Ask the Trainer: My Dog Jumps On People He Meets

Video: How to Train Your Dog to Stop Jumping Up on People

Dear Kevin,
How do I keep my dog Rocky from barking and jumping up on people?
Thanks!
Rodney

Video: Dog Pulls & Jumps When Approaching Other Dogs : Dog Behavior & Training

Hi Rodney,

It sounds like Rocky is getting excited when he sees people. What I like to do is teach him an incompatible behavior. An incompatible behavior for jumping is sitting. The cool thing is that if we focus heavily on teaching him to sit when he meets someone, he won’t jump.

It takes a little bit of work in the beginning but the overall idea is for him to realize that the reward (meeting the person) only comes if he does the correct thing. (sitting) When you do this you’ll want to use a leash. This leash will allow you to remove the reward (pull him away) if he makes the decision to jump.

The video below gives a good visual of how to do this.

Video: Dog Training - Solve Your Dog's Jumping Problem

In order to have success in curbing these unwanted behaviors you’ll need to get a lot of repetition in. If you only have a guest over once a month, this will be nearly impossible to curb. That is because you’ll only be getting in roughly 12 repetitions a year. The more reps you get in, the quicker you reach your goal.