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How to stop a puppy jumping up

A dog pawing at a person's leg

Why does my dog jump on you?

A dog jumping up is often an attention seeking behaviour and as cute as it is for a puppy to jump up for a cuddle, it can soon become a nuisance or even be dangerous when they are fully grown. Dogs often jump up because they naturally want to make contact with our hands and see our faces when they greet us.

What to do about your dog jumping up

Discourage jumping up

First thing is to discourage jumping up, particularly in puppies, by crouching as you greet them with your hands down low in front of you so that your dog can make contact with you easily without jumping up. If your dog gets greeted in this way regularly, they are less likely to feel the need to jump in future. However, should your dog jump up anyway, you should immediately withdraw your attention until his feet are back on the floor. Check out our “How dogs learn” post.

Act quickly and praise good behaviour

In order for your dog to link your removal of attention to their act of jumping up it must be an immediate response but more importantly it must only last whilst they are jumping up. If you continue to ignore your dog after they have put their feet back on the floor, then they are unlikely to associate their behaviour with your actions. Note: the faster your response the faster your dog will learn! If your dog jumps up while you are sitting down, turn away and cross your legs away from them. If they are persistent then stand up and walk away. Once they are calm you can sit down again, once your dog starts to approach without jumping then remember to give attention and praise. If the jumping persists then repeat as before.

Jumping up at others

Sometimes, embarrassingly, your dog may want to jump up on guests. We recommend you have your house line fitted so you can easily remove your dog without giving any attention. You may also want to tell guests in advance that they can turn their back to your dog to discourage jumping up. Removing attention and eye contact works!

Consistency is key

When training your dog, you need to make sure everyone else in the household is adopting the same behaviour until they learn that nobody will give them attention if he or she jumps at them! If you are not consistent in your dog training, your dog will likely get confused and not learn the desired behaviour.

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How to stop a puppy jumping up ~