Dog jumping…love it or hate it?
There are a lot of dog behaviors that are troublesome to not only the owner of the pet, but also guests who arrive the home of the pet. One way dogs show how happy and excited they are to have company is to jump on the guest, or whomever new is coming into the house as a welcome gesture. However, this can be scary, intimidating and even dangerous if the dog is large enough, as small children and the elderly could be easily overpowered by the jumping dog.
Very often when a dog jumps, people will pet the dog, push it away or even in a kind voice tell the dog to get down. Believe it or not, in a subtle way, this is reward behavior to a dog as the dog is getting a reaction. These types of “rewards” will reinforce the jumping behavior in a dog.
The best type of training to eliminate jumping behavior according to the writers at petplace.com is to give no reaction to the bad behavior including silence and no recognition of the dog’s effort to get your attention.
Anyone coming to your home should be informed about your nonjumping policy and help by showing no reaction to the dog when he/she exhibits bad jumping behavior. Also, it helps in training consistency to get the help of a friend or neighbor to come to the house repeatedly and work with your dog to reward nonjumping behavior when the lessons are learned.
We know how wonderful it is for our dogs to greet our guests with excitement and pleasure. However, it is important that our dogs realize that not everyone wants a dog to jump on them and as mentioned in some cases it can be dangerous. This is the type of behavior training that can be done at home as you will most likely be the one with your dog when guests arrive. Remember, our dogs truly want to please us, so showing them no reaction to their bad jumping behavior may be the best training mechanism your dog needs.
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