| Article
Eight
Jumping
Up
Have you got
one of those dogs that must great people by jumping
up and placing his dirty paws over their nice clean
clothes? Greeting people by jumping up is a very common
and natural type of behavior and as most topics I
have covered is descended from the wolf/pack instinct.
In the pack
environment it is natural for cubs to jump up and
greet the returning adult female wolf, they do this
in an attempt to elicit food. Licking and nipping
the mothers lips encourages her to regurgitate food
and is therefore and instant baby food supply. Often
if you hold a puppy close to your face during play
it will attempt to lick or nip your lips but when
you tell it off it may then try to nip your lips harder.
This is sometimes seen as an act of disobedience but
is infact a sign of submission and the pup will be
very determined to show his eagerness to please you
even though you are telling him off for it. In this
instance it is better just to turn your head a place
the pup on the ground.
As the cub
matures jumping up is used to confirm pack status,
if you watch two dominant dogs meet often you will
observe one dog placing his head on the other dogs
withers, the point between the neck and head. This
is an act of dominance/challenge and will lead to
a fight if one of the dogs does not back down.
Therefore
you can have two types of jumping up greeting behavior,
the dog that has just become accustomed to jumping
up at people and receiving a reward such as a pat
or the dog which jumps up in an act of challenge.
I will cover aggressive dominance in a future column.
Preventing
jumping up is very simple and is best done as soon
as possible, preferably before the dog has developed
a problem. A lot of people will, if they have a problem,
hold the dog back with his collar or shut him in a
different room, this teaches the dog nothing. You
must first teach the dog to sit, then when ever somebody
visits you or you meet them in the street and wish
to have a conversation make the dog sit. The person
can still greet the dog with a pat but the dog must
not be allowed to move. The whole process may take
less than two weeks to teach but once taught prevents
all those embarrassing moments.
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This article
was written by Paul C Bunker, a professional dog trainer.
You can visit the website at www.Southwestk9services.com for more articles and
dog training resources. You may freely distribute
this article or save to any electronic media as long
as it is left intact, including this copyright box.
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