Do you hate your dog jumping up on you all the time? Jumping on the bed, on the sofa, jumping on your guests? Is it driving you mad? Follow these simple steps and you will be able to stop your dog jumping once and for all.

So you bring home your adorable new puppy, and don’t you just adore her cute behaviour? She puts her feet on you to get your attention, she jumps up onto your lap, and jumps up on her hind legs just begging you to pick her up for a cuddle!

So what do you do? You give her the attention she desires, you pick her up so you are reinforcing her behaviour. When she is a little pup it is sweet, but when she grows to be 40 or 50 lbs it is a different story. No longer is it cute, but it has become bad behaviour dog behaviors. You need to get this under control.

We can often give your dogs very mixed signals – we tell them to do something, but we are actually reinforcing a different dog behaviour. Or do we expect our dog to read our mind? One minute it is ok for them to jump up, but sometimes it is not! How do they know which is which?

You are probably not even aware that you are giving out these mixed signals. You may love your dog jumping up onto your bed to wake you up with her sloppy kisses, you will enjoy her exuberant greeting when you return home, you let her jump up onto the sofa for a snuggle with you. The problem can occur when you have a guest and the dog jumps on them, especially if they are wearing their nice clothes and your dogs dirty paws ruin their outfit!

Here are some simple steps to take to stop your dog jumping.

Be Consistent – work out what you want from your dog and then stick to it. Dogs do not understand the word “sometimes”. If you want to stop your dog jumping, work out when it happens, how do you respond? Are you consistent? How can you make your responses clearer?

Do Not Ever Reinforce The Behaviour – this may seem very obvious, but you have to learn to change your behaviour before your can expect your dog to change hers.

Give Your Dog A Different Command – so if your dog is jumping up at you, give her the command to, for example, sit. This is one of the first commands your dog will have learned, and it will have the effect of stopping her from jumping. Let this become your normal response to her jumping up – turn away from her slightly and say “Shellie, sit” give her help to sit down if necessary. Make sure that you praise the sit. If she jumps up again, start again by turning slightly away, making your body stiff and saying “Shellie, sit”. Always praise when she sits down in front of you.

If you are consistent your dog will soon learn not to jump up. Remember to praise (with treats if they are handy) your dog each time she sits, and she will soon realise that this is a nice polite way of her getting your attention. You may well find the odd relapse, especially when she gets very excited, but be patient and most of all consistent.

It is important to realise that your dog wants to please you, and if you are patient and consistent you will find that behaviour modification can be done quite quickly. So you will be able to stop your dog jumping up.