Every time I came home, our German Shepherd, Brutus, greeted me by jumping on me. While this might not be bad for smaller dogs, Brutus weights 100 pounds and can easily knock me over if I’m not prepared for his jump. While I am as excited to see him as he is to see me, I don’t like being jumped on and I like him jumping on guests even less. Realizing that jumping is a natural way for a dog to greet you, it doesn’t mean that you cannot teach him new behavior with a better way to greet you.There are several ways you can teach your dog not to jump. The training method I like to use is to teach my dog what to do, rather than what not to do. To do this I simply taught Brutus that I wanted him to have all four paws on the floor to greet me and then reinforced this with a reward of a warm welcome when he greets me correctly. If he did not greet me correctly, his warm greeting is postponed until he behaves correctly.
When I come home, I give Brutus the command of “down.” This command tells Brutus that I want all four paws on the ground. This command works whether Brutus is jumping to greet me or thinking he is going to be a lap dog (all 100 lbs of him). The command of “down” means, in every situation to put all four paws on the ground. Always reinforce good behavior with a reward, whether you use a treat or praise him, make sure your dog knows he behaved correctly. This will encourage continued good behavior.
Use any command word that works for you. Many people use the command of “off” to keep the dog from jumping and use the command of “down” to have the dog lay down. So, use what ever works for you. I use a different command to have Brutus lay down, so the “down” command for not jumping works well for our family.
What tips do you have for keeping your dog from jumping on you?
3 comments:
Wow! My dog's name is also Brutus. He is a german sheperd/lab mix we adopted from a shelter. Like your dog, he always wants to jump when he sees me coming or when I let him in from the back yard. He is only 6 months but he is really big. Sometimes I will just see my legs with bruises that looks like paws, and that's becasue of him jumping on me. :)
Instead of down, I tell him to seat and stay, then he can go inside the house. He really likes to stay inside the houe than play in the back yard.
Oh how funny! My dog is also named Brutus and he is a German Sheperd too! He loves to jump on me when I get home, but he is way to big for me to let him do that. He is also an inside dog, he would rather hang out with the family inside rather than be outside. We got him from a GS rescue, so maybe that has something to do with him wanting to hang out with the family.
Our dog, Sugar, is part "small" German Sheperd and not sure what else. She's about 7 yrs. old. She also loves people and likes to greet you by jumping. She only weighs around 50 lbs., is an inside dog, and also thinks she is a lap dog. We have a command for her to "sit" by saying (or not) "sit" and putting our hand out, palm out (like saying "How" Indian style). If she looks like she's about to jump up, we just put our palm out to her and she stays down. Sheperds are extremely smart and will learn quickly.
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