How do I stop my dog from jumping on me or other people?
He jumps on me or whoever any chance he gets. he is extremely friendly and gets overly excited when he see’s me or a visitor. I can walk away for 1 minute and when i returnn he acts like i’ve been gone for days.
Well, years ago a trainer suggested a knee in the chest for my American Eskimo, but this didn’t phase her one bit. So I don’t really feel this method is very effective in very hyper dogs really… and that seems to be your case.
Our current trainer told us to immediately say “off” in a firm voice and turn our backs on the puppy until she is down on all 4’s, at which time, we immediately turn around, praise her and say “Good off” in a pleasant tone.
Kneeing a dog down, or yelling at them no, without doing anything else is still a form of attention, even if it’s negative. The idea here is to “remove” the reward for jumping up, which is to turn your back and ignore the dog until he does as you want.
The hard part is getting family and friends to help you on this. More than once I have had someone say to me, “oh, it’s okay, she’s just excited”. Okay, sure, that person doesn’t mind, but what about someone who does. I have had to persistently remind family and friends how to handle the jumping up situation to help us discourage it all together. If you allow it sometimes, it sends mixed signals and confuses the dog as to what you want of them. It’s VERY IMPORTANT that you ALWAYS address the jumping behavior each and every time.
This has worked well with our Border Collie puppy and tho it does take time to accomplish (so be patient and persistent) it will work. Putting your dog in a sit is a very good thing too and is something you can impliment once you have the jumping more under control.
Edit: Also, never step backwards to get your dog down on all 4’s as you are “allowing” him to have your space and as an alpha pack leader, you shouldn’t allow this.
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things to try:
*ignore him when you first come in.
*when you come in and you see him, tell him to sit, if he tries to jump on you, turn your back and tell him to sit, and when he is sitting, lean down and pet him, praise him. if he tries to jump again turn back around
*have him with a small leash in the house. hold him on the leash when someone else comes in, tell him to sit, and then have the person come over for him to meet…
*practice sit and stay with him
*have him sit everytime you go somewhere and he is meeting new people (tell them you are training him and you want him to sit before they pet him) places like petsmart, vet, a walk, are all good places to practice.