Does your Dog Think they are More Kangaroo than Dog?

Does your Dog Think they are More Kangaroo than Dog? Five Tips to Reduce Jumping Up and Encourage your Dog to Keep their Paws on the Floor.

by Katie Bedrossian, Pet Behaviour Consultant

While dogs jumping up on people to greet is something we don’t desire, it is very natural for dogs to greet in this way.

Despite it being a natural greeting behaviour, there is a lot we can do to teach them to keep all four paws on the floor instead of jumping up.

1. Management. Prevent the jumping up in the first place. The more your dog is allowed to practise an unwanted behaviour (such as jumping up), the more the undesired behaviour is reinforced, which in turn leads to them continuing with it. Management can be using leads to manage distance with expected visitors rather than your dog being free to get to the front door each time a visitor arrives.
2. Reward all 4 paws on the floor before your dog jumps up. A stand or a sit could be rewarded. Having a container of treats by the front door can help.
3. Sit. Encourage your dog to sit every time you give your dog something of value, particularly any physical attention.
4. Ignore. Do not interact with your dog if there is any jumping up (place your hands on shoulders and look away).
5. Always give rewards on the floor rather than from hands. This reduces the jumping up to hands and encourages your dog to look down rather than at people’s faces (which makes jumping up harder to resist).

The above is just a snippet of generalised tips, so if jumping up is a problem for your dog, or if your dog has another unwanted behaviour, please organise a behaviour consultation with me (Katie Bedrossian) for a more comprehensive and personalised plan.