Stop Dog Jumping - The Annoying Habit
How do you stop dog jumping permanently? A dog jumping up on people is something that just about all people have to go through when they get a puppy. It is something that is very annoying but if the dog is big or if there is a small child present it could actually be pretty dangerous. The problem that people make is not correcting it when puppies start to do it. They don't do anything about it because it is so cute when a little puppy is trying to get your attention. But by not doing anything, you are just teaching them that it's ok to jump up for your attention.
You probably don't have to be told just how annoying it is when you have clean clothes on and your dog jumps up and gets them dirty. How about when they dirty the clothes of a guest? In order to stop this bad habit and correct their behavior, it is helpful to know why dogs do this.
There are quite a few reasons a dog will jump up to see you. The main one is that they are simply very excited. You may have noticed that they do it quite a bit when you have guests over, and that is because they are happy to see all the people. The next reason is because they desperately want to get your attention. If you have paid attention to them in the past when they jumped up on you and you didn't correct them, they think they are doing the right thing. They think they are behaving. In some rare cases, your dog might be trying to show that they are the dominant ones over your guests or even you. That's not usually the case, but you definitely don't want to let it get this way.
Like all other problem behaviors, you need to teach your dog what is right and what is wrong. They don't automatically know these things and they can't figure them out on their own, either!
- The best advice is to start early on when you first get a puppy. You will then be able to show them what works from the start so they will never think to jump again. It is so much easier to do this than it is to try to unteach what they have learned and correct problem behavior!
- Don't give a dog any kind of attention when they jump up on you! That is exactly what they want, and if you give it to them, they will know how well it works. You need to not enforce the behavior so they stop it once and for all.
- Do not hit your dog when they jump on you or your guests. You have to clearly communicate to them that it is not going to be tolerated and be consistent in stopping them from doing it. If you give them attention when the jump up on you sometimes and then get mad at them other times, you are just confusing them and you'll never stop the behavior. The easier you make it for your dog to know what is acceptable and what is not, the faster they will learn.
The Easy Way to Stop Dog Jumping
No matter how long your dog has been jumping on people, you can stop them with one of these techinques. The best part is that it usually doesn't take more than a couple days to see results! This is what I do when I want our dogs to stop jumping up:- Don't give your dog attention. If they jump toward you, turn away from them. They will see that when they jump on you, they lose the chance to play with you. If you don't say anything and avoid eye contact with them they will know exactly what they did wrong. Your dog will usually sit down patiently and wait for you to turn around. When they do this, you can then play with thme and praise them. They will quickly learn that the way to get your attention is to sit calmly, not jump up on you!
- Other times, your dog will be really excited and they'll want to jump up because of that. For those situations, it's a good idea to try a different command that will distract your dog enough to stop them from jumping. It can be one that is as simple as "sit." This alternate behavior training is used by a lot of professional trainers because it actually works!
- If you have a big dog like a Great Dane or a German Shepherd, you might need to use something like a prong collar. These collars act like normal ones when there is nothing pulling on them, so the idea is to have a very short leash always attached. whenever you are outside with your dog or have guests around, you can use it to train your dog not to jump by pulling on the short leash. The prongs will apply pressure to the neck of the dog in an uncomfortable way. It does not hurt them, but it will teach them a negative association with jumping.
This is one of the first things you should work on teaching a puppy! If you can get them to see that this behavior is not desirable, you will never have to worry when you have guests over. You won't ever get embarassed at the way your dog is behaving, either. It's worth the effort!
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