Jumping up and mouthing
Jumping up is a very common problem. Dogs will jump up at you in times of high
excitement e.g. when you have just returned home or during a game. You will notice
that at times of high excitement, jumping up may be also accompanied by mouthing.
You may notice that general ‘fiddling’ also increases at these times e.g. stopping to
scratch, licking their mouth, shaking off, vocalising, running in circles and general
hyperactivity.
Keep it in mind at these times your dog’s slots are
full and are not the times to be training the dog
what to do instead of jumping up. They are
unlikely to learn or learning is going to take a
long time, seeming like you aren’t making any
progress.
For this reason you need to train the dog to do the correct behaviour outside of these
exciting situations first before you can expect them to respond. Also with puppies they
may take longer to grasp the training but it is important to start as you mean to go on
with encouraging the right behaviour from a young age.
Jumping up when returning home
The family may return home after a time away to be greeted by your dog in a very over
the top manner and with them jumping up. Things to check:




Does your dog struggle with being separated from you? Have you worked on them
to feel comfortable to be alone? Separation anxiety can make the jumping up
situation worse as they have been anxious while you have not been there. If you
think this could be the case, please see Separation anxiety handout for more
information on how to work on this alongside the problem of jumping up.
Are you leaving them with things to do e.g. a stuffed KONG, hiding treats around
the kitchen for them to sniff out in your absence? Making sure your dog is relaxed
and mentally stimulated while you are not there will also help reduce over excited
greetings when you come home.
Are there any members of the family encouraging this behaviour? Anyone talking
to the dog, pushing them off or talking in a high pitched exciting voice will
encourage the jumping up behaviour. Ideally comings and goings should be
treated in a low key quiet manner, which is easier said than done. If children are
seeking that very excited greeting from their dog, a toy, such as a ragger or a large
soft toy, can be hung near the door for children to grab on their way in.
Encouraging the dog to play with that instead so they are still getting an exciting
greeting from their dog but it doesn’t affect your training.
Have you trained the appropriate behaviour outside of the coming home situation,
when your dog is going to be able to take in the new information and learning?
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled
Training
As with all training sessions, keep it short and end with a jackpot.
Teach your dog the appropriate response that you would like them to do instead of
jumping up e.g. sit.
Step 1: Get a very responsive sit, practice it around the house and garden. Make sure
they can do it in any location and no matter what you are doing e.g. can they sit while
you’re walking quickly around the living room?
Step 2: Build excitement levels up slowly but still asking them to sit. Do things that
ordinarily may encourage your dog to jump up like moving quickly and making exciting
noises. Your aim is for them not to jump up at all so go at your dogs pace, making it
slightly more difficult each time:






mid play session, when you are holding their toy,
when you wiggling their toy,
when squeaking their toy
when squeaking and wiggling their toy
when running around with their toy
etc.
Your aim isn’t to tease your dog or cause frustration so the second they sit, reward them
with either treats on the floor or by throwing their toy. If they jump up at you, ignore them
until they stop and go back a stage in your training as that stage is too difficult for them.
You can also encourage this throughout the day to work on their general self control. If
they like their meals, ask for a sit before placing their food down. If they want anything
e.g. to go outside, have that chew you are holding in your hand, ask for a sit before
giving it to them. This will help them learn the general skill of coping with frustration.
Step 3: Once you have taught your dog the behaviour they should be
offering at times of excitement, replicate the situations where jumping
up is a problem. E.g. leave the room, closing the door, immediately go
back in but only open the door a little bit, ask them for a sit, when they
have sat enter the room and crouch down and put their treat on the
floor. Repeat this until you are able to leave them for very short periods
and open the door fully and walk across the room without them
jumping up.
Step 4: If you are using a crate or a baby gate to keep them secure while you are not
there, ask for a sit before opening the gate, when they come out of the crate or baby
gate reward them by placing a treat on the floor for every second they offer a sit or all
four feet are on the floor. Keep the interaction very calm and quiet, the odd calm
reassuring ‘good boy’ etc is fine.
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled
Jumping up at your children
If your dog is jumping up at children, identify the times of day or in what
situation the behaviour is occurring. If for example, it always happens
when children get home from school, be ready for this with a stuffed
KONG or treat ball to keep your dog occupied while you are working on
their jumping up behaviour. It may be that your dog jumps up at
children when getting off a trampoline, it is likely that your dog has been
watching this exciting activity and getting more and more wound up, so
by the time children get off the trampoline your dog is a bit of a coiled
spring. Again you need to practice their training around these situations
before you can expect your dog to be able to be around exciting
activities and remain calm.
If jumping up occurs around movements or sounds children may be doing, again you
need to set up situations where a volunteer imitates those movements and sounds while
you reward the dog for the appropriate behaviour of remaining calm. In workshop 1, we
describe how to gradually introduce your dog to things that happen in the home. If your
dog seems to jump up at a child more than with anyone else, it is not that they have
singled out a particular child but that they find their behaviour exciting or unpredictable,
which leads to more jumping up.
If children are becoming very anxious with their dog’s
mouthing and jumping up behaviour, see handout ‘Why
does my dog hurt me’ for more ideas on how to explain to
children why this behaviour is occurring. Children may feel
safer if you are able to set up separate dog and child
areas e.g. separating rooms with a baby gate while you
are working on reducing the problem. When bringing
children and the dog together, focus on calmer activities
such as activity toys and scent games. See workshop 1
and 2 material or the members area for further ideas.
Children can also benefit from having a coping
strategy with what to do when their dog is
jumping up, Be a Tree by doggonesafe is a
useful resource. Also teaching your dog a sit or
on your bed command that children can use
may also be helpful. If children are non verbal,
teaching your dog to respond to pointing to
their bed or a sit hand signal will give children
the opportunity to communicate to their dog
what they want.
http://www.doggonesafe.com/
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled
Jumping up at visitors
You may find that your dog doesn’t jump at you but only at visitors. This is because
visitors are more novel and so can be more exciting or may cause anxiety and
uncertainty for your dog, so your dog can become more fiddly and hyperactive. See
‘Barking at the door and visitors’ hand out for more information.
Dogs also need to generalise their training, where they know what they should do around
family members, they still must be taught what to do around visitors.
Add into your training plan to introduce visitors once your dog understands the correct
behaviour.
Step 1: Arrange for a visitor to come round and ask them to ignore the dog before they
come in, have your dog on the lead with treats at the ready. Ask you visitor to come in
and sit down, while you sit on the other side of the room.
Step 2: Show your dog the treats and get their attention, ask them to sit and reward them
by putting the treat on the floor in front of them. If they hold the sit, keep placing treats
on the floor. If they turn around and bounce back towards the visitor, keep refocusing
their attention onto you.
Step 3: It may take some time for your dog to become calm, once they are responding
well to you, allow them to get a bit closer to the visitor step by step. In between each
step, focussing their attention back onto you. Once you have reached your visitor they
can be allowed to greet them as long as they aren’t jumping up. Once they are calm,
they can be unclipped and allowed to carry on as usual. Sprinkling a jackpot of treats
on the floor or giving your dog a KONG at this point will keep them occupied and help
take their mind off the new visitor.
Step 4: If after the initial excitement they have refocused onto you while you are sat
away from the visitor and they are showing no interest, they can be allowed off lead and
to greet in their own time if they wish.
Step 5: Over successive visits you should notice your dog is calmer or becomes much
quicker at offering the right behaviour. Over time you can phase out the need to put
them on a lead and reduce the number of treats you need to give them.
With new or especially exciting visitors you will need to remind your dog from time to time
what the correct behaviour is by occasionally rewarding them for settled behaviour.
It’s always advisable to let the dog approach them rather than your visitor approach your
dog, especially if your dog is on a lead. They should have plenty of slack on their lead to
move away and if they choose to remove themselves from the room and visitor, they
should always have access to their bolt hole.
If you have visitors and it isn’t an appropriate time to be training your dog, use their bolt
hole with KONGs, chews and treat balls to keep your dog occupied.
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled
Visiting children
With visiting children it is advised that your dog is in their bolt hole with a chew or KONG
while everyone is coming in and until everyone is settled and you can fully supervise
greetings and interactions. If children are likely to want to interact with the dog, keeping
the dog in their bolt hole until children are engaged in their own activities before letting
the dog in will be helpful.
Remember that the dog won’t have a relationship
with visiting children, be extra cautious, remember
they must have free access to their bolt hole and
not followed in there. Keep an eye out for any
signs of the four ‘Fs’, refer to workshop 2 content.
Visiting adults may also not be aware of dog body
language so although they may be keeping an
eye on children and dogs, they won’t be as good
as you at spotting any signs that the dog is
worried.
Jumping up and mouthing
If your dog jumps up and mouths, follow the training plan to teach your dog a more
appropriate behaviour, such as the sit even when excited so you can ask your dog to do
a more appropriate behaviour.
While you are teaching this, have a toy to hand that they tend to like to carry and
reserve it just for when you come in through the door, giving it to them to put in their
mouth. This will prevent them from continuing the mouthing habit and can lead to some
dogs looking for a toy to hold at times when they are excited. This is a behaviour that
should be encouraged.
With very young dogs, it may be helpful to use a training or house line
attached to a harness, attaching it while in the house, especially if you
are taking them by the collar and they are then mouthing you. Use the
line to remove them from the situation and settle them in their bolt hole
with a chew to prevent them from getting into the habit of jumping up
and mouthing. Never leave your dog unsupervised while wearing a line
and do not use it to drag the dog, hold onto it to prevent them from
continuing to jump up and then encourage them away from the
exciting situation. If children are using the line to move the puppy
around, again this isn’t a suitable solution.
Where mouthing children is a problem, chose quieter times of day to work on
appropriate behaviour around the children e.g. if they are engrossed in something. Bring
the dog into the room, reward calm behaviours around the children, such as lying down
or sitting. If possible encourage them to settle with a KONG in the presence of children to
encourage further settled behaviour.
Please see Puppy biting hand out for more information or contact the PAWS Team.
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled
Jumping up when free running
Dogs may jump up at people when out walking. It is important
that you are able to keep your dog under control and safe.
Because free running can be an exciting activity, this can again
lead to your dog being more likely to jump up, even if you have
worked on it at home or around visitors for example.
See Advanced training: Recall and Advanced training: Lead work hand outs for more
information on working on recall and how to teach your dog to be calm around
distractions.
Here are some tips:

Put your dog on the lead if you notice someone around, walk them on the lead
past the person, dropping treats as you go past. This will distract their attention
away from the person and also help keep him grounded as the reward is coming
from the floor rather than the reward of attention from you or the passer by. If you
can consistently do this while out walking it will prevent your dog from practicing the
habit of jumping up and also help to teach them the appropriate alternative
behaviour.

Build your confidence up with this and then start to practice stopping near the
person, again dropping treats on the floor periodically if your dog has remained
calm. If the person wants to stroke your dog, use this as a training exercise, say ‘yes
that would be great, but let me get his attention first as we are working on him not
jumping up’. When they approach be ready with treats in your hand under your
dog’s nose so he is partly distracted, this will give you more opportunity to reward
them quickly for doing the right behaviour.
It is very helpful for you to set up situations if you can, where a person is waiting for you in
the park etc. It can be really helpful for keeping you calm and giving you the
opportunity to train in a lifelike situation:
Step 1: Let your stooge person know that your dog may try to jump up and ask them to
completely ignore them, no eye contact. Obviously they can look at you.
Step 2: Approach with your dog on their lead, if they go to pull towards the person, you
stop and turn around. If at this point your dog will take treats, try to keep them engaged
with you and reward them for not pulling. If they do pull, coax them to you rather than
try to physically move them away.
Step 3: Approach as many times as you need to until your dog can approach calmly. If
you can, pop the treats on the floor when you are rewarding your dog for calm
behaviour e.g. eye contact with you, no jumping up, looking away from the person or
offering a sit.
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled
Jumping up when free running continued
Step 4: Once you reach your stooge person, have a conversation and keep rewarding
your dog for staying calm. The person at this point is still not making eye contact with
your dog. Walk away and reward your dog for coming with you.
Step 5: Re-approach with your stooge person offering your dog eye contact, again
repeat the previous steps.
Step 6: Re-approach for a third time, but this time have your stooge person offer lots of
eye contact and possibly say ‘ahhh isn’t he lovely’ – again repeat the above.
Step 7: Once you are confident with this, then you can repeat the exercise with your dog
off lead to make it a more realistic situation. The more you can practice this, the more
opportunity your dog will have to learn what is the appropriate behaviour.
It is also helpful to practice general obedience while dogs are free running, such as sit,
down, wait and stay etc, this can help focus them and help you get their attention when
you need to. It doesn’t need to take over your walk, just practicing a couple of 2
minutes here and there to keep them ‘tuned in’. Using high value treats such as hot dog
or cheese will also help maintain his attention.
If you feel you need more specific advice please contact the PAWS Team.
© 2010 Copyright Dogs for the Disabled