All of us, I am sure, have at some time in our lives fussed a young puppy whilst his front feet were on our lap. It’s human nature!

If your dog jumps up at you, don’t punish him when his only crime has been to grow! And don’t expect him to know the difference between your gardening clothes and your ‘Sunday go to church’ clothes!

If you have a young puppy then only give him attention when all four feet are on the ground and make sure that everyone else, family, visitors, even strangers in the park do the same. If he jumps up simply turn around, walk away and say nothing.

Dogs jump up because;

1. It is rewarding. They have been praised and petted as puppies for jumping up and ignored when they weren’t.
2. For attention. As adult dogs they are no longer praised but they still get attention. Hands pushing them off. Being spoken to. Again they are usually being ignored when they are not jumping up.
3. For appeasement. The more aggressive you become, the more they will need to lick your face. It’s what dogs do!

By asking your dog to sit and praising and rewarding him whilst he is or totally ignoring him if he jumps up it is relatively easy to teach him not to jump up at you but what about visitors or people you meet when out walking?

It is not always possible to know how your visitors or strangers on a walk will react when meeting your dog or whether they will comply with your instructions to ignore unwanted behaviour.

It therefore makes sense to set up training sessions with willing volunteers who have been briefed beforehand.

It is just possible that there are another couple of dogs in your street who have the same problem and you could help each other.

Teach your dog to sit and stay in one place in the hall, maybe on a mat, when there are no distractions. Then add the distraction of a member of the family going out of the door and knocking.

Once your dog can carry out a sit stay in this situation then have a coffee morning.

Invite 10 friends (dog loving humans). Prior to the event give each person a handful of your dog's favourite food treats and synchronise watches!

Have each person arrive at 2 minute intervals. Put your dog in his usual sit stay and invite the first visitor in. If he stays he must be rewarded with a treat from the visitor, if he moves he must be completely ignored by them.

If 10 people come in the front door and out of the back door 10 times that's 100 exposures to a treat if you sit and stay and nothing if you don't.

To start with the dog will probably be ignored by everyone maybe 2 or 3 times but eventually the same faces will become familiar and less exciting and he can then start to learn how to get his reward.

During this training period any unexpected visitors must completely ignore the dog unless he behaves in the desired manner and you will probably need to repeat the coffee morning training session several more times for it to have a maximal and long lasting effect on the dog.

The same method can be adapted when meeting strangers in the park. Arrange to meet people at 2 minute intervals on a circuit of your usual walk and apply the same rules.

N.B. If you ever were unfortunate enough to have an up-to-no-good person at your door, the out of control dog could very easily slip out of the door whilst the axe murderer pushes you in and slams the door closed!

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