When you come home to your cute, little canine companion, your puppy tries to get your attention by jumping up on your legs. 

This behaviour is considered a friendly appeasement gesture and your dog’s way of saying: “Please give me some attention” or “Welcome home, I missed you.” 

Since dog owners rarely see this as a problem when their puppy is very young, they happily respond by giving her personal attention. This encourages your dog to continue this habit.

As your puppy matures into an adolescent and adult dog, jumping up could become annoying and even dangerous. 

When muddy paws soil your nice clothes it’s apt to annoy you. Dogs that are taught that jumping up is rewarding will also push over young children or frail adults. This can frighten and injure others.

Pushing your dog off or saying “off” is still giving her negative attention. A positive or negative response by you or anyone else is reinforcing your dog’s behaviour to continue.

This is why we say jumping up is a human taught behaviour and, because of the many times it is reinforced, a hard habit to break.

Practising prevention and management right from the beginning will ensure that your furry family member is not rewarded for this behaviour. 

Here are some helpful tips on what to do when your dog jumps up on other people or yourself.

When she jumps up on you, you could: 

• Lure her off your body with a treat in front of her nose.
• Throw a toy for her to chase. 
• Turn your back and completely ignore her. Once all four paws are on the floor, use praise and a treat to reinforce this. If you are sitting down when this happens, stand up, turn around and ignore her.

If she continues to jump up, walk into a bathroom or bedroom, close the door and wait 10 seconds. Then open the door and reward her with a treat if she is standing or sitting politely. If she jumps up again, close the door and repeat above. 

Keep your greetings low-key when you come home. Once you enter and your dog runs towards you and attempts to jump up, leave and close the door. Count to 10 and then go back in. Cue her to sit and reward with a treat. If she continues to jump on you, leave the house again and repeat above. She will realize quickly that jumping on you results in you leaving.

When you expect a visitor to your home, teach your dog to greet them politely. 

Set this up by having your dog on a harness and leash. When your guest arrives, step down on the leash to prevent her from jumping up.

Now ask her for some behaviours, which you have been working on, like “leave it” or “sit/stay” to keep your dog’s focus on you instead of on the visitor.

Then ask your guest to approach your dog from the side and calmly pat her from the base of the neck to the base of the tail. Practising this will teach her that remaining calm results in personal attention.

During leash walks, prevent her from jumping up on pedestrians by stepping on the leash to restrict her movement. You also could grab her harness and gently pull it downwards. Then when the person has passed you and your dog, praise, reward with a treat and continue walking.

Prevention of jumping up to get attention is much easier than changing it later on. Once it’s ingrained as being rewarding for your dog, it takes time, patience and consistency to undo.