Books & Articles
Dog Behavior Article
Brief Tip: The 3 Main Reasons Dogs Jump
(Return to the main Books & Articles index page)
1. Dogs like to jump up to give facial greetings, like their wolf ancestors. Dogs have scent glands in their lips and ears that give off identification information like the magnetic strip on the back of your American Express card. By simply getting down to the dog's level to greet it, and letting it sniff and lick at that point, you can remove a lot of the dog's incentive to jump.
2. Dogs jump up on other dogs to assert dominance, or superior position, in the pack. The dog that is literally "on top" is politically on top, too.
3. Dogs jump up because their owners have accidentally rewarded the jumping behavior by giving the dog inappropriate attention when it jumps.
What Not to Do:
- Do not knee your dog in the chest to stop it from jumping!
- Do not step on it's rear feet. This commonly recommended technique could crush or fracture its feet.
- Do not reach for a choke chain and hang your dog.
- Do not push your dog or strike it in any manner. You may inadvertently reward the dog for its jumping, hurt your dog, or traumatize it to the extent where it will never trust you again.
###