Jumping to Greet

Dogs who jump up to greet are most often friendly, excited, dogs who want to say “Hi” (this isn’t always true but that is a different discussion).  All of that energy and desire to greet needs to go somewhere and for some dogs the solution is to jump.  Dogs likely choose jumping because dogs have a history of interacting with us and that interaction is commonly with all of our features that are located above our waist – our hands (pets), arms (hugs), chest (cuddles) and face (praise).  In fact, it’s very uncommon to see people interact with their dogs using their legs – which kind of makes jumping make sense.

They elevate their bodies to reach our elevated position.

To teach “appropriate” greetings the first thing you have to do is define what the desired greeting looks like:

• A dog who waits until called over to greet

• A dog who doesn’t greet at all until the person goes to interact with the dog

• A dog who walks over calmly, but happily, to say hi when people enter/approach

• A dog who keeps 4 paws on the floor but greets exuberantly

• A dog who barks and jumps and just can’t contain themselves

There is no right or wrong answer.  Each option has its pros and cons.  In the end it comes down to personal preferences and safety.  Think about everyone who will be interacting with your dog and the type of baseline behavior you want to have in all of those scenarios.

Note:  It may not be a personal safety issue if your dog jumps on you and the safety issues don’t have to include your dog using their teeth.  Dog’s size, nails, and head all present a risk for knocking someone over, scratching their skin, tearing their closes, or head butting someone’s face.  These risks become more pronounced for people with thin skin, struggle with balance, or are shorter in stature by putting their face closer to those nails, paws, and head.

No matter what you want your greeting to look like, the training breaks down into four components – Management, Pre-Requisite Skills, Training, and Generalization.

Management:

The first step in the training plan is to change the environment to limit the rehearsal of any undesired behaviors.  Rehearsing a behavior is reinforcing to that behavior and it will continue if practiced.  To prevent rehearsal of undesired greeting routines we need to limit the dog’s access to those greeting when we aren’t training.

Restraint is the key management tool here.  We prevent undesired greetings by finding the right combination of cues, kennels, barriers (gates or fences), doors, and leashes to restrain the dog.

Pre-requisite Skills:

Depending on what you want the greeting ritual to look like your dog may need to have some other skills to support your work on greetings.  For a more basic greeting, simple alternate behaviors such as a Sit, Touch, Front or Middle could be used to direct the dog.  For a more elaborate greetings, skills like Down, Stay, Place, Back-Up, or Out of the Way may be required when some level of delay is desired before a greeting can take place.

It’s important to map out the full sequence of your desired greeting from when the door opens (you entering the house or the gate/door opening to let the dog out) to the dog settling down after the greeting.  There are likely a number of different behaviors that the dog needs to learn to perform the desired greeting.

Remember that calm breeds calm and excitement breeds excitement.  If you want a calm greeting,

it’s important that at each stage of the greeting you help your dog settle before proceeding on to the next step.  It’s not just about achieving a sit; it’s about slowing down and relaxing to the desired level before greeting.

Training:

There are 3 common starting points when it comes to working on jumping during greetings:

Practicing without support and the dog restrained (in a room, kennel, or behind a barrier)

• Acknowledge your dog when you enter, wave or verbally say “Hi”, and then get yourself settled (stuff put away, change clothes, etc.)

• Approach your dog

• Cue a desired behavior – if part of the desired greeting process – and reward

• Assess the dog’s body language and energy level.  Do you believe that they are calm enough that if you open the door, open the kennel, or step into their space that they won’t jump?

  • If no, walk away, reset, and approach again.  Repeat this until they are calm enough to share the same space with you

  • If yes, open the door or step into their space

• As you greet them meet them at their level or cue them to a specific spot and interact with them immediately

  • It’s important that there is very little delay between you entering and you interacting.  You need a strong history of rewarding 4 paws on the floor or them targeting a desired spot before adding in delays in the greeting

• Stay engaged with your dog(s) until they settle and are no longer at risk for jumping up to greet.

  • Over time this interaction period will get shorter and shorterAcknowledge your dog when you enter, wave or verbally say “Hi”, and then get yourself settled (stuff put away, change clothes, etc.)

Practicing with support (someone else to work with the dog during entry)

• Coordinate with the person to let them know that you are home and about to enter

• The helper person should restrain the dog (leash, position behind a barrier, performing a well-known cue, etc.)

• Acknowledge your dog when you enter, wave or verbally say “Hi”, and then get yourself settled (stuff put away, change of clothes, etc.)

  • The helper’s job is to prevent the dog from greeting until you are ready

  • The helper should reward the dog for engaging with the helper, maintaining a loose leash (if on leash), performing any requested cues, and most importantly for approximations of relaxation (slowed movement, voluntary sits or downs, slowed breathing, etc.)

• Set up for the greeting: go to the desired location, put the dog in the desired location/performing the desired cue, rewards ready (besides interaction) as needed, and attention focused only on working with the dog.

• Have the helper bring the dog over or go over to greet the dog.  Cue any desired behavior or meet the dog at their level to interact

  • If your dog jumps up during the interaction stand up and take 2 steps away

  • The handler should calmly call the dog back

  • Reset to the starting point of the greeting routine and try again

  • Repeat this until the dog is able to greet without jumping

• Once you greet your dog stay engaged with them until they settle and are no longer at risk for jumping.

  • Over time this interaction period will get shorter and shorter

Practicing without support and the dog loose (able to freely greet you when you enter)

• Set up for the greeting when or before you leave (food, toys, a place to store your stuff, change of clothes, etc.) or maintain a set up to support training.

• When you get home/are ready to go inside prepare to enter the house and greet the dog

  • Hands should be free of anything not related to working on the greeting

  • Rewards and appropriate alternate outlets for their energy should be at the ready and delivered as the dog approaches

    • If you let the dog reach you, they can jump, indicated that the deliver was too late.

• Enter and greet your dog

• Meet them at their level

• Utilized enough reinforcement (over enough time) to keep them engaged and prevent jumping

  • This may just be petting, it could be food (handed or tossed), or it could be a toy to play with

  • If the dogs jump you have 2 options:

    • Step back out the door, reset, and try again

    •  Stand still, protect yourself with your arms and wait for the dog to have 4 paws on the floor.  Mark and reward as soon as those paws hit the floor.  This option only works for dogs who aren’t overly excited – overly excited dogs can escalate and create a more undesired situation.

      • For this option you have to stay calm, make minimal eye contact, and avoid actively pushing the dog away from you.

• If you are working on a desired greeting routine initiate the routine as soon as you are able to get their attention

  • Ask for the Sit, send them to their Place, use the Get a Toy cue, etc.

  • Minimize as much interaction as possible until they are in the greeting routine

•  Stay engaged with them until they settle and greet them in the desired manner

Generalization:

Work on shaping calm behavior.  Remember that calming down doesn’t happen all at once.  It takes time and will need to be done incrementally.  Reward those early calming signs (4 paws on the floor, a sit, slower movement, less excitement, etc.) and slowly increase how calm the dog needs to be over sessions until you achieve the desired behavior

If you are utilizing a leash and/or helper we want to fade both out.  The first step is to fade the leash.  This can be done by transitioning from a shorter leash to a longer leash and then to a dropped leash (attached to the dog but dragging on the floor).  The increase in freedom of movement should be done as the dog develops the skills to choose the desired behavior. It's important to develop a significant behavior history showing that the leash is no longer needed to support training.  This can be done in tandem with increased performance of any desired cues used during the greeting or as the dog shows they are capable of approaching in a calmer manner and not jumping.  After the leash is faded the helper is faded by incrementally minimizing their involvement.  This might look like giving a cue before entry and rewarding, to just giving the cue, to letting the person entering give the cue when they come in.

The last step is to intentionally add in approximations of a “normal” entry.  The starting point is to be able to focus on your dog and the training at the beginning.  As your dog starts to improve you can intentionally add elements of a normal entry.  Things like carrying keys or a water bottle, making it harder by carrying in bags, and then finally coming in without much prep work.

Why we don’t Punish Jumping:

Responding to jumping with an aversive (kneeing, hitting, leash pop, shock, etc.) – something that causes stress or pain in your dog – is something that we want to avoid when working on teaching our dog not to jump.  Each time your dog jumps to greet they are also jumping to interact.  This means that the punishment occurs for both the jumping and the interaction.  We don’t want to accidentally great a negative association with greeting you or other people (no matter how small).  We don’t want the dog to see that safety with you has an asterisks(*).  We want your dog to only see people as safe and predictable, not as one that could cause harm.

The other reason we don’t punish jumping, is because for most people the attempted punishment actually rewards the jumping.  Punishment has to be unpleasant enough that it overrides the dog’s desire to jump.  When most people punish, they say “No”, push the dog away with their hands, or raise a knee, typically, all while making eye contact.  For dogs who want attention almost all of these actions give the dog attention.  This means the dog got what it wanted and so it keeps jumping to greet.  Without changing the dynamic completely, the dog and owner get stuck in a loop that creates frustration in both parties.