Jumping up: Stop ignoring it.

It’s been a popular recommendation for a long time now. If your dog jumps on you, ignore them. Tell everyone else to ignore your dog if they jump up on them. Ok, I get the concept behind that. Say your dog wants attention and they’re jumping to get a reaction from you, you pat them, it gets reinforced and therefore gets repeated. It makes sense. But what if they aren’t jumping up for attention. Or what if being ignored makes them so frustrated that they start biting your butt, tugging your hair, pulling your clothes from behind, knocking over your 90 year old Nonna that’s been told to ‘ignore the dog while they’re jumping please’ or the 2 year old nephew that’s just walked in.

What also doesn’t get discussed is that ignoring behaviour that has the function of getting something the dog finds reinforcing is a strategy called extinction. Even though ignoring the dog is supposed to be a positive strategy that’s ‘kinder’ to dogs, extinction is really stressful for a dog and creates what is called an extinction burst. An extinction burst is a rapid increase in intensity of behaviour when a reinforcer is not being received anymore that previously was in that same context. Imagine a child having a ‘tantrum’ and screaming for Mum’s attention. Mum, Mum, Muummmm, MUM, MUUMMM, MUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMM *then escalates to starting to bite Mum’s leg and throwing things out of the trolley. The frustration from no attention from Mum has made the behaviour escalate in intensity. What happens then is that you eventually cave and respond to your child because you’re in the supermarket and you get embarrassed by the behaviour. All we have done then is reinforced an even more intense behaviour will get attention now instead of the quieter ‘Mum’s’ when in the supermarket.

So, ignoring a dog for jumping up is not only worse for the humans, but it’s worse for the dog behaviourally and ethically in terms of the stress they are experiencing.

When trainers say to ‘ignore’ behaviour though what it should be better explained as (and why you don’t get advice off people at the dog park or off Facebook is because it doesn’t get explained from a proper learning theory perspective and isn’t individualised to your dog and circumstance) is that it is actually removing reinforcement rather than ‘ignoring’. They are two very different things. If you have been patting the dog and they jump and then you turn away, then you are punishing the behaviour by removing your attention. This is called negative punishment. It’s a totally different thing.

What happens though when you have a bit more of a complex case? I just saw a dog the other day that loved being ‘ignored’ or ‘having attention removed for jumping up’ because they actually hated being touched. They would get patted over the head which they hated, the dog jumped, the owners stop. Yay, jumping up makes annoying human behaviour end. So we are actually reinforcing jumping up, AND not addressing the issue that the dog dislikes handling. It was also causing bad injuries to the owners with some sensitive skin. So instead we only touched the dog where they liked being touched and the jumping up reduced dramatically.

What if your dog jumps because they are frightened? Dogs jump and cling to us when they are distressed. This is a behaviour which falls under the umbrella of what we call hyperarousal and it is when our dogs aren’t coping with an environment or situation and struggling to regulate their arousal levels. This also includes other behaviours like humping, tugging at clothes of owners, biting at leads etc. It is when our dogs are being overwhelmed by the environment and need help to be removed and settled again. Benny did it to me just the other day when we were shopping at a market and a dog had rushed at him and then two other dogs were staring at him while I was waiting for a coffee to get made. He jumped up and down at me saying I am not coping I have to get out of here. Did he deserve punishment? Painful aversives given to him? To be shrieked at to sit? No! It would only make him have more negative associations with that setting. So I patted and comforted him (I know, naughty, naughty, naughty, trainer giving attention to a stressed dog, you’ll only make them more stressed everyone still says inaccurately. NO that’s rubbish, comfort stressed sentient beings like you would if they were human, it helps them!) So after a few deep strokes to his fur in a way he likes and a scatter feed on the ground to sniff for he could calm enough for me to get my coffee and get out of there to let him do a zoomie and decompress how he needed to once we left the market.

So what CAN we do about jumping up dogs?

Work out why they are jumping! Are they stressed? Are they trying to avoid an interaction? Are they not coping? Is it learned behaviour to get attention? Work this out based on patterns of behaviour, knowing your dog, their body language etc.

Prevent them rehearsing it so it doesn’t become learned if it is excitement or attention seeking. Have them on lead and only allow greetings when they’re calm. As a reward for being calm when visitors are over they can be released with a ‘go say hi’ cue for example and go for a short pat. If they get excited again, call them back to settle again. It’s a great game for teaching some arousal regulation strategies to your dog and also teach them that calm gets them access to the guest. You can also teach them that sitting gets attention instead or even just standing with four paws on the ground.

If they’re stressed, work on helping them feel less stressed about those settings. See a trainer. Build up associations of treats happen around those things instead.

If they jump at you on walks, don’t go for as long and go in less distracting environments. They aren’t ready for that environment yet and are redirecting this feeling of not coping onto you. Work on smaller and calmer walks in quieter areas too and more gradually build up.

If they’re seeking comfort from you, comfort them! You are their guardian so guard them and help them feel safe.

If they do it immediately after a behaviour like leaning over them or touching them on the face, don’t lean over them or touch them on the face. These are rude human greetings and they’re jumping to make it stop. Also don’t let strangers pat your dog too much, a lot of dogs won’t like this at all.

If you continue to have a severe issue with jumping up, get some help from a trainer.

But one thing I can tell you not to do (and this was taught to me when I did this old school training course 20 odd years ago) – do NOT whack your dog on the head with a scone tray for jumping up. Do NOT stand on their back toes until they stop. Do NOT pinch their front paws until they’re really distressed. Don’t pop them or tug them on a collar. DO NOT create negative associations with people. We should train smart, not cruel. If someone recommends punishment for it it’s likely they don’t know any other way so see another trainer with more skills to help out so that you have more ethical options to help longer term for your individual dog.

Jumping up can be a lot more complex than it’s been thought to be and we need to understand why it’s happening from our dog’s perspective as every dog is an individual and circumstances are individual.