
Jumping up is a behaviour often displayed by our four legged companions that many dog owners find tricky to manage. Jumping up is often rooted in natural instincts, arousal, or an attempt to communicate with a human. We will explore possible reasons for jumping up, the emotions fuelling jumping up, and strategies to change the undesired behaviour of jumping up to a desired behaviour using positive training techniques.
Possible emotions driving the behaviour of jumping up on people :
Excitement: often associated with happiness or anticipation of fun things to happen. Jumping up is an outlet for happy feelings and increased energy, but the dog hasn’t learned to channel the heightened arousal appropriately.
Affection: a dog wants to express love and connection with their human and an attempt to reach our faces, mimicking a natural behaviour when interacting, sniffing muzzles amongst friends.
Attention Seeking: the behaviour is used for interaction or validation. Dogs learn quickly that jumping up results in a reaction from the human – whether positive or negative.
Insecurity: A dog feeling nervous or uncomfortable in a situation may jump up to seek reassurance or check out the intentions of a person/object approaching them.
There are many reasons that a dog might jump up on a person. In fact, though it may seem paradoxical, dogs lacking confidence may jump up because of underlying anxiety or conflict about the pending interaction. For these dogs, jumping may release stress or defuse an uncomfortable situation.
At the other extreme, some very playful dogs jump when they are excited or overstimulated. Understanding the emotions behind the behaviour is key to successfully addressing it. Jumping up can be problematic when the person at the receiving end feels frightened, or it can be painful.
1. How to teach a desired behaviour in favour of jumping up
Reinforcing a desired behaviour in favour of jumping up. Reinforcing by rewarding the desired action is an effective dog training technique rather than pushing the dog away without teaching an alternative. The first step is to decide how you would like your dog to behave when a person is approaching. Would you like your dog to sit, lie down, stand, or find a toy All training plans begin with the desired goal behaviour in mind.
Next, consider what rewards the dog will likely enjoy during a greeting. Some dogs may like being stroked, while others enjoy attention and verbal praise. Most dogs enjoy treats. It is important to know what your dog finds pleasurable so you can appropriately reward your dog when he exhibits the desired greeting behaviour and reinforces good decision-making.
Once you have a desired behaviour and reward in mind, you can create a training plan. It is important to train systematically, step by step. Your dog will succeed most if you begin with small, achievable goals. As your dog’s skills improve, you can gradually increase the challenge or complexity of the tasks.

How do I begin the training?
It is essential to begin in a calm environment without any distractions. Your dog may be enthusiastic, and the first training step may be to help your dog control his excitement. A house lead may help to encourage calmness and engagement with you. An engaged dog will focus on tasks and be an enthusiastic learner. At first, work only with family members and people familiar to the dog. Work in a quiet area that is free from distractions and have plenty of tasty rewards ready.
2. Training your puppy to greet people calmly
As your dog approaches the person in the practice greeting, quickly deliver a reward before the dog even tries to jump. Encourage four-paws-on-the-floor by continuing to give your food reward on the ground. Your dog has approached and never had a chance to jump because he was busy eating tasty treats - he is on the floor and doing the correct behaviour!
Reward your dog and praise whenever all four paws are on the floor during greetings of people. Gradually, over several practice sessions, increase the level of excitement while delivering rewards, as long as your dog has all four paws on the floor. Practise this consistently and with patience, especially when jumping up is likely, such as when a favourite person is arriving.
If you would like your dog always to sit (or lie down) when greeting, wait until your dog remains calm and achieves "all four paws on-the-floor", then begin to ask for a “sit” and reward the sit. Your dog will approach, you provide a tasty for the calm approach, then ask for a “sit” and provide a reward. Soon, you will be able to say “sit” the moment your dog gets close to you / visitors, and that will be the new greeting posture.
Training this behaviour using a clicker will work really well. Here is an example:
Calmly smile toward your dog and say “Hello,” then immediately mark by calmly saying “nice”, “yes”, or “click” (if using a clicker) and drop a reward on the floor between the dog’s front paws. With practice, “Hello” will become the cue for calm greetings.
When your dog finishes that tasty treat, roll a treat several feet away so the dog turns away and is then ready to greet again.
Smile at your dog and say “Hello” as the dog moves toward you. As they approach, mark the correct behaviour and feed again on the floor. Feeding low encourages the dog to stay on the floor. Strategically placing your reward speeds up the training process.
Repeat these steps several times, for a few sessions, until your dog is consistently approaching you, pausing with four-on-the-floor, and looking either at you or toward the ground for the reward.
Next, increase the difficulty. You may, for instance, change the excitement level, the environment, or the duration of four-on-the-floor required to earn a treat. Try to change only one variable at a time. To change the excitement level and the environment, you might do the calm “Hello” exercise in the garden on a leash or in a room with another person present and sitting quietly nearby. To increase duration, gradually increase the interval between treats. This will teach your dog to remain patient with four-on-the-floor until you are ready to interact.
3. How do I train if my dog already jumps up on people?

If your dog already has an established pattern of jumping up, then your dog has learned that jumping up is highly rewarding. Even if you have tried to push your dog away, you likely leaned over the dog, spoke directly to him, or reached out to touch or push him away before he could jump. From the dog’s point of view, all these behaviours provide attention and are rewarding.
For dogs that routinely jump up, some management is needed to prevent them from engaging in the undesired behaviour until training has been implemented and the dog understands the correct behaviour. Holding your dog on a leash when approaching your training partner can be helpful.
As your partner begins to reward your dog for keeping four-on-the-floor, gently hold the leash just taut enough that your dog cannot easily jump up. Do not pull or jerk the leash.
The key to training a successful greeting is to visualise the greeting that you would prefer. Introduce the skill gradually, prevent mistakes with management, and practice with progressively more difficult scenarios until the greeting behaviour is well understood with a variety of distractions, levels of excitement, and environments.
4. Can I reward my dog with a cuddle instead of a treat?
Some dogs are comfortable with physical contact and being stoked during greetings, and some are not. Carefully watch your dog’s body language. Signals such as leaning away, pausing, looking away, pinning ears back, lowering the head or body, lowering the tail, or moving to the side are all signs that your dog is not sure about the pending interaction and may not want to be touched.
In this case, your training will be most effective if you use tasty food rewards. Otherwise, your dog may become increasingly anxious about initiating interactions with people. To prevent your dog from experiencing stress when greeting people, never allow anyone, whether a familiar guest or a stranger, to reach toward or touch your dog if your dog is showing signs of avoidance or fear.

5. I have tried this training strategy, but my dog still jumps on people. Why?
If your dog continues to jump up, then he is still experiencing a level of reward for the jumping behaviour. Have a family meeting and make sure that everyone is following the plan and that your dog is never stroked or rewarded for jumping up during a greeting. If the four-on-the-floor behaviour is only rewarded sometimes, or by some people but not others, the jumping behaviour can increase. This “variable ratio of reinforcement” is a reliable way to strengthen behaviours. Consistency is the key to success.
"Consistency is the key to success."
Why does my dog still jump up even though I scold him and push him away?
Friendly, social dogs seek social interaction and gain ones attention. Whether you shout at your dog or even push him away as he jumps, you are still giving him attention. Even negative attention can be rewarding for a dog. To change a behaviour, you must remove all possible reinforcement. Ignore the behaviour by turning away or stepping back.
You should not look at, speak to, or touch your dog when he jumps on you. It may be helpful to quietly walk past him. If necessary, you can step behind a gate or door to avoid inadvertently reinforcing the behaviour. Once your dog is calm and your presence is not novel, you may call your dog over and reward the desired behaviour of four-on-the-floor before jumping.
6. Is there a way to tell my dog to stop jumping?
Trying to stop behaviours without carefully teaching replacement behaviours creates frustration. If your dog is excited and you attempt to scold or correct him, he may only become frustrated and more excited. Also, seemingly benign corrections, such as making loud noises or spraying a dog with water, can cause fear.
It is always best to teach your dog systematically how to do the desired behaviour rather than try to thwart the undesired one.
The difficulty with startling a dog or causing discomfort while they are seeking social contact is that the dog may associate the discomfort, fear, or pain with the person they are trying to greet. This can easily cause dogs to be fearful of family members, visitors, or strangers. It is always best to systematically teach your dog how to do the desired behaviour than to try to thwart the undesired one.
7. What if I like having my dog jump on me?
Dogs can be confused if some people allow them to jump up while others don’t. If you would like a “hello hug” from your dog, then it would be helpful to train your dog to hug only when he is asked to do so. Train the “hug” behaviour separately from the greeting so that your dog fully understands how to hug appropriately. Then, even after he is trained, when you come home, always first ask your dog for a standard four-on-the-floor greeting.
Then, you can cue the hug. If your dog gets confused and begins jumping up on people who have not asked, you will need to give him a refresher training period in which only calm greetings are rewarded. In general, it is a good idea to encourage calm greetings for all non-family members, visitors, and incidental meetings. Defaulting to a calm greeting will never cause a problem, whereas jumping up can promote fear in some people or cause conflict between dogs and people. If the dog is quite large or enthusiastic, jumping up could injure someone who is small or frail.
Planning for calm greetings all the time keeps everyone safe and happy. Encourage and reinforce calm behaviour during greetings. Practise coming and going without making a fuss, which helps reduce excitement. Consistency is key to success. Ensure everyone living in the same household with the dog and visitors follows the same rules and reinforcement strategies to set the dog up for success.

Helpful tips:
Puppies and adolescent dogs find self-control very hard, so they are more likely to jump when feeling overwhelmed and excited. Puppies are often allowed to jump up, and it is fun. It is our job as guardians to teach our dogs. Sometimes, dogs jump up because they are feeling nervous, and it is their way of coping with feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
Be patient and practice. Teaching our dogs an alternative behaviour to jumping up will help them to make better choices. Over time and with lots of repetitions, your dog will learn that the better outcome is to have all paws on the floor.
Four paws on the floor is best.
Please note that there are many different techniques to train a dog. I have discussed some ideas of teaching here. Please take away what works for you and your dog.
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