Stop dog from jumping up?

[gingeraletreats]

How can I stop our cocker spaniel jumping up on people? DDog will 1.5 years and totally ignores me when I tell her to sit when people come towards her to say hello. She just loses her head totally. Some people say "it's ok I don't mind", which is making it even harder for us to train her. My daughter had hold of DDog recently and tripped and let go of her and she immediately jumped up onto a small child, paws straight onto her shoulders so she was totally upright, I was mortified! Help!

Teach her to sit to greet people and make sure she gets no attention unless her paws are on the floor. If she jumps up at you, fold your arms and turn away smartly, completely ignoring her. Wait until she gives up (you may find that she gets more persistent at first, as jumping up for attention has worked in the past), tell her to sit and then fuss/praise. Instruct everyone who visits to do the same, so that she only gets attention when she's sitting. Once she's got the idea, practice it outside with distractions as well. When you're out, keep her on the lead around other people so she doesn't get the chance to jump up until she's got a reliable sit-to-greet. This worked like a charm with our springer.

It sounds as if you need to reinforce 'sit' as well. Get some ultra-high-value treats and work on it at home, and then outside with distractions, until you have a nice fast rock-solid 'sit'.

What do you do when she ignores the sit command? Ideally you want to use a really high value treat to get her attention, then ask her to sit again and if necessary use the treat to lure her into a sit. Try to get her to turn her back on the person who is approaching or, if impossible, place yourself between the dog and the person.

If she ignores all treats, gently start backing away until you reach a distance where she won’t be as excited and more likely to listen to you.

You also need to enlist all your friends and family to help with the training in as many different places as possible. Keep her on a lead, the friend approaches, if the dog jumps up the friend crosses her arms and turns her back on the dog. The friend repeats this, if the dog jumps up three times in a row the friend leaves for five minutes before repeating. If the dog sits the friend can give her a treat, then leave to repeat (when she is calm enough the friend can try petting her after the treat but this may take a while).