How do I stop my (very friendly) dog jumping up at people?

[maternityleavequestion]

I have a fairly small, light dog (about 8kg) but very delicate who greets people she likes by placing her two front paws on their legs, so I don't know if that's jumping up as her 2 back legs are on the floor.
Ddog is very sweet, and very friendly, she just wants a cuddle and some attention so 95% of people - especially women as my dog is a rescue and is much more wary of men - love my dog doing this, so encourage ddogs behaviour.

Luckily Ddog doesn't generally do this to small children, but she is very happy to see them too!

How do I stop ddog from doing this? On lead is fine, I obviously can control that, but it's often at home or at work when she's off lead that she will ump up at people to say hello. The big problem is everyone loves it so i wi feel so mean!

[Trewser]

I used to say No in a very cross voice and pull them down. Then make them sit and wag my finger and say Bad! No idea if that's the modern dog trainer way, almost certainly not, but neither of mine jump up.

Jumping up like you describe is really annoying particularly if they have muddy paws!

[Ihaventgottimeforthis]

If other people encourage it, you won't ever stop her.
If you don't want her jumping up, tell people to ignore her unless she has all four feet on the floor, and explain why.
Keep her on lead until you've got the behaviour firm - it'll probably take a long time, especially if she's a small dog and it's more difficult for people to bend over to greet her.
I'd say though, if people who know her like her jumping up, then why do you want to stop her? Just make sure that she's on lead before greeting people who don't know her, or who DO mind. Children etc.

[PurpleFrames]

Oh God that sounds awful
I feel sorry for the poor people that have to pretend to like being climbed over by your pet.

[Kyvia]

You train her! If you’re not confident how, maybe look for some 1-on-1 training sessions so you can learn.

Do you have a good ‘sit’ command with her? She can’t jump up if she’s sitting. So ask her to sit each time, and reward the sit. Ignore/prevent the jumping up (turn away etc), ask for the sit. If this is consistent, then she’ll learn the way to get the attention/praise is to go and sit by someone, not jump up at them. But if people keep rewarding the jumping up (by giving her attention) then she’ll keep doing it, because it works for her.

[Trewser]

I adore my dogs and roll around on the floor with them, but i fucking hate dogs that jump up. Its so rude, frightens kids and makes peoples clothes dirty.

[BallacheForLife]

@PurpleFrames well what helpful advice.

OP I can sympathise. I have two rescues about the same size who do the same. It is much harder to train a rescue as you won't have had them from puppy. My two were street dogs from Greece so it took a long time for them to learn new behaviours but persistence with 'No' and 'Down' and rewarding them for good behaviour seems to be slowly paying off.

[MrsPellegrinoPetrichor]

Oh God,please train the dog not go do this,keep them on a lead until until you've got it cracked. It's so awful for people whose balance isn't good,I dread seeing dogs coming towards me and their owners saying 'they are ever so friendly,don't worry'

[LochJessMonster]

Oh God,please train the dog not go do this, Err that's the whole point of this thread.

[VeniVidiVoxi]

Ask people to pointedly ignore the dog when it jumps. With a big dog it's easier to turn your back (if they do jump you can keep your balance), but I think it makes it clear to any dog that you're not engaging. It seems daft but it works. It's impossible to do this with strangers though, you can't make demands of them so you can arrange special training visits with family and friends. Every time the dog jumps remind people to turn around. We had to do it in different settings to make the point. It took a long long time! But as our pup is 30Kg it was necessary.

[MrsPellegrinoPetrichor]

LochJessMonster Err my point was until the OP trains their dog to please keep it on a lead so it doesn't jump up.

[Aquilla]

There's a good video on YouTube. I think they use leash training in the house for practice (dog stays on dangly lead).

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

Whenever you approach someone make her sit and reward her. Be consistent and practice lots with friends and family. Make sure she is concentrating on you and keep rewarding her for sitting and being calm. The second she jumps up take her away from the exciting person. She gets rewarded for the good behaviour and gets the stimulation removed on the bad behaviour.

[spot102]

You have to train the people as well. This is much harder. They need to stop giving her attention. Guarantee most wont listen to you, and some will go on to complain that the dog jumps up.

[ChessIsASport]

My dog would jump up at people if she could. I have to be very strict with her. If she is off the lead I make her sit until people coming the other way have passed by. It is tedious but I know that if I don’t she has the potential to jump up on someone. Everyone always passes and says ‘what a good dog’, little do they know that I only make her sit because she is a crazy, over excited spaniel! If the other person has off the lead dogs I don’t bother making her sit as she will be too busy sniffing and greeting to bother with the humans.

If we are in a park or somewhere busy I just keep her on the lead.

In the house most people are well trained and know to turn their back on her if she jumps so she doesn’t tend to jump up inside.

[Stellaris22]

Agree that training people is harder! We cross our arms, turn our backs or just ignore. She still jumps up when excited, but it's much more controllable now. But reminding people to do the same technique as you rather than petting your dog is difficult.

I can also anticipate when mine might jump as I recognise the body language, a firm 'down' command usually does the trick.

[stucknoue]

You train her not to. Contact a trainer who has experience of your breed (not a group class in a church hall!)

[WomensRightsAreContraversial]

On a lead before you answer the door, sit and wait while you let people in and people instructed strictly to only fuss her when she is sat nicely waiting.

[maternityleavequestion]

Wow thanks for all of the replies.
Some nasty ones - I wasn't asking for recommendations for buying a cockerpoo - so not sure why some posters were so shitty!

I will look on YouTube, the posters that said it's going to be harder to train other people than my dog were right - but maybe I can send them a link and explain why I am trying to train ddog out of the habit.

[LimeJellyHead]

Some of the best training advice I ever heard, and it really applies well to jumping up, is to ask the dog to do the opposite of what they are doing, so in this case teach a good reliable, old fashioned "sit"