Stop and Train Your Dog From Jumping up On People

Dogs instinctively love jumping up on people, especially big puppies because they want to get closer to your face, or it is their way of greeting you. However, this can be dangerous if you have small children in the home. The dog will not mean to but could possibly hurt the child by jumping up and knocking them over.

Puppies normally jump up on people more than adult dogs because they become overly excited and they simply want to be close to you. Nevertheless, if you have company over, and your dog likes jumping on everyone, it probably is not going to be welcomed by your guests. Many people will just pull the dog off by the collar or scold the puppy or dog, but there is a much better way. When you scold your dog, you can make the dog afraid of you and this can lead to the development of anxiety in the dog.

Teach Your Dog Not to Jump with Body Language

The best trick is very useful especially if you have a medium to large dog is called the body block. This is a non threatening and a gentle way to get your message across to your dog that you do not like the behavior. When the dog begins to jump, turn your body to sideways and then extend one of your legs and step directly into the dog's line of jump or his space, that defuses the dog's from ever getting his or her front paws on you. You never have to say a word, your body does all the talking and the dog will soon understand.

Along with the body block, begin teaching your dog to sit. So once you have blocked the jump, use the command "sit" when the dog sits, praise her and give plenty of attention. What you are teaching the dog is jumping gets them no attention but sitting does. As the dog learns the sit command, you can use this command when people come over.

Of course, the dog will want to sniff guests, after all humans feel their environment with their hands, while a dog sniffs their environment, which is how they actually "feel" things. The trick is to make sure he or she is calmly sitting before they can approach guests.

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Getting the Entire Family on Board

If you have a jumping puppy and you use the body block while the rest of the family continues to allow the dog to jump, what he has learned is it is not okay to jump on you but everyone else is fair game. Everyone member of the household should use the body block, and then the "sit" command, which sends a clear message that jumping is not allowed on humans. By only one or two family members using the body block, the puppy will never learn not to jump. Often people think their dog is not trainable when actually it is the family sending mixed messages to their dog.

Surprise Jump

Sometimes, you may be sitting down and the puppy will come up from a different angle and surprise jump on you. Your initial reaction is to push the dog away with your hands, but this can indicate playtime to the dog, and he or she will simply continue to come back again and again. Instead, quickly, turn your body away from the dog, even if you are in the seated position. Turning your body away from the dog sends a very powerful message to your dog.

As you and other family members consistently use the body block and sit command, the dog quickly learns jumping is not allowed and it is no longer an issue for you and your guests. Again, it is vital to be consistent and have everyone in the house on board, because if just one person allows jumping, the dog gets mixed messages.

Continued Training

The nice thing about the body block is you can use this for other forms of behavioral problems a puppy may have, such as biting. Puppies love nipping and playing and while they are not meaning to intentionally hurt you, the puppy teeth can indeed draw blood because they are very sharp, so turning away from the puppy completely when he or she begins biting tells the puppy the game is over. Anytime the puppy nips, turn your body completely away from him, after all, this is what puppies do when they are playing. If you watch puppies at play, if one gets too rough, you will hear a yelp, and the injured pup turns away from the nipper, game over.

Final Thoughts

As you continue to train your puppy to not jump using the body blocking method, you can implement all sorts of other training skills. These can include, fetch, stay, roll over, just to name a few. The more you work with your dog, the more commands he can learn and the more he learns, the better behaved he or she is and the happier the entire family is and your guests.

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