How To Teach Your Dog Not To Jump

Jumping is probably the most annoying behavior than a dog can have and if you have a big dog, he can actually injure someone by jumping on them which could result in a lawsuit or worse. 

Not every dog jumps, but for many it is natural - they simply want to get up to your level and look you in the eye!  While you might think this behavior is cute, you're great Aunt Ellen and your next-door neighbor might not be so impressed with this friendly overture.

Since nobody really wants a dog jumping on them, one of the most important things you can do is teach your dog not to jump.

That being said, it's really difficult, when you come home from a hard day at work and your dog is so happy to see you that he is jumping on you, not to lavish them with praise.  However, the first step in teaching a dog not to jump is not rewarding the behavior.  So, you need to be strict with yourself and your family and not reach out and praise your dog when he jumps.

Here is some steps you can take to train your dog not to jump.

1.  Start by standing in front of the dog.  You might want to invoke a situation where you know the dog will jump.

2.  Keep a close eye and your dog's back legs and once you see that he is getting ready to jump, order the "sit" command.

3.  If your dog sits right away then great, but you probably won't be so lucky and he will probably jump up on you.

4.  Next you need to issue the command that you want to use to get him off when he is jumping.  While you might naturally think this command should be "down" if you have already used it to get him to lay down then you have to come up with another word or your dog will be confused.  Tried using the word "off".

5.  What you want to do when you see the dog jumping is bring up your knee so that the dog can't jump up on you.  If you have your knee at your dogs chest level this will kind of throw the dog off balance a little bit and he'll go back to standing.  When you do this issue the command "off".

6.  When he goes back to the standing position give him a treat and lavish him with praise.

You'll probably have to repeat this many, many times especially if the jumping behavior has been rewarded - it may take a while to break this habit.

Now it's all well and good to issue the “of” command when your dog is jumping on you, but you want to make sure it also works when he is jumping on someone else.  So, you want to enlist the aid of a family member and go through the same steps while you issue the command.

I want to note that when I say to bring your knee up I don't mean for you to knee the dog violently and sent him sprawling across the room! All you need to do is gently bring up your knee so that he can’t get up on you.  Don’t hurt your dog!