One of the questions we get asked a lot in our puppy / beginners classes is why does our dog jump up and what can we do to stop it?
Jumping up in puppy’s is a natural and normal behaviour, they jump up their mums face for attention and also to lick the corners of her mouth for food.
It makes perfect sense that they would then jump up their new family for attention and cuddles.
Clients will tell me that they never reward their dogs for jumping up, but is this true? Whether a behaviour is rewarding or not is always from the viewpoint of the dog not the human.
When dogs jump up often they get told “no” or “down” or they get pushed off or some times we will give them a cuddle when our mind isn’t on training. So we have talking to the dog, touching the dog and cuddling the dog – all of which could be viewed as reinforcing from the dogs point of view. For some dogs even getting you to look at them is super rewarding and they just love it when you start the push off game, it makes them come back for more 😉
So how do we stop the jumping? Easy! We just teach them to do something else, like sitting or keeping all 4 feet on the floor instead 😊
For help with this issue, get yourself booked onto our puppy or beginners classes at the link below or contact Kate@starpawformers.co.uk / 07972 789027 if you would prefer more individual training via our 121 training and behavioural packages 🤩
