Dogs are extremely friendly animals and, unlike cats, they have a rather strong desire to want to see and to interact with people on a face-to-face basis. But unfortunately, this can actually lead to most dogs jumping up on people so that they can have that valuable face-to-face contact with people that they so desire. When dogs are just puppies, it may seem cute when your puppy jumps up on people, but once that pup starts growing up to be a bigger, stronger dog, it’s jumping up can become a problem. Your dog can be seen as being intimidating when he jumps up, not to mention it can also even be painful.

For this reason it is best to train your puppy from a young age that jumping up on people is not appropriate behavior nor is it behavior that you will allow your puppy to do.

If your dog was never trained not to jump up as a puppy, then you should start immediately to try and eliminate the jumping problem.

One of the best tactics you should take in combating your dog’s urge to jump to jump, actually involves a bit of reverse psychology. Before your dog has a chance to jump up on you, kneel down so that you are at your dog’s eye level. By doing this your dog will be able to see your face, which in turn, eliminates one of the main reasons he wants to jump up in the first place. By lowering yourself down to his level, you are letting your dog know that you do see and acknowledge him.

If, however, that tactic does not work on your dog, then you can always try to turn your back on your dog as soon as he starts to jump up. But do keep in mind, that some dogs will see this action on your behalf as a willingness to play a game!

By refusing to acknowledge your dog until he has settled down and sits, you will be subtly teaching him what is acceptable behavior from him in order to get your loving attention. You can also do this by simply looking upwards and not down at your dog.

Keep in mind that almost every dog hates to be ignored, especially if that is the reason for their jumping up on you in the first place. Try to remain as committed as possible to not making any eye contact with your dog until he has calmed down sufficiently, as the slightest little bit of acknowledgment from you will make your dog become excited all over again and you will then find that you will have to start teaching him again from scratch to not jump up on people.

Some dog trainers advocate grabbing your dog’s paws as he jumps up on you. This is supposed to work rather well with large breed dogs. Once you have a hold of your dogs’ paws, you can slowly walk your dog backwards for a few steps and then gently place his front paws back down on the ground, whilst repeating the ‘down’ command.

The reason this seems to work is that most dogs really do hate to walk backwards, and by doing so will force your dog to start to associate this unpleasantness with his jumping. Also, by repeating the ‘down’ command as you place his paws back down on the ground, your dog will soon learn to associate it with keeping his paws on the floor and not jumping.

If your dog does not seem to remember what the command ‘down’ or even ‘sit’ means, then order your dog to go and get his ‘toy’. This will help by redirecting your dogs energy away from jumping up on you or anyone else, and will focus her attention on finding his toy.

Once you feel that your dog has mastered this, invite a few friends over and let your dog practice his ‘no jumping’ skill and commands with your friends. Be sure to have your friends give your dog a lot of praise and a few treats as soon as your dog sits and does not jump up on anyone.

Make sure, however, that you are consistent with your dog’s training, regardless of whichever method you decide to use to teach your dog not to jump up. It won’t take too long to train your dog not to jump up on people anymore.

Photo Credit: abbynormy