a good way to keep your dog from jumping on people.
What Can You Do When Your Dog Jumps on Other People?
Even if the guests enter the house without causing problems for your dog, your dog could still get overly excited to see them, causing it to jump on them.
There are several remedies for this problem.
From training your dog and having your guest participate in actively training your dog to physically managing your dog’s excitement in a way that will discourage this behavior without harming the dog, there are many options for you to choose from.
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The option that will work best for your dog will depend on how well trained the dog is.
If you decide to go with training your dog, you will first want to make sure that everyone in the room follows the same protocol.
It can be incredibly confusing for a dog to receive different instructions from different people, which can hinder the progress your dog makes in learning not to jump on other people.
When it comes to training your dog, if it already has an understanding of the command “sit”, you can use this to your advantage.
Having help from someone who your dog has tried to jump on before can also improve the effectiveness of this exercise as long as this person is okay with helping.
The first thing that you will want to do is tell your dog to sit. Once the dog is seated, have the person who the dog wants to greet come closer to the dog.
If the dog becomes excited and stands up, have the person turn around and walk away without paying any attention to the dog.
You should tell your dog to sit down again and repeat this process until the dog understands that it needs to remain seated despite the fact that there is someone interesting approaching.
After the dog has completed this exercise, it can be rewarded with treats.
Stop Your Dog From Jumping On People – Training
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The video below shows you why this training is so crucial…
If your dog doesn’t understand the “sit” command yet or is not responsive to training exercises such as this, it might be a better idea to physically manage your dog’s excitement.
There are a few separate ways that you can do this.
If your dog has a crate that it can go in, you might be able to keep your dog there. If this doesn’t work, you could also continue to keep the dog in another room while the guest is in the house.
If you would rather keep your dog out in the room with you, having a leash can make restraining your dog easier.
However, this shouldn’t replace training your dog. These measures should be taken when there is no other solution available at that moment.
You should always make sure that your dog eventually learns that jumping on people is not acceptable behavior.
What Can You Do When You Are Taking Your Dog for a Walk?
Most dog owners understand that they have to take their dogs out on walks regularly. In some cases, this might mean that you run into other people while you are walking.
If your dog doesn’t understand that jumping on people is unacceptable behavior, then there’s a good chance that it will do so.
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There are a few ways that you can combat this.
No matter how much someone might adore the way your dog tries to greet him or her, you should still be firm with your dog to reinforce the idea that doing this is not a good idea.
If your dog is acting as if it wants to jump on someone who is approaching you on the sidewalk, you should first warn the person that he or she should stop and let him or her know that your dog might try to jump.
You might also be able to turn this situation into a learning experience for your dog.
If you get the feeling that your dog is going to try this, you might want to bring a few treats on your next walk so that you can be prepared.
Using Commands to stop your dog from jumping on people
When the person stops, you could ask the person to help you out with your dog.
Hand the person the treat and as long as your dog understands the command “sit”, you can turn this into a learning experience for your dog.
In fact, if this person also loves dogs, this can be an enjoyable experience for him or her as well.
Once the person has the treat, ask him or her to tell your dog to sit.
As long as the dog remains seated as the person approaches, you can let him or her give the dog a treat and even pet the dog.
This will reinforce the idea that it is not a good idea for your pet to jump on others; instead, your dog should act calmly.
By reinforcing this idea, you will have a better chance to keep your dog from jumping on people.
What Should You Do When Your Dog Tries to Jump on People in Your House?
During the holidays, people usually enjoy visiting their families. This can often be an enjoyable experience, although it can be overwhelming for people who have easily excited dogs.
You should treat this experience as you would if there was a guest in your home.
Something else that you could attempt is having your family participate in actively training your dog as well, as they are your family.
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Chances are that it’s easier to ask your family for help than someone who is a guest to your house.
You should also note that you shouldn’t attempt to push the dog away when it tries to jump on someone. While it might get the dog away from the person, your dog might not see it as a deterrent.
Instead, your dog might view this as play and will continue with this behavior.
You might want to consider a few of the options from earlier, such as restraining your dog or installing baby gates so that your dog doesn’t have access to the door when people are arriving.
One of the best things that you can do for your dog is to enforce the idea that your dog is welcome in the area as long as it isn’t jumping on anyone.
You can do this by rewarding your dog with treats and attention as long as the dog keeps all four of its paws on the ground.
Whether the dog is sitting down, lying down, or standing up is up to you, based on your situation. In fact, family members can participate in this as well by petting your dog as long as it is being calm.
Not only does your dog start to understand that keeping all four paws on the ground is a good idea but your family members will be able to enjoy petting the dog as well.
What Shouldn’t You Do when Training a Dog?
While you might not think about it on a particularly regular basis, your dog has thoughts and feelings too.
It might not be as apparent as human emotion but your dog will respond to overly harsh punishments.
Whether this is being rough with your dog or making loud, incoherent noises, you shouldn’t attempt to control your dog in these manners.
Instead, you should treat your dog as a very young child who is first learning the ins and outs of life. The truth is that dogs have the same mental capacity as very young children.
With that being said, when you want to train your dog to understand that jumping on people is a bad idea, you do not want to be overly harsh.
This can result in your dog becoming scared and also not understanding what happened.
When this happens, your dog won’t make any progress in understanding which specific behavior was wrong.
This can even result in having the progress your dog has made reduced. Nobody wants this to happen as it will only result in more frustration for both you and your dog.
Stop Your Dog From Jumping On People. Be Consistent
You should also make sure that you are not training your dog in a way that your dog won’t understand. This means that you shouldn’t give convoluted and complex instructions for your dog to follow.
You should never train your dog in an inconsistent manner either.
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As dogs do not have the mental capacity as adult humans, they will not understand what is happening when you reward your dog for two different results.
This can hinder the progress being made in training and it can even result in responses that you don’t want.
It is important that you do not force your dog to train with someone that your dog is uncomfortable working with since this can cause your dog not to focus on training at all.
Despite these things, there are many things that you can do to improve how your dog responds to training.
What Should You Do to Train Your Dog?
As you work with your dog on how to keep your dog from jumping on people, there are several things that you will want to make sure of.
For instance, you will want to be consistent and concise with your training.
You should always do the same thing in every situation where you are training your dog so that it can clearly understand what to do.
This includes using one-word responses when your dog does something that it shouldn’t do, such as firmly saying “no” and then denying the dog a treat until it acts the way that you want.
You should also be sure to treat your dog with care but still be firm if your dog is doing something that you have explicitly shown is wrong.
For instance, if you have your dog on a leash and your dog tries to jump on someone, you could pull the leash, taking your dog away from the person.
The correct dog training
Once you have done this, reinforce that the dog needs to stay still, such as saying “sit”.
This will help your dog understand that it should not be doing this action and it will be difficult for your dog to interpret this as playfulness.
This will result in furthering your dog’s understanding that it is not acceptable to jump on other people as a greeting.
Of course, you should always reward your dog when it does the right thing.
Similar to young children, giving your dog a treat, attention, or pets after it has done something correctly will reinforce the idea that this is good behavior that will get rewarded.
This will end up causing your dog to continue this behavior in the hopes that you will reward it.
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Over time, this behavior will turn into a more natural thought process, resulting in your dog keeping all four of its paws on the ground the next time that a guest comes over to your house.
How Can You Help Your Dog?
The best way for you to teach your dog that it is not okay to jump on people is to reward obedience and not accept disobedience.
As a dog’s mind can function at a similar level to that of a child who is two and a half years old, your dog will be able to grasp the idea that certain behaviors are acceptable and some aren’t.
It is important to establish these ideas when your dog is young and first learning about the world. One of the most effective ways to teach your dog these things is to incorporate training.
When the family is over, you can have them help you train your dog. If you are walking your dog, there might be people willing to help you teach your dog.
Stop Your Dog From Jumping On People. Train your dog the right way
Even when you have a guest over at your house, you can find a way to train your dog to understand what is acceptable behavior.
In fact, this can give the opportunity for these people to play and pet your dog when it obeys properly, making everyone happy.
Even if you have to start by keeping your dog restrained each time that someone rings the doorbell, you will eventually be able to teach your dog how to act when there is someone new in the house.
Slowly but surely, with patience, you will be able to teach your dog that it will be rewarded for keeping all of its paws on the ground, cementing the idea that jumping on people is not okay.
In some cases, you might have to actively deny attention to your dog if it is attempting to jump on someone.
Assuming that this person is able to handle a dog trying to jump on him or her, you can ask the person to ignore the dog as much as possible, even walking away from the dog with as little as a glance back.
Because dogs need attention, this can enforce the idea that this is not an acceptable greeting.
It is crucial for you to keep your dog from jumping on people and understand that it is not acceptable behavior from a very young age.
While it might appear cute at first, it can be very dangerous.
When your dog is older, larger, and heavier when it tries to jump on someone, it can result in injuries, especially if this person is a child or an elderly person.
Nobody wants this to happen simply because the dog was far too excited to see someone.
By putting the time, effort, and patience into helping your dog understand how to properly greet someone, you can rest assured knowing that everyone will be happier.
Your dog can get the attention that it deserves while members of the family won’t have to worry about a large dog tackling them the moment they walk into the house.
Before you know it, you will be able to live comfortably knowing that your dog will be able to control itself the next time that the doorbell rings.
