How to stop puppy jumping up?

[Halfcharged]

He’s 6 months old, from when we got him at 10 weeks we’ve always ignored jumping up and then given him a fuss when he’s down. He’s pretty good with the 3 of us now but any time we have visitors the excitement takes over and he jumps up repeatedly. We’re firm and put him in his pen and then let him out when he’s calm.

Our 2 nephews came around today, they’re 3 and 7 and although they weren’t upset by it I really didn’t like seeing him jump up on them.

Is there anything else we can do or will he eventually get the message as he gets older and less excited?

[Snufflesdog]

Following with interest!
Ours knows ‘off’ and doesn’t really jump on us, maybe once if she’s really excited (like she’s been at day care all day and can’t believe you’ve come back to pick her up)
But absolutely loses her head when visitors arrive for at least 10 minutes.

We teach off, we try to calm her down
Often we put her on a lead - this stops her doing as much as she wants and also restricts visitors access to her too
As generally most people are really unhelpful.
They constantly try to stroke her especially over her head which makes her excited again and on edge too as she doesn’t like it. And they squeal and get excited at the cute puppy and her zoomies. It doesn’t matter how many times I say ignore her ignore her, please don’t stroke her till she calms down...

[Halfcharged]

I think this is a big part of the problem, people meaning well but unintentionally reinforcing the behaviour.

He’s doesn’t do it on walks anymore (thank god!).

[womaninatightspot]

watching with interest as our seven mo pup is the same, fine with us overexcited with strangers. I often hold her down with the leash loop on the back of her harness and give her a treat when she sits and focuses on me when out and about. Looking forward to a calmer older dog :)

[pigsDOfly]

You could try giving visitors a treat to give him when they come into the house, obviously once all four paws are on the ground, so that he knows he'll be rewarded by visitors if he doesn't jump on them.

At 3 and 7 your nephews will be thrilled to give the dog a treat.

Just ignoring the jumping is all very well, and I know there is a strong body of opinion that ignoring the behaviour you don't want and rewarding the behaviour you do is the way to train, but unless you teach an 'off' or 'down' command and show the dog what you want I can't see how he's going to learn.

[daniellelaurak]

Following for tips too. Our 11 month old gets so over excited by visitors!

[squishedgrapes]

I had this with my GSD. I enforced a no attention until sitting rule. It worked quite well

[Fizzlestix]

We’ve given visitors treats but I find they just drop them or let them be snatched out their hands (which she NEVER does to us)
Or they take it upon themselves to ‘train’ the dog to sit or settle, but really badly, and then I’m stressed about them messing up my training (which actually happened over Christmas)
Different if it’s just children for you OP but my mum and MIL are total PITAs for it

I do find if I bring out the best treats then pup calms down much quicker and then won’t take her eyes off me for as long as I keep feeding treats ( which I do for all 4 paws being on the floor) or I’ll give her one of the best chews.
But then people get sad at not being able to pet her and she has zero interest in them then for the whole of their visit, actively avoiding them.
That options better for me but relies on us knowing someone’s going to pop by and having some roast chicken to hand!
Would love to find a middle ground anyway!

[jinxpixie]

I found control and management was 80% of dog training with my young dogs.


I rewarded four feet on the ground and like you found it worked with us but two new visitors for a 6 month old puppy would be way too difficult for mine to deal with so I would also put them out of the way to start with then all introductions on a lead and approach when the puppy was calm.

I would not recommend giving treats to visitors as it just teaches the dog to mug anyone that comes to the house. It is also hard to teach some people to give the treats correctly.

I always train my dogs to go to their beds when visitors arrive or when they hear the door bell. I have found that this tends to take some of the energy away from the greetings as dogs can then greet when calmer and the visitors are settled in the room.

I do find if I bring out the best treats then pup calms down much quicker and then won’t take her eyes off me for as long as I keep feeding treats ( which I do for all 4 paws being on the floor) or I’ll give her one of the best chews. This is brilliant on many levels,you are more interesting than anyone else,you have a calm dog. The perfect solution

[MissShapesMissStakes]

I had a trainer come and do a home visit. This is what she suggested: (not done it yet really )

Put dog on a lead if possible and don't give them the opportunity to jump up. That way they get out of the habit. Also standing on the lead helps as they physically can't jump up because of the lead position.

And/or

Get the dog to sit if possible whenever they attempt to jump or you anticipate a jump. And reward. Sitting is incompatible with jumping and it's a positive 'do this' rather than a 'don't do that'.

[Halfcharged]

Thanks for all the replies. It’s so hard to constantly control the environment in real life isn’t, we’ll keep trying our best with him.

[Backtotheoldhouse]

We found that this worked in our experience, a firm NO with a hand up and then turning around to show your back. If they stop then reward. It took a bit of patience but works for any unwanted behaviour.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

Have you tried folding your arms and turning away, completely ignoring the dog, carrying on the conversation with the humans and continuing to ignore the dog until it is either standing quietly or sitting? Not even bothering with a 'no', because unless no means no every time, it won't mean a lot (I'm not having a go at anyone, it's just that I've had to introduce yet another word for 'play and training over, go and entertain yourself' after I devalued the last one, and the one before that, by giving in to repeated harassment...)

[heatseeker14]

Our puppy does the same. All visitors stroke him even when I say just ignore him. It’s like their hands are drawn like magnets to his mop of head fur. He was ignoring people on walks until recently when a lady he knows really well fed him a treat whilst jumping up at her. Now he seems to think every human has something for him. 🙄

[Fizzlestix]

I think the problem with the ignoring thing is guests just don’t seem to be able to do it
And as soon as they mess up it’s like we have to start over
We did it once and after twenty minutes I gave in and just put her in her pen, as the guest kept giving attention whilst saying they weren’t giving attention
And we were all just standing up in the lounge, them with their coats on still. We are terrible hosts

I keep trying to explain that even though you think I’m being mean and they’re just excited, you’re the one upsetting the pup as you’re the one whos confusing her and who’s now left me with no choice but to move her away instead of letting her calmly be part of the group like she wants.

I find it happens with all my training though. We took dpup out with family who kept feeding her off the table No matter how much I tried to stop them. So for a while she couldn’t sit at the pub with us nicely and have her chew and get lots of strokes, because she thought she could now have food and was trying to jump up.
I think people lose their heads and also can just be really selfish as they want puppy time.

[pigsDOfly]

That sound so frustrating Fizzlestix.

They probably have no idea how much work goes into training a puppy and how important consistancy is; all they see is a cute puppy that they want to 'spoil', which they're doing quite literally when they're undoing all your hard work.

Have no idea what the solution other than some strict training for your friends and family.