How To Keep Your Dog Off Of Stuff

So, you have a dog who won't keep all four paws on the floor

? Maybe she takes a flying leap at you every time you walk in the front door? Of course, your dog thinks she's expressing her unbelievable enthusiasm at seeing you after a long day away (or maybe after five minutes outside). In reality she's being fairly obnoxious. It can be difficult to make a dog stop jumping on you and other people but it can be done.

In theory, teaching your dog to keep her paws on the floor and not jump on you should be easy. You simply ignore her completely when she jumps on you. The problem comes when she gets any kind of reinforcement for her jumping behavior. If you pet, speak to her, touch, or reward in anyway, that will be enough to keep encouraging the jumping behavior. If you have family that she also jumps on they may also be inadvertently encouraging the jumping behavior. If a neighbor comes in the door and she jumps on them, they may accidentally encourage the behavior.

In order to stop the jumping behavior it's necessary to substitute a desirable behavior in its place. In order to teach this lesson you will need help from a neighbor or friend, preferably someone who has a lot of time to spend going in and out your door.

You need to leash your dog and have food treats with you. Ask your friend to knock. Tell your dog to "Sit." Reward her for sitting. Then your neighbor can come in. If she tries to get up and jump you can tell her "Off!" and tell her to "Sit!" again. Reward her when (if) she sits. You want to teach your dog to sit when you give the command (when your neighbor knocks). When you give the "Off!" command she should leave off the jumping and sit. Your dog should learn to replace the jumping behavior with sitting when someone knocks.

You will need to keep practicing this lesson, probably quite a bit. Remember that you can't reward your dog for jumping up on you or your family members. You will all need to ignore her if she does that. Tell her "Off!" if she tries to jump up on you. Tell her "Sit!" if you see her approaching you before she jumps. Later you can start trying this exercise when she is leashed around other people.

You should work on "proofing" your dog by taking her to other people's homes and see how she does when people knock on their doors and walk in. It may be hard for her to contain her enthusiasm at first, especially in a new place, but if you follow the same procedure it should work.

Jumping up on people is a very annoying habit but it can be overcome. Lots of puppies and young dogs engage in this behavior but with a little training you can teach your dog to keep "four on the floor."

by: Tristan Andrews

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