How To Calm A Dog Down? Learn How To Stop Dog From Jumping
A dog jumping on a person entering the house is nothing pleasant, although it just wants to greet you and show the excitement. Small dogs might ruin the clothes or scratch the floor, and large dogs might even harm the person they greet – especially a child. Apart from that, a jumping dog is not a sign of good manners. What should you do? Check how to calm a dog down and resolve the jumping dog problem.
Table of Content
- How to stop a dog from jumping - begin the training
- A jumping dog needs encouragement – give commands and rewards
- How to calm a dog down? Ignore the excitement
- A jumping dog? Implement consistent patterns
How to stop a dog from jumping - begin the training
The key part of training your dog to greet people calmly is, as with any other behaviour practice, patience and determination of every family member. You can start by teaching the basic commands like sitting and sending the dog back to his bed.
Once your jumping dog knows those commands well, use them right before your guests arrive and reward your dog for completing the task by praising it and giving it a snack.
Continue the training until your guests arrive. It’s best if someone else opens the door while you distract the dog from what’s happening at the door – by giving simple commands and rewarding it.
A jumping dog needs encouragement – give commands and rewards
It’s important that the commands for the training are not too difficult. They shouldn’t be completely new – the dog should already know them. Your companion is already distracted, so following even well-known tasks might be a huge challenge.
Initially, reward the dog immediately after completing the task, even if it sits only for a short moment. Later, you can prolong this time so that the dog is able to sit or stay at his bed until the guests take their coats off and enter the room.
The beginnings are always difficult, and the dog will probably run and jump on the person entering the house anyway. If that happens, the person should quickly turn by 90 degrees so that the dog loses the support for the front paws and falls back to four legs.
How to calm a dog down? Ignore the excitement
Ignoring the excitement is another important aspect of training a jumping dog. THe person who enters the room should pay no attention to the dog (even to calm it down or showing disapproval), avoid looking and stroking. The dog reads those actions as a reward, and the jumping might get even more intense.
A jumping dog? Implement consistent patterns
Dogs are masters at following patterns. Because of this, train with your dog. Tell your guests that they can greet the pup only after it relaxes and sits down or walks around calmly.
If the dog greets the guests properly, without jumping or barking, reward the behaviour with a snack or a short play with dog toys. This way, the dog learns the pattern: jumping and/or barking means no reaction, patient waiting – the dog gets a reward.
This simple method, although it takes time to master, helps to eliminate the unwanted dog’s behaviour once and for all.
📍 How to train a dog not to jump?
The only way to solve this problem is proper training. You can try to stop the dog from jumping on your own – but you need to be patient and try to resist the pup's charm. If you don't want to train the dog yourself, ask a specialist for help.
📍 Why do dogs jump on you?
A jumping dog might seek attention and want somebody to notice it. It might be also a result of hyperactivity, so don't hesitate to consult a dog behaviourist and ask them how to calm a hyper dog.