A very basic tutorial on what I do with dogs who jump

[untonuggan]

So this came up in a conversation with a couple ppl lately, so here's a summary of some of the things I do with bouncy dogs.

First off is understanding motivation.For the most part, dogs who jump are not aggressive (though understanding dog body language and checking in with their person is a good idea).

For simplicity and the purposes of this particular post, I am going to operate from the assumption that the dog is probably a puppy who hasn't learned manners (or a dog who hasn't yet learned manners). Jumping up is exciting! You get close to a human's face! They give you (negative) attention which is still a form of attention, and some humans give you positive attention for jumping up with pets and stuff! Attention is (for most dogs) good!

If you want your dog or any dog not to jump up on you, the first step is to remove the reward for jumping. Jumping up = no attention. Paws on ground = some form of attention! Vocal reward (good dog!), some pets if that is your thing, treats if you have them and the person okays it with the dog's dietary stuff, throwing a ball, whatever.

If the dog is your dog, it can be helpful to recruit people you meet on walks. "yes you can pet fido, but we are trying to teach her not to jump so please only pet her when she has her paws on the ground" is usually met well.

There are also physical ways to discourage a dog from jumping on you, or even get one off of you. (This is also suuuuper useful if you are small or have chronic pain.) Again, I'm operating under the assumption that you are dealing with a super friendly but overexuberant dog.

1. Look-aways, which are the dog body language equivalent of "I'm not available for social interaction right now." A less-dog-savvy dog may not pick up on this as well, but hey, you can help teach them dog manners too. Here's a general post on look-aways.
2. Use body mechanics and the dog's own weight to get them off of you. This is obviously easier with small dogs, but even with big ones some effective ways can range from:
   1. Stepping away from a dog so that they fall off of you.
   2. Stepping out of reach of their leash range if they are on leash (if you are doing training for this, keeping them on leash can also be helpful)
   3. Turning your back on the dog may also knock them off balance and give a very clear "we are not talking until you behave" signal, but I use this more with dogs I know and can predict behavior of and also know they're not just going to knock into my back, so it's more of a 201 skill
   4. Physically pushing a dog off of you can be read as threatening by a dog, and generally doesn't work well with a 60 lb dog who is leaning against you (physics, see). It usually just heightens tension rather than reducing it, and the dog is confused and doesn't know what's going on, so I would not recommend this as a strategy.
   5. Since they *want* to see and smell you, if they do get paws on the ground, it *can* be helpful to lower your own body by kneeling. This is up to your own dog comfort level, but like with cats I find dogs are way more comfortable around someone who isn't looming over them. This, uh, does open you up to more dog kisses.
3. Want to throw in some training while you're at it? You can add a "cue word" for "please put your paws on the ground." Common US-English cues are usually "off" or "get down", spoken in a no-nonsense voice rather than a "pretty please" voice for best effect. If you use clicker training, you can throw in a click for a specific cue too. But basically, dog paws get off you (even if it's because you used your body to do it), "Good OFF", some sort of reward either attention or food or toys or a combo. Eventually, the idea is you can say OFF and the dog will put paws down on their own, or even preemptively not jump up even with excite.
4. My personal favorite is to use a combo body-mechanics-jujitsu, command reinforcement, praise and getting down to dog's level so they don't need to jump up again in one quick flourish (which does take practice) when I'm out and about, which if you can manage it is seriously impressive. I like to think. But if you can't or you are just uncomfortable around dogs, the first two are pretty good ways to just get a dog to back off when they are SUPER EXCITE to see a HUMAN.

(Was going to put this in the animal filter but I wanted it to be public, so thus the cut)

Comments

[tyger]

:D This is great advice. Sibling's puppy Yuki is still at the OMG OMG OMG HUMAN!!! stage; they are training her out of it, but this'll be super useful until they do. :D

[untonuggan]

yes, omg.

plus if you can do some of the stealth techniques, they will start thinking you are a dog whisperer when it's really just physics. ;)

[tyger]

To be fair, btw, they'd only had her two or three days when I met her, so~ heh.

|D I will DEFINITELY try for that yesss

[lavendertook]

As a person who grew up with cats and never lived with dogs, thank you for this advice. I will practice it. I like dogs who do not jump on or lick me--I think of them as doggie introverts--my kind of dog--but I guess they are just better taught non-jumping manners.

[untonuggan]

*nodnod*

yes, usually dogs who have *super annoying* or problematic behaviors had some reward for that early on, or just never got "counter-conditioning" (reward for a less annoying thing.)

so if I go to the shelter and there is a dog that starts hopping up and down when a person approaches and they're a year old, I'm like, "ahhh your people thought this was cute when you were tiny and then realized they had no clue what to do when you were huge. I am sorry. hopefully you can get time with one of the volunteer trainers and a less clueless person."

(fwiw we totally thought it was adorable when our puppy chased toys under furniture! until he got too big to fit, and did some furniture damage and had a lifelong habit of putting toys under the furniture and barking until you removed the toy. because if you gave it back he would just have it under the couch again in 3 minutes. so, yeah.)

also, one of my personal pet peeves is that people think puppy training should start with things like "sit" and "heel." my most useful things for dogs to learn: come, not pulling on a leash, letting a strange person touch their collar (for if they get loose! the catching is so much easier!), being comfortable with people being around their bowl when they're eating, being comfortable with paws/mouth/ears being touched (for vets, small kids, etc.), not jumping, and my favorite is "off" which is easy to teach but means if you drop pills on the floor you can shout "off!" pick up the pills and give your dog lots of treats and not have to give them emergency vet care. These are so much more useful than "sit." (or basically, being a fun dog to be around and not a large furry barrel of energy who you have to constantly supervise/worry about aggression issues/etc.)

sorry, minor rant over. :)