It’s a normal work day and you come home, open the door and get slammed by your dog jumping up on you to say hello! Licks, jumping up, maybe even some vocalization are all part of your dog saying they are glad to see you at the end of your work day. While one person may like this type of greeting, not all people do especially guests dressed in their Sunday go to church clothing or perhaps smaller children who can be overwhelmed by a jumping dog greeting them when they walk in the door.
What your dog is thinking is “wow am I glad they are home, and it is polite for me too jump up and greet my humans face to face!” That’s right, in the dog world it is a non-threatening polite way to greet another dog–that is face to face. Like it or not, if you have been reinforcing this jumping by responding to your dog it will be difficult (maybe longer but not impossible) to recondition them.
The most common issues of a dog jumping up are normally when greeting or playing, and of course the dreaded counter surfing. Labs are no different than other dogs in this manner and in their mind they are doing what they think is the best way to show their excitement and happiness toward you. Here is the shocker for most people, you are likely reinforcing them to jump up on you.
Ok, I know that you are going to say that you tell them no, you push them off of you, you might even put your knee up to prevent them from jumping on the front of you (which by the way is not recommended). The newsflash is that all of these things give your dog attention when they are doing what you don’t want them to do which actually tells them that if they do it again, they will get your attention again.
For jumping up on people, it’s as simple as that. Remove the attention when the undesired behavior is present, give attention when desired behavior is present and you have a polite non-jumping dog that greets the way it’s been trained to do. So if you are giving attention when they jump up, you are actually training them to jump up.
Let’s take a look at what attention is. Basically, anything you do to your dog in terms of talking, looking at them or touching them will be considered attention and will reinforce whatever they are doing at the time. Saying no is actually giving them attention even though the word no means no. So don’t speak a word if they are doing something you don’t want them to do it.
Pushing them off is touching them and also reinforces the jumping up behavior. Finally, giving them eye contact is also giving them attention. If you don’t want to reinforce the jumping up don’t look at them when you think they are going to jump up.
We all pretty much know that conditioning our dog as a puppy is much easier than it is to break an undesirable bad habit later as an adult. However, if you have unknowingly taught your dog to jump up there is a clear way to recondition them. Can you guess how to go about it? That’s right, stop reinforcing behaviors you don’t want. Every interaction teaches your dog something and as a result all humans who come in contact with the dog are training it for the entire time they are in contact with them.
Fixing your dog jumping up
There is a simple method to fix all problems you have with your dog. Ignore the undesirable behavior and reward the desirable behavior. For a jumping dog this begins by first not exciting them. If you come home and start talking to your dog before you walk through the door you are intensifying the excitement. An excited dog has a more difficult time behaving within the rules so keep them calm by not giving them eye contact, not talking and not touching them until they are sitting.
That’s right, absolutely no response until they sit, once they do, that is the time to greet them and reward the behavior you want. Teach your Lab that the proper way to greet (and get your attention and pets and praise) is to sit calmly–not to bowl you over like a running back on a football team.
So how do you go about this?
There are a few ways to tackle this problem (do you see what I did there with the football reference in the previous paragraph?). If it is not that serious and your dog has learned other commands then you may simply be able to turn your back to them so they can’t greet, remain silent and don’t look at them until they sit. Once they sit be sure to reward that with praise and maybe even a treat. Some people put a bowl of treats up on a shelf by the entrance of their home with a sign that says “Please, don’t look at, touch, or talk to the dog until he sits. Then give him a treat.” That’s right, all humans need to be consistent even guests that come over. Otherwise, your dog will be getting mixed messages and will have a difficulty learning what is expected because it is not clear and consistent.
If your dog has a larger problem than this or is less responsive to training then there is a more involved process you will need to take them through. Everything a dog learns needs to be broken down into smaller steps. For example, a dog who has been trained to get a drink from the refrigerator has learned to walk to the fridge, grab the rope in their mouth, pull on the rope to open the door, find the drink you want without eating any food, bring the drink to you, drop the drink, return to the fridge, and finally close the door. Each step is taught one at a time (as all complex tasks) and then later combined as one.
So think about the different steps to teaching your dog to remain calm as someone approaches and enters your home. This will take two people to be effective. One acts as the person approaching and one is in control of the dog. If your dog can see someone approaching the door this is where you begin. One person walks toward the door from outside and the other has the dog sit and remain calm. This will require a leash and also some treats to reward the dog when they stay 4 paws on the floor and not excited.
Have your outside person approach slowly at first, maybe start at 20′ away and walk only 2-3 steps. If your dog doesn’t move reward it and repeat. Doing this 5 to 10 times with no excitement would be considered success for the first day. On the second day have the outside person approach closer, but not so close to spike your Lab’s excitement. Again, reward for proper behavior. If your dog becomes excited remember, no talk, no touching and don’t look at them in the eyes because you will be rewarding a behavior you don’t want.
The next step is making the sound of the door opening while the dog remains calm. This could mean moving the doorknob, ringing the doorbell or even the sound of the screen door opening. Each time you get a calm sit reward that. If you don’t, back up and try again until you do. Eventually your dog will realize they are not getting any attention when they escalate things and will stop.
The last few pieces of this task would be to open the door, walk through the threshold, approach your dog, and finally reward them by petting, talking, looking at them and even a tasty treat. Once you can do that you can try again without a leash on. Patience is mandatory as it may take a couple of weeks to achieve this depending on your dog and how well you and your partner execute the training. However, once your Lab understands what is desired by all humans, and the humans are consistent, it will want to please you by sitting calmly to greet you.
How do I stop my dog Counter Surfing?
Counter surfing is a similar issue because when your dog jumps up on the counter there is often a tasty reward for them doing so in the form of food left out. Approach this training issue in the same way by breaking it down into smaller steps. I would first prevent access to the kitchen by closing doors or using baby gates.
While access is limited for a couple of weeks I would work on teaching them the command “leave it.” Once your dog understands leave it you can use the command for anything you don’t want them to touch. In the case of something on the counter you need to catch them sniffing for something up there. When you see them hunting for that tasty snack simply say leave it and they will understand they are not to touch it.
After your gates come down and they are firm with the leave it command allow them through the kitchen being sure there is no food on the counters. Let them walk through and reward 4 paws on the floor. That’s right, you want them to stay on all 4 paws so giving them treats while they are walking on all fours and not sniffing for food will reinforce the behavior you want.
How can you mess this up? Well if they jump up on the counter and you yell no at them or get off, or if you push them off or even look at them in the eye you are training them to jump up by giving them attention. For those who are not that great at training it might be easier for you to simply train your dog never to walk in the areas where they can jump up for food.
That’s right, setting a boundary using baby gates at first and even teaching them to go to a desired location while you are cooking will work well. It is easiest if this is done while the dog is a puppy because they won’t be able to jump up to the counter height, as well they are eager to please and willing to learn at that age. If they never know that the counter is full of snacks teaching them 4 paws on the floor will be easier.
A final thing to consider is if your dog is getting enough exercise. If they aren’t, they will be a bundle of built up energy and will be almost impossible to train. You should also not expect your dog to stop jumping up if they are not able to get rid of their energy in other ways. So, be sure that twice a day you exercise your dog long enough and with enough intensity to tire them out a bit. For the intensity, if they are panting from the running, swimming, or digging and not the heat then you are on the right track.
So be patient, don’t be too hard on yourself (you aren’t a professional dog trainer), and pick one of these things to work on at a time. Be clear, make sure all humans do exactly the same things and watch for small signs of progress every day. In the end, breaking larger tasks into smaller pieces and rewarding what you want (not punishing what you don’t want) will set you on the path to progress training your dog out of their automatic behaviors and into a well mannered K9.
