Jumping

Jumping

Jumping can be a very frustrating behaviour in dogs/puppies. The majority of people do not like to be jumped on by a dog or puppy. It can hurt or they can hit one of our body parts the wrong way and put a person out of commission for a while. It is embarrassing to have an out of control animal. Here are a few scenarios and some tips to help.

For some dogs they jump because they have too much energy pent up inside. A good game of tug or run would help burn this energy off.

For some dogs they jump because their breed was bred to have to be able to jump. Terrain or tracking may require this type of behaviour. Teaching them when an appropriate time to jump, could stop it from happening at the wrong time.
For some dogs it is a dominance behaviour that only starts if they are intact, and are starting to get hormone surges. If you know you are going to leave your puppy intact through hormone aquisition then teaching a sit or down as early as possible will help keep or gain control of this possibility.

For some dogs jumping is a response because they are a guarding breed. The jump is to push you away from their owner. The owners of guarding dogs need to get help with this behaviour as soon as it arises.

The opposite of jumping for a dog is to sit, having a strong sit command is very important to keep all 4 paws on the ground at all times.

If someone tells you it's ok for your puppy/dog to jump on them please educate them and say it is NOT OK. A puppy is not born knowing how to behave in the human world. We have to teach them we are not a dog, and they are NOT to jump on us.