PUPPIES JUMPING UP
Training your puppy not to jump up on you is extremely important if you don’t want the ‘jumping up’ behaviour to carry over to adulthood. Teaching the puppy good social manners from the start is the way to have a well-mannered dog for life. Inhibit the behaviour before it becomes a problem.
Puppies are regular perpetrators of jumping behaviour, as it is both a survival and attention seeking skill. Puppies use it in survival by jumping up to the parent’s mouth to gain food and attention.
When a puppy starts to jump up on you, keep your hands behind your back and turn and walk away from the puppy. Totally ignore the behaviour. Do not speak to, or touch the puppy.
As with the adult method, teach your pup to sit in front of you when it wants your attention. Reward and praise the dog as soon as it exhibits a good behaviour. When the dog is first learning this exercise, it is important that you praise the dog within a few seconds of sitting, do not wait too long as this will encourage the dog to jump up again.
Also go down to your puppy to praise as this will also discourage jumping. Scratch the pup under the chin as praise, as this will not excite him and will keep him in the sit position.
Some puppies can be very excitable and will continue to persist beyond reason. These pups need to be ‘sin binned’ in an isolated area without toys or other stimulation for approx. 10 minutes. This isolation must be done each and every time the puppy displays extreme behaviour or there is no point in doing it at all.
The puppy will only learn from the pattern of being put away every time he overreacts in jumping up. Let your puppy out once he/she is calm; do not praise or pet him/her on release as this may start the excitement all over again.
Never let your puppy out while he/she is throwing a tantrum, crying, barking, squealing or showing any other negative behaviour; doing so will only teach them to throw a louder tantrum next time.
