Dog jumping - need advice

MrsMuq

We rescued a pit/lab mix about 3 years ago. He's really a very sweet, mushy dog. He's also hyper as hell. We've trained him to sit, stay, paw, lay down, stop, etc. He won't stop jumping though!

Whenever someone comes to the house, even people he's known his whole time with us, he just jumps, jumps, jumps. I don't know what to do with him anymore...

RedheadBaker

I have a pit mix, too, and he used to be jumpy. It was the worst when S.O. and I got home from work.

So, we kept a pouch of treats and a clicker on our key holder that hangs on the wall near the front door (pouch sealed shut to block the scent and out of his reach).

When we would get home and he started jumping, we'd grab the treats and clicker and turn our back on him, cross our arms over our chests, and stare at the ceiling. If he didn't stop jumping after a minute of no attention, we'd give a short, sharp "Sit!" The second his butt hit the floor, he got a click and a treat. We did this Every. Single. Time. he started jumping on us. With repetition and consistency, he got the message that jumping was not rewarded with attention, but if he sat, we would greet him. 

The hardest part was getting GUESTS not to reinforce his jumping. They'd come in, he'd jump and we ask them not to let him and they'd say, "Oh, we don't mind!" So we really needed to get serious about telling people that we were training him not to and letting him jump on them was undoing our hard work.  

pattymctatty

Guests are the worst to train!

With former foster dogs we would crate them until the guests came in the door, took their jackets off, etc... and then tell them the rules - the dog is not allowed to jump on ANYONE. Have them ignore the dog (no eye contact, no talking, no touching), stand with arms crossed and turn their back to the dog when it went to them. After a few minutes the dogs were fine and ignored the guests. We gave them Kongs with peanut butter or bully sticks to entertain them while guests were over. It's harder to train guests than anyone else. 

kep0589

The most common way to teach him is to always turn your back when he jumps and when he finally sits down give a treat. I used to train dogs, and the easiest option. Another option is to stick your knee out so his chest hits it, seems cruel but also known to work.

joshandpanda

RedheadBaker:

When we would get home and he started jumping, we'd grab the treats and clicker and turn our back on him, cross our arms over our chests, and stare at the ceiling. If he didn't stop jumping after a minute of no attention, we'd give a short, sharp "Sit!" The second his butt hit the floor, he got a click and a treat. We did this Every. Single. Time. he started jumping on us. With repetition and consistency, he got the message that jumping was not rewarded with attention, but if he sat, we would greet him. 

The hardest part was getting GUESTS not to reinforce his jumping. They'd come in, he'd jump and we ask them not to let him and they'd say, "Oh, we don't mind!" So we really needed to get serious about telling people that we were training him not to and letting him jump on them was undoing our hard work.  

THIS!!! do not give them ANY attention, weather it be positive OR negative (tell him down, pushing him off - this is still play to them) It really takes a lot of time and patience to train them not to jump...

and yes, be consistant with your guests coming in too.  If they say they don't mind or whatever, tell them that you do mind, and that you do NOT want them jumping...

We kind of went through this, but with the dogs jumping on peoples laps when they sit on the couch... I would tell them to get down, and the company would say, "its alright, I have dogs, im fine" and I just respond with "well, we don't allow ours to do that" and then again tell the dogs to get down.

I don't care if I sound rude to the guests, I think its honestly rude of them to break our training....