Jumping problems?

July 21, 2020 Daniela Carrera

By Daniela Carrera

July 21, 2020 In Blog, Dog Training

Jumping is one of the most common and easy to fix behavioral issues in dogs. A dog that jumps can ruin a nice evening with friends and family in your house or give you a bad reputation in your neighborhood where kids run away from you and your doggie. There’s nothing more delightful than coming into a stranger’s house without getting harassed by a 70 pound lab, and it’s very easy! I’ll show you.
What causes jumping in dogs?

Jumping is mostly caused by reward history. When a puppy comes to our new home is easy to treat him like a baby right? We carry our new friend around, we think he is very susceptible and that we most protect him. Most of the time it is really cute when the puppy jumps on us to say hi and gets on our lap to get attention. Dogs learn by repetition and it is very easy to reward your dog when he is jumping on you, because he gets a prize when you touch him, say his name, or look at him.
How to get rid of Jumping
Reestablish your pack distribution
Dogs need a strong structure and a solid base to feel confident and to manage their emotions in a good way. In order to get rid of any behavioral issue we must make sure our dog has the strong leader he needs. Do we make sure our dog follows the rules of the house? Do we give love on demand? Do we leave his food in his bowl all day so he can eat when he wants (not when it is his feeding time? As pack leaders we should control our dogs resources.
If he is a very dominant dog or possessive there should be a place in the house he is not allowed to go, like your bed or on top of sofas or chairs. They don’t have the intelligence to manage complex situations and that’s one of the reasons dogs have person aggression. Teach him that there are boundaries in his life by using training like crate training or place training. If he is allowed on the furniture only allow it on command and only allow him to do it when you want him too. Be consistent about whatever set of rules you choose.
2. Honor the right conduct
Treat or touch your pup as soon as someone is about to walk in the door before they run to the door or bark, so you catch him in the right behavior while he is calm and relaxed. Then wait longer next time to provide the touching or praise. If he starts getting whiny and anxious ignore him.
If your dog jumps when he greets people outside on the street, ask the person who is going to say hi to wait until he is calm before touching him. People are very nice about waiting when you tell them you have a behavioral issue you are working on. Tell the person who wants to say hi to move back a few steps if your dog is jumping already just by seeing this human getting closer and closer. Reward your dog when he is not jumping repeatedly either by petting him or by allowing him to move a little closer (as long as he continues to behave). It might be good to plan for this “training session” ahead of time and ask a friend to come help. Work on this for a few weeks consistently.
3. Incompatible behaviors
Dogs cant normally do more than one thing at a time. You can usually replace one bad conduct with a command if you repeat that action long enough.
Start by training sit, down, place or crate in a quiet
place for a little while, ideally you should workin the same area where you have problems with your dog’s behavior. Then, move the door, knock on the wall and create distractions. If he breaks the action put him back and don’t reward him. Use a partner or friend to ad distractions to repeat the action that usually causes a problem. Do short sessions and finish up when he is doing well, in that way he will be more likely to remember it and be willing to train the next time.
When your dog is ready, present the stimuli or environment your dog struggles with. First, start from far away and start getting closer and closer. Remember, we want to train what we want our dog to perform, so be consistent and don’t give up! Some dogs take longer than others.
4. Ignore behavior
For some dogs, if the person doesn’t make a sound and acts like the dog is not there while jumping, it is enough of a bad experience that the dog will not repeat the action, or they start to try less.
5.Punishment
This is a classic dog training rule: Adding a negative reinforcement is going to make the undesired action less likely to be repeated in the future. Of course, it depends on the dog. If you have a dog that is very fearful don’t try this. This is a great way to end the problem in a fast and permanent way.

-Knee up: Present the negative stimuli by getting your knee in the air so your dog can’t reach you as he is jumping on you. Raising your knee before the dog jumps creates distance and creates a difficult/narrow area for the dog to lean on.
-Collar correction: Pop the collar down, releasing immediately and repeating a few times.
Is important to know that when we correct a dog we cant reward him with attention immediately after since we will be telling him two opposite things and we will get him confused.
Please, don’t think you will be harming your dog psychologically by correcting him. Dogs need rules and they need to be told what to do and not do. They are physical and need communication that they can understand. When we apply corrections, we want them to be as natural as we can, without adding too much. The amount of pressure is going to be determined by how much your dog can tolerate it without getting shut down. Use training collars that simulate the correction of the mother. Depending on your dog’s specific personality and temperament you can try collars like Martingales, Starmark and Prong Collars.
Hope that this was very helpful, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Daniela Carrera
Head Coach
Good Dogs Training