Posts Tagged ‘aggressive dog behavior’

At the start you may feel that when your puppy jumps up, he’s so cute. But it stops being funny when your large dog is jumping up on people with dirty paws – very embarrassing. So I encourage you to train your puppy or dog not to do this while he is still young. The sooner you can eliminate this behavior the better.

The most usual circumstance for this behavior is when someone arrives at your home or when you encounter someone while you’re walking your dog. Coaching your dog to sit on command when this happens is a good idea.

Often the jumping up is a greeting but in some circumstances it can be that your dog is trying to become dominant over you. Dominance can create other problem behaviors and this should be prevented. You should be the dominant one, the pack leader.

You must understand the idea of positive reinforcement. There are various options for rewards that you can use as positive reinforcement: tasty treats, affection and praise. You have to stop giving any reward for jumping up. So rather than greeting your dog excitedly as he jumps up, you should ignore him as long as he is excited. Avoid giving him any eye contact.

In contrast to this, when he is calm and has all his feet on the floor you can show him affection.

Hopefully, your dog may already sit on command. If so it’s a good idea to get him to sit as your enter the house or as guests arrive. As soon as he sits, reward him with a treat or affection. If you haven’t already trained him to sit, you should work on this and other obedience training. Start training him in obedience with short sessions away from distractions. Make sure the training session are fun and enjoyable for your dog.

It’s important that you get the cooperation of everyone who comes into contact with your dog, so that they don’t undo all your good work. Get them to agree not to enthusiastically greet your dog. They should not give eye contact to your dog.

In the beginning, it may be worth putting your dog in another room when visitors arrive, so that you avoid the stimulating situation at the door.

I hope that this helps with dogs jumping up. Read more about other behavior problems in dogs such as aggression in dogs.

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