My dog jumps on people. How can I teach it not to do that?

For the most part dogs jump on people for attention. Unruly dogs that don't know who the teacher is and who the student is don't care what kind of attention they get, either positive or negative. They just want attention and more often than not, jumping gets them that attention. When they are just tiny bits of puppy fluff, it's a rare human that doesn’t encourage upper body interaction. This behaviour, which is considered positive as a puppy, can quite easily continue into adulthood.

Somewhere between 10 and 16 weeks of age, every breed of dog becomes faster and more agile than human beings. It becomes difficult to intercede effectively and and/or consistently when the dog jumps on you or another. The solution is simple enough: even the playing field between you and the dog by attaching a short leash whenever you are together, whether indoors or outdoors.

Start off by addressing any jumping on yourself and your household members. Do this for at least one week. This will give your dog a bit of a head start, so that when he or she is learning not to jump in the more distracting environment outside of the household, he will have a better idea of what is expected. When the dog jumps up, pull the dog off to the side and use your tone and body language in no uncertain terms to indicate that you really didn't enjoy that manner of getting your attention. As close as possible to the moment your dog's four paws return to the floor, give him or her a little of the loving they were looking for. This typically elicits another jump, because the dog is used to equating jumping with attention. After a while, the dog believes the inverse, that petting equals jumping. Don't worry it won't take him long to figure it out.

This next part is vital, although it may initially seem completely illogical. Immediately try and get the dog to jump on you again, and repeat, and repeat as much as is possible. Usually within three to six repetitions the dog looks at you as if to say, "So, what you're telling me is, don't jump when you do that." Then they start to think, "I wonder what I can do in order to get some attention." and they start to experiment with different kinds of jumping, nudging with their nose, sitting, etc. After awhile, they notice that your petting coincides with their keeping "four on the floor."

It won't be long before they go with what works. Try different scenarios that might elicit a jump. In fact, make it the flavor of the week. At every opportunity do something that the dog might misinterpret as a sign that jumping up is in order. Once the dog absolutely gets that it isn't supposed to jump on family no matter what, invite friendly outsiders to participate, both in your home and on the street. It's really quite surprising how quickly this works.

The flip side, though, is that sometimes we don't mind whether a dog jumps on us. It's a matter of time and place, so I encourage people to incorporate a command in their dog's general training, right from puppyhood, that means “It’s ok to jump”. It doesn't matter which word is used, as long as you're consistent.

Animal Behaviourist John Wade (http://www.johnwade.ca/)