Stop Puppy Jumping

I suggest training your puppy to sit to be petted at all times.  When your puppy jumps, tell them no and then tell him to sit.  Pet him only while he is sitting.  If they get up and begin jumping again, tell them to sit again before resuming the petting.  Always interact with your puppy or dog slowly and gently.  Petting them excitedly encourages wild behavior and jumping.  If your puppy is really wild and wound up, tether him to a door knob or chair leg as suggested in our FAQ on stopping puppy biting.  Don’t get close to your puppy until he settles down and stops jumping.  Everyone must be on board with this training or your puppy will learn who he can jump on and who he can’t.

Even guests must be told not to pet your dog when h is jumping.  You can do one of two things when you have guests.  With personal friends, I require my dogs to ignore my guests and sit in a certain place.  Place training which is discussed in another question is an excellent option.  Teaching your dog to ignore guests is a good way to handle those guests who don’t care for dogs.  For guests who do want to interact with your puppy, you have to insist that the guest not pet your dog if he is jumping in order for your training to be effective.  It doesn’t work to tell your puppy not to jump when a guest is standing there rewarding him for it by petting them.  For me, this has been difficult.  I don’t like to tell people to ignore my dogs when they have come a long way to meet them.   I have a lot of people coming to see our dogs and by far most of them reward jumping from my dogs.  If I have two dogs in a room with guests and one of them is sitting quietly by me and the other is jumping on the guests, which one do you think will be getting petted….almost always, it’s the one jumping. My dogs have become wise to which of my guests are coming to see them and which are coming to see me.  Don’t let this happen to you.