Mary Allen
Your dog jumps at you, your visitors, or even strangers? In the worst case, he also snaps?
Oh dear, then now is high time to get to the bottom of the problem and, above all, to tackle this topic. You now want to break your dog’s habit of jumping.
Please also think of your fellow human beings here. Many people get scared when a dog jumps on them out of nowhere. It can go so far that someone gets scared and a stupid accident happens.
Of course we want to avoid this!
In the following article you will find the main reasons why your dog jumps at people and solutions on how YOU can stop him from doing so.
In a nutshell: get your dog out of the habit of jumping
People jumping can have a variety of causes. It doesn’t matter whether it’s dominance behavior, bullying or a missed upbringing in puppyhood. The problem must be recognized and resolved in order to enable peaceful coexistence between humans and dogs. Because especially when it comes to children, jumping should be avoided at all costs.
By regulating your dog’s arousal level, you can break the habit of jumping and get back to socializing without a bad gut feeling.
Why is my dog jumping at me or at strangers?
There are various reasons why a dog jumps at you or strangers. Of course, these vary from dog to dog and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
It is therefore important that before you start training you are aware of why your dog is jumping at you or at strangers. Is it pure joy, naughtiness or even aggression?
Observe your dog and also your behavior. If you know the cause, nothing stands in the way of a solution.
Your pup wants your attention
From your dog’s point of view, jumping up is a completely normal form of communication that stems from puppyhood. Puppies jump up on their mothers for attention.
They usually associate jumping up with the mother’s lips moaning. The panting is not only a welcome greeting, but also shows peaceful behavior towards the other.
If the puppy jumps up, it’s relatively easy to break the habit.
Who does not know it? The dog jumps at you happily and licks your face. In principle, this is nothing other than what the puppy has learned.
I am stronger than you
Young dogs in particular, who enjoy their ranking, often use jumping to test their strength. Here you should keep an eye on it. Such ranking fights can very quickly degenerate into real tussles.
Young dogs also tend to pounce when asked for something. Also towards people. Now is the right time to start training.
Your dog needs to learn that this action will not get him where he wants to be. He will only discard a behavior when he realizes that it is not doing him any good.
The energy has to go
Dogs that don’t know what to do with their energy tend to jump at their opponent. When your dog is excited or nervous, they often use jumping to get rid of their excess energy and use what are known as “jumping actions”. This behavior can be solved relatively well with distance and consistency.
Attention – take responsibility!
As a dog owner, it is your duty to protect strangers from being jumped on by your dog. Not everyone on the street wants to be greeted with a smile.
Dirty paw prints or even accidents can occur relatively quickly. That’s why I always recommend that you, as a dog owner, take out liability insurance. Better safe than sorry!
Your dog “represents” people
Some dogs, especially guard dog breeds, represent people by jumping up. If your dog jumps at other people for this reason, I recommend a competent trainer.
Together you will solve this problem.
Your dog jumps up, snaps, and won’t be calmed down?
If your dog jumps up, snaps at you, and won’t be calmed down, there can be several triggers. In any case, he wants to achieve something with it and has probably already learned that this behavior will get him to his goal.
Does your dog seek your attention and want to sit on your lap?
Or is it a defiant reaction to something? Does he want to demonstrate that he knows where to go?
If your dog behaves like Rambo on the leash, then feel free to check out our article on leash aggression.
Whatever it is, your dog’s behavior is unacceptable and should be stopped as soon as possible.
But how do you calm down a dog that’s out of control?
First of all, it is important to keep calm and to radiate it. There is no point in scolding or yelling at the dog. It will rather make the situation worse. See the article below for more tips.
Rarely is jumping and snapping aggressively in nature. However, if your dog growls at you and snaps at you, you should definitely take this seriously and distance yourself from yours for the time being.
How do you get your dog to stop jumping?
What was sweet and relatively cute as a puppy is now just annoying and has to be weaned. However, as a human being, you encouraged this behavior. You probably paid more attention to your dog when he was a puppy by jumping up.
Your goal now should be for your dog to behave correctly as naturally without converting the jumping up into an alternative behavior. He just shouldn’t jump up on you or strangers.
How can I stop my puppy from jumping?
Small puppies will use a wide range of behaviors to get your attention.
Having found success with your mothers by jumping on them, they are now trying to do the same with you.
The rules for getting your puppy to stop jumping are very simple. When your puppy jumps up on you, you simply turn away in that moment.
This is how you deprive him of all the attention he actually wants. You don’t pay attention to him, you don’t talk to him and you don’t touch him in this situation.
This teaches your puppy that the undesirable behavior, i.e. jumping up, leads to the exact opposite of what he actually wants to achieve.
Don’t do anything that might encourage the puppy to jump up on you. No quick movements and no speaking in a high voice. All this has a motivating effect on the little ones and challenges them to jump up again.
With a bit of patience on your part, the issue of jumping up and puppies will be resolved fairly quickly. Always end the exercises on a positive note. So reward the puppy for having all 4 paws on the ground.
In this way, you can also break a dog’s stormy greeting.
My tip: resist cuteness
Dogs, including puppies, know exactly which buttons to press to get to their destination! If the puppy doesn’t get attention, it may jump and snap at you too. stay consistent!
How can you teach an adult dog an alternative behavior?
With young dogs and adult dogs, you can design the training in the same way as with a puppy.
However, this behavior has already become established in an adult dog, since it has made him successful. For you, this means that the training is more time-consuming than with a puppy.
Here it is recommended to learn and build up an alternative behavior, such as sitting. Of course, you can choose a behavior that you want. Think about this before you start training.
Every time your dog “pounces” on you or your visitor, use the sit command before he has reached you or them. If your dog doesn’t accept the command, you turn away.
It might even make sense to use a leash here, so you can interrupt the dog’s actions. Of course, as always, you must not use violence in training.
Of course, it is now very important that you properly reward the new, desired behavior. Reward calmly and thoughtfully. If you burst out cheering loudly, you may be asking your dog to jump again.
Then he thinks: “Yippie, party!” And of course he’s all in!
Over time, your dog will use the alternative behavior, such as the sit in this example, on its own. As already mentioned, it takes a lot of time and consistency.
Another possibility is that you distract from the jump by simply introducing a new greeting ritual. Make sure that you start the diversionary maneuver before he starts to jump.
No energy to jump off
If your dog doesn’t know what to do with his energy in a stressful situation, the jump action arises.
In this case, it is important that your dog learns where and how to release its excess energy. More importantly, however, it doesn’t get to the point where the energy builds up.
Other jumping actions that are often associated with jumping up are jumping up and snapping and biting the leash.
Exercise and work often work wonders for the mind. Because when you’re busy, you don’t get stupid ideas. Think about your daily routine. Is your dog well utilized? Or maybe even overwhelmed? Where is there a need for optimization?
Simple options here are, for example, regularly changing the walking route. So your dog always has something interesting to see and process.
Every dog likes to look for their beloved treats somewhere in the forest. Nose work is very tiring for dogs and you will have a balanced, happy dog afterwards.
Otherwise, there is also the possibility that you give your dog a new task. If he loves his ball, let him carry it home!
Conclusion
Jumping on strangers or yourself is simply not tolerable. Since the problem is usually home-made, there are also a variety of good solutions.
The solutions are as individual as each dog is.