For whom the dog jumps

[bigdoglover]

The Free Lance Star

A dog's natural instinct is to jump up on you when you cme in the door. But you can train him not to. By Sarah A. Ferrell

Date published: 6/3/2006


"H OW CAN I stop my dog from jumping on me when I come in the door?"

Resolve to devote a few minutes every time you come home to teach your dog that a sit will be rewarded as the best greeting behavior.

Why does your dog jump up?
Bongo is trying to sniff your face and investigate what you have had to eat and where you have been. Your dog's returning-pack-member greeting behavior has been offered by dogs for thousands of years. Did your mother teach you to always stop when you enter a room and greet everyone present? Good manners. Your dog is offering you his version of good doggy manners: canine greeting behavior. He is not a bad dog. He is an untrained dog.

No-jump training program 'don'ts'
There is no magic cure for Bongo's exuberant jump-up welcome. Don't waste your money on gimmicks that will not produce desired results. Humane, consistent, positive work with the dog are key to teaching what you want him to do.

Promise that you will not do these things:

Do not wham the dog in the chest with your knee. You may hurt the dog enough to impress upon him that he gets hurt when he jumps up. You also may teach the dog that coming to you is a very bad thing. A dog that is afraid of you and will not come to you says more about an owner's bad temperament than it does about the learning capacity of the dog.


Do not step on the dog's toes. Hurting the dog may bring about a change in the dog's desire to get close enough to jump on you, but punishment will not teach the dog not to jump on people other than you. He will probably still jump gleefully on tiny children and small or frail humans. If these people are knocked down and possibly injured, the dog will be blamed even though the owner of the dog is always to blame for not controlling the dog.

Punishment techniques teach the dog very little about not jumping up. Take time daily, for as many days as necessary, to teach your dog to sit for greeting.


No-jump training program 'must-dos'


The true no-jump fix will occur when your dog learns to automatically sit the moment a human arrives in his company. This learning will take time. How long? As long as it takes you to teach the dog a "sit-stay," followed by teaching the dog to sit as his greeting behavior.


Keep a supply of delicious dog treats in your pockets. Enter your house armed with rewards. The moment you open the door, show your dog a cookie and lure him into a sit. He will jump on you the first few times you try this. He has not realized that a "sit" will produce a better reward (food) than the glee he has taught himself to feel when he jumps on a returning pack member.

Keep a firm grip on the cookie. Hold the cookie almost touching his nose. Slowly lure him backward as you say, "Sit!" The moment his bottom touches the floor, praise him lavishly. Smile brightly and say, "Good sit!" Feed him the cookie.

As long as he remains sitting, rub him from head to toe. Show him that sitting to greet you makes you very pleased. Use your cookie and your praise to produce a "sit" every time you come through the door. Train all family members and guests to require him to sit to be petted.


Keep a short, sturdy leash near the entry door, and use it to control your dog. The leash is a tool that many dog owners forget to use when practicing behavior-management skills. Keep a leash near the door, ready to snap onto the dog as you enter.

If delivery people or unexpected guests arrive and Bongo stakes out the door before you can get there to control him, snap on the leash before you open the door. Every time you prevent the dog from the doggy gratification of jumping on a human, you are teaching him not to jump.


Ignore jumping up. Let us imagine that a day comes when you do not have a cookie, and you forgot to keep the leash near the door. Bongo reverts to his natural jumping-up greeting behavior. Turn your back on the dog. Or, turn sideways and deflect his leap toward his focus (your face). Walk away from your leaping dog. Shun him. Pay him absolutely no attention until he calms down. Get your treat. Snap on his leash. Work on several "sits." With practice, your dog will grasp the message: "I sit when I greet a human."


Do your own homework. Obtain professional training for yourself. Whether you enroll in a local basic obedience class, or buy yourself a dog-training book or video, invest in self-education for teaching positive, humane, result-producing dog training. Three exceptional books are:

"Dr. Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book" by Ian Dunbar (jamesandkenneth.com). Dunbar's writing is witty, wise and fun to read. Can't find time to settle down with a dog-training book? Dunbar offers a terrific series of four dog training videos, called "Training the Companion Dog." Tape 3 focuses on "preventing jumping up and walking on leash."

"Twenty One Days to a Trained Dog" (Fireside Books) by Dick Maller will teach you, step by step, how to praise, reward and teach commands to your dog every time the dog offers you a "sit," "down" or "come." Maller's method puts a name on naturally occurring body positions that you want the dog to repeat on command.

"Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs" by Karen Pryor (Sunshine Books, clickertraining.com) is a book that I wish every breeder, every rescue or shelter placement person could afford to give to each person who goes home with an untrained dog. Pryor's positive-reinforcement training methods make sense, are easy to perform, and help the dog to like to learn. Pryor's book includes chapters explaining "Why every interaction with your dog is a training opportunity, why mistakes are best ignored and why punishment doesn't work."

Quick fixes: No-jump foundation training

Sometimes your granny is coming and you must stop Bongo from breaking her hip. Problem is, you do not have time to train the no-jump method before granny crosses your threshold.


The out-of-sight prevention method: When you know company is coming, put the dog in another room with door closed until company settles and sits.

Bring out big bowl of popcorn and ask all guests to ask your dog to "sit" and give one piece of popcorn, with praise when the dog approaches and sits. If your dog is so untrained that he is going to jump on the sitting guests, this is the opportunity for you to snap on that leash that you should have nearby at all times.

This "put-away-and-then-bring-out-on-leash" method works only if you see an unexpected guest heading toward your door. Any would-be visitors who arrive unexpectedly are just as rude as your dog that tends to knock them down with a wild greeting. As a genteel host, if you decide to reward the drop-in quest by opening your door, you must smile stiffly while you corral your could-be errant dog.

"Pizza pan on toenails" method: My dog Izobel and I took a puppy kindergarten class taught by Julie Hogan at Waggin' Tails Junction Kennel in Manassas. Frazzled dog owners asked Hogan, "How can I stop my dog from jumping up?" Hogan taught us the "pizza pan method."

Buy several cheap pizza pans. Any flat metal pan will do. Keep one pan in your car, one outside each entry door. Before you greet your jumping dog, get the pan ready to deflect the scrape of jumping toenails. Hold the pan at the exact level where the jumping dog's paws will touch you. When the dog jumps up, his toenails will rake the pan. Most dogs do not like metal under their toes. You are not trying to hit, swat or hurt the dog. You are simply trying to keep the dog's toenails off your body. As the dog jumps, hold the pan at paw-touch height and command "Sit!" in a firm, but not punishing, voice. Get your always-ready cookie out of your pocket. When the dog sits, feed the cookie while the dog is in "sit" position. Praise enthusiastically, saying, "Good, sit!"

All of the dogs that I have met that were trained with this stop-gap anti-jump technique have thrilled their owners with positive results. Within a few weeks of pan training, the trainer can hold out just the flat palm of his hand toward the dog, instead of the metal pan, as he commands " Sit!"

Make time for upbeat practicing and gleeful playtime: Promise yourself and your dog that you will stop wasting time merely wishing he would not jump up. Begin today with his sit-for-petting-and-praise greeting. Resolve to read at least one helpful dog-training book. Take your dog for a long walk. Vow that you will never again chastise your dog for misbehavior unless you can swear that you have trained him and that you have spent exercise time with him. Ask yourself, "Has this dog had at least 30 minutes of exercise and mental stimulation today?" If not, you probably have a bored dog that needs more attention and playtime. Train him. Don't blame him.