If you have a dog that jumps and you have visitors

[Sometimesfraught82]

Please
Please
Stop them from bloody jumping up at your guests. If a child was doing it, presumably you would.

But so many give dogs free passes.

Beautiful skirt I wore.... dirty and scratched before I’d even made it through to the kitchen!

It's so annoying and one if the first things I taught my dogs. Ddog1 jumps up at me if I hold my arms out to her for a cuddle but generally not at visitors unless she knows them very well. Ddog2 doesn't at all. He is so funny, will wait outside back door in the rain while I get a towel for him. I didn't try to teach him that, he just does it.

@toocold54

What did they say when you asked them to not let their dog jump on you?

So until someone explicitly tells you that they would not rather not jumped up at over and over again by a large dog, then no need to do anything?

I didn’t know this person. I was in their house. I didn’t say anything. Other than “down” to the dog. Over and over again

"Because they are not humans, communicate quite differently and he is part of my family unit."

Ds who is 15 and has a very severe learning climbs onto people's laps and strokes their face and hair but I stop him doing it unless I am certain a person is ok with it because I know most people wouldn't feel comfortable with it.

Being charitable to them OP if they were hosting a party did they notice? You don't know these people and you were a guest in their home. I understand you don't want a dog jumping all over you (and that isn't unreasonable) and your nice clothes but equally I'm sure they'd be hurt that stranger they invited to their place is giving them a hard time on the Internet.

I remember being part of a group of 6 when we collected one person's child to make 7. People needed a loo break after the journey so got out of the car, and in poor weather. Their dog jumped up and plastered absolutely everything in mud. Actually that's not acceptable, and there wasn't an option not to collect, even had we been aware.

Blame the behaviour, not the unsuspecting visitors. Sure owners whose dogs do this must realise it isn't on? I'm not talking about most owners but those who can't be bothered to train their dogs properly.

I love my dog but I don't love everyone else's dogs and don't expect everyone else to like my dog. She goes outside when I have visitors unless I know for sure they want to see her.

So until someone explicitly tells you that they would not rather not jumped up at over and over again by a large dog, then no need to do anything?

If I was in someone’s house and I told the dog to stop jumping up and it didn’t listen then I’d ask the owner to make it stop instead of just letting it do it and then moaning afterwards.
Yes owners shouldn’t let their dogs jump up but I wouldn’t stand there and just let it happen without saying something if I didn’t like it.

If I arrived at a house and there was an excitable dog there I'd ask them if the dog could go in a different room and if they said no I'd not go in. Especially if I was wearing nice clothes (or something that made me feel more vulnerable like shorts and sandals - in fact I am now avoiding certain routes for walks if I am wearing shorts and sandals as there are so many dogs around and I am not sure bare thigh/calf and dog teeth mix).

In these threads, there's always someone pops up to compare dogs to babies and young children. It's a strange mentality.

If you mean me why?

I don't like small children - I don't have any and choose not to visit many

I do like dogs - I choose to have one and am a little bit more accommodating of those belonging to other people - a little bit!

Why is that a strange mentality ?

People don’t seem to train their dogs any more. I was invited to a birthday party recently, the dog was jumping up at everyone, knocking into their drinks as they were sat down chatting. Finally the dog was having a mad 5 minutes and jumped on my lap as I sat on the sofa, my glass smashed into pieces cutting my hand, and my jeans were soaked with wine. Luckily the dog wasn’t injured! Astonishing to me that it seemed to be accepted as one of those things.

@MrsRoyCropper

People don’t seem to train their dogs any more. I was invited to a birthday party recently, the dog was jumping up at everyone, knocking into their drinks as they were sat down chatting. Finally the dog was having a mad 5 minutes and jumped on my lap as I sat on the sofa, my glass smashed into pieces cutting my hand, and my jeans were soaked with wine. Luckily the dog wasn’t injured! Astonishing to me that it seemed to be accepted as one of those things.

That's shite. And it sounds as though the dog wasn't all that happy either, far too much going on for it to maintain any self control.

In all seriousness, it's really quite hard to train dogs in social situations. You have to find a group of people who don't mind being jumped and slobbered on, as no dog or owner is perfect first time out. I wouldn't trust mine in a house full of people, not because he is nasty but because he has no experience and wouldn't know what to do with himself. Outside he is fine, off lead he is even better. But that took a lot of training and a few mistakes that had to be pre-negotiated, if you see what I mean.

I'm in the slightly unusual position of having gone from someone who wasn't that keen on dogs to being a dog owner . So I'm ultra aware when people come that they don't want a dog all over them. Also we have a bigger breed and I know he can appear quite threatening to people.
I don't think it's acceptable to say that people should put up with being jumped and pawed over by a dog if it's not something they could tolerate. Luckily Ddog is generally pretty easy going but if he does try to jump on a visitor we will pull him back so he can't, rather than letting all visitors be mauled.

It’s one of the hardest aspects of dog training and it’s mortifying for the owners coming from one.

Every time I think we’ve made progress our dog shows us otherwise. So please spare a thought for the owners, it isn’t entirely their fault.

I'm not defending owners not training their dogs, however in Covid times it's been a really hard skill to teach!

My dog is 1yo and is well trained at not jumping up while out and about, but she just isn't used to visitors in the house and the excitement just pushes her over the edge!

Also some guests encourage the jumping and excitement (even though I ask them not to repeatedly) so it makes it tricky.

We are actively working on it though! And I would never just sit there while my dog jumped all over someone.

@MachiaNelly

In these threads, there's always someone pops up to compare dogs to babies and young children. It's a strange mentality.

It isn’t really. If you don’t have children and you love your dog, it’s a reasonable analogy.

@KingAlex

I'm not defending owners not training their dogs, however in Covid times it's been a really hard skill to teach!

My dog is 1yo and is well trained at not jumping up while out and about, but she just isn't used to visitors in the house and the excitement just pushes her over the edge!

Also some guests encourage the jumping and excitement (even though I ask them not to repeatedly) so it makes it tricky.

We are actively working on it though! And I would never just sit there while my dog jumped all over someone.

I think this is a really valid point.

Most lockdown pups will never have experienced visitors until very recently. You can't train them not to jump at visitors if they never meet visitors.

“Just ignore the dog it’ll stop in a minute”

Alternatively, instead of training me train your bloody dog?

@Chailatteplease

YANBU people don’t train dogs anymore. My last dog trainer told me a dog jumping at a person is classed as assault in the eyes of law.

That's why your dog trainer is a dog trainer and not a lawyer

To me the key thing is if someone's dog jumps at you, the owner should instantly get the dog down, apologise profusely and make sure it doesn't happen again - either by moving dog to another room or holding on to it until it calms down and gets used to visitors.

It's the blithely irresponsible who think it's amusing or don't notice if their dog is jumping at others who give dogs and dog owners a bad name.

@WeddingSingers 🤣

Best thing to do is ignore it, turn your back, no attention till it is sitting down calmly. Helps if owners are also trying this though!

@Itwasoverwhen

“Just ignore the dog it’ll stop in a minute”

Alternatively, instead of training me train your bloody dog?

But dogs respond to consistency.

If they've been taught not to jump by their owners ignoring them, folding their arms and looking away, and you don't do that, they're not going to understand they can't jump at you.

I usually wrap my legs in corrugated cardboard if I'm visiting someone with a dog.
It does mean that I have to walk about rather like a robot and I am unable to sit down to eat etc. But it certainly confuses any dog!

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles 😂

Mine would have a field day with the cardboard unfortunately.