If you have been a dog owner for any length of time you know that a dog jumping on you or others can be be frustrating and embarrassing. I know the situation all to well, you come home from a long day at work, you walk into the front door and boom, your greeted with a big wet kiss sharp paws running down your arms or torso, ouch! Or even worse your smaller child get caught in the excitement and gets knocked over and scratched as well.

Sorry to say this, but you probably taught him to greet you in this manner.

Many unknowing dog owners encourage this behavior early in a puppies life. It's hard to resist a cute little puppy who is happy to see you. He comes running to meet you, leaps at your knees and what do we you? We reach down and pet or even pitch up the happy puppy and in effect, reword his behavior of jumping on us.

By doing this, your puppy just learned an important lesson: when I jump up on my owner I get the reward of love! Your dog doesn't know the difference between the small pup that he once was and the large dog that he is now. All he knows is what you taught him early in his life, when dad or mom gets home I'll run over and jump on him to show him how much missed him and they will love me back.

It's Bad form to have a jumping dog.

You have to put your foot down and make it clear that jumping is no longer an accepted behavior. When is jumping O.K.? Many owners of toy breed dogs or smaller dogs expect their dog to jump up. This is totally up to you. But, when any dog jumps on an unsuspecting guest, it can cause a bit of an awkward moment. This is why teaching your dog the "off" command is also a good idea. You can train your dog to jump on your command; we will get into that later.

For larger dog breed owners, it is very important to teach your dog when and where it is acceptable to jump or not to jump. I highly recommend all owners of dog over 15 to 20 lbs. to work the "no jump" command into their regular training. Not, only is it bad form to have a dog jump on a guest, but could you imagine what it must feel like if you were a small child being jumped on by a dog that could easily outweigh you. Not to mention, a large dogs paws are often times heavy enough to gouge into cloths and break though bare skin. It's one thing to have to deal with the muddy scratches and scrapes of your own family, entirely different if your dog has inflicted them on someone else.

Generally, there are two reasons why dogs jump.

The number one reason dogs jump is most likely out of pure excitement after a long separation (returning home from work) or during playtime when adrenaline is running high.

A much more serious problem is when a dog jumps to display his dominance over you or whatever he is jumping on (another dog, a child or guest). Hailing from a pack mentality, dogs live by a hierarchy of social ranking and order. One of the behaviors a dog will use to exert his dominance over a lesser animal is to show his physical superiority by jumping up on or placing his paw or paws over the other dog's shoulders.

You can identify the reason for your dogs jumping by taking note of the circumstances surrounding the event. If he only jumps when extremely excited, such as playtime or upon your return home from work, then he is only showing how much he missed you.

On the other hand, if he jumps in a variety of situations, you could be dealing with more of a dominance issue and symptoms of a more complicated problem of communication and attitude. The longer this type of behavior is allowed to happen the harder it will be to regain control of the jumping issues. At this point and time I would highly suggest that you study alpha-dog techniques (tip: you can find more great information on dealing with a dominate dog over at Ez Dog Training At Home, you can find the link for this web site at the bottom of this page)

How you approach your dogs jumping problem will determine whether or not you will succeed in ending your dogs jumping problem. You must stay consistent with your dog training routine, as with all dog training. To stop dog jumping, you must make it very clear that jumping is no longer allowed.

This means sticking to your training plan every day until there is not longer a problem. Your dog will not stop jumping on you if you allow it one day and not the next or allow him to jump on you but not your children. If you send this message to your dog he will jump when ever he feels like it.

This means that you must fallow your stop jumping techniques always. You can't expect your dog to understand the difference between playtime and greeting, nice cloths and play cloths, rainy days or sunny days. If you let your dog jump at anytime, he will feel free to jump whenever he feels like it.

Most professional trainers agree that the most effective way is also the easiest way to stop unwanted behavior (such as jumping) in your dog is to ignore him whenever he jumps. No need to yell or correct, although that is usually the first thing that comes to mind when your dog just ruined another pair of nylons or scratch one of your children.

Here's what you do

When you turn away from your dog, cross your arms and advert your eyes, totally ignoring his jump. You will see, by giving him the cold shoulder how quickly he will calm down.

Reinforce his good behavior (all four paws on the ground) with lavish praise. If, at this time he gets overly excited and goes to jump on you again, turn away and give him the cold shoulder. Even if there is only a split second between cold shoulder and praise, keep this up until he is calm. Dogs have a short training memory and can only associate the reaction you give with the behavior he presents to you at that moment. So, don't worry that you may confuse him.

Dogs inherently want to please you and it want take long for him to figure out that four on the floor pleases you.

Click this link to get our free dog training report, how to house train a dog and sign up for our limited 6 day online training course Secrets to dog training review a $27 value, just for stopping by.

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Written by Matt Closson using tags: animals, dog training, dog training tips, Dogs, family, Pets