Ask A Dog Trainer: How do I stop my dog from jumping on everyone?

Q: How do I stop my dog from jumping on everyone?

A: We need to understand why dogs jump in the first place. When dogs are born, their noses are already open. And then their eyes open, and later their ears. Because of this, when they meet someone they always want to sniff first. Since the strongest smelling parts we have are our private parts and our mouths, dogs often want to jump on us because they want to get closer to our mouths to be able to sniff us.

However, this is clearly a danger because there are more injuries every year from people being jumped on by dogs than there are from people being attacked by dogs. The best way to teach your dog that this is not an acceptable way to greet people is to first ask yourself the question: does my dog jump on me? If they do, then they don't understand that it's a rule to not jump on you, and therefore what they do to you they believe they're allowed to do to other people.

Teaching your dog the "off" command is great! But you need to be 100% consistent with it. Every time the dog jumps, step into his space rather than backing out of his space. Whenever you back up, you're essentially giving him your space and then inviting him back into it. Instead, step forward and say, "off!" If the dog is just too excited, you may need to either grab their collar and hold it steady or have someone else put a leash on the dog and urge them with the leash to get off of you when you say, "off!"

Once all fours are on the ground, that's the time to reward the dog with affection with either food or physical affection. They need to learn that it's more rewarding to greet people with all fours on the ground and not only that the moment that they jump do they cease to receive affection, but also they might get their space crowded out.

Now, of course, this is situation specific. There are times to simply ignore the dog and let the handler do what they do with the dog. But if you are teaching your dog not to jump on you and then transferring that over to the guests, you can tell your guest to simply ignore the dog, and then if they do jump on them, you say the "off" command and if necessary, crowd their space out.