Why do our dogs jump up? Usually when the behaviour is least wanted as we have our best glad rags on and about to go out, or when we stop to talk to others during walks leaving the other folks with big muddy paw prints. Jumping up is a natural behaviour carried out as a greeting to newly arrived humans or other dogs, In the wolf pack when the hunt members of the family return to the den the young pups will instinctively jump up and paw at the muzzles of the adult Canines, this is a request for the adult to regurgitate food which they duly oblige. Another reason for jumping up is when engaged in rough play or wrestling with pack mates, so we have an instinctive behaviour learned from an early age through genetics.
DISCOVER THE REAL CAUSE
The behaviour is often reinforced by human activity by fussing the dog in the position of paws on our bodies, the behaviour will be repeated time after time as the dog is only following natural instinct and doing what he believes to be acceptable.
How do we stop the behaviour
We need to give our dog the correct message, No this is not acceptable. A common error is to use conflicting cue words to bring the dog down to ground level, for example what does DOWN mean “do you want me to stand on the floor or lay down? I’m confused”. We actually need one cue to a behaviour, so to teach on the floor we simply say FLOOR! Repelling the dog with a gentle push giving a negative result to the behaviour. When we have 4 paws on the floor we reinforce the behaviour. Ignore the unwanted behaviour reinforce the desired behaviour never use punishment, if we use aversive methods like smacking the dogs nose, stepping on hind feet, this could be seen as an aggressive confrontation situation by the dog resulting in stress/anxiety or fight.
If you would like to learn more on this topic then make the Pawsative Choice, book your training session in the first instance.
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