Why Does My Dog Jump Up At People?

Jumping up is such a common problem for pawrents. Some people don’t mind, but others definitely do when your dog’s mucky paws cover their white trousers in mud!

It can also be embarrassing when having guests over if your dog is jumping all over them.

And when bigger dogs jump, some people can find this frightening.

In order to change a behaviour, we first need to understand why our dog is doing it.

So why do dogs jump up?

1. Greeting

Dogs often want to greet us by reaching up to our faces. The easiest way for them to do that is to jump up!

2. Excitement

When our dogs get excited, that energy has to go somewhere so for some dogs it goes into jumping up at people.

3. Anxiety

Some dogs jump up when they are anxious. Usually they will jump at their owner to indicate they need some help in the situation.

4. Learned Behaviour

This is the most common reason dogs jump up! When our dog is a puppy, most people allow them to jump up because they are small and cute. The puppy learns that jumping up means they get attention, so the behaviour carries on into their adult life when they are bigger.

A woman in the woods asking two black dogs to wait

5. Habit

Often jumping up starts as one of the reasons listed above, but then it becomes the dog’s automatic response when they see people.

6. Intermittent Reinforcement

When trying to teach our dogs not to jump up, people often ignore their dog when they jump and then reward their dog when they stop jumping. However, in order for this to be effective, you need to do this almost 100% of the time. This can make it difficult to enforce when your dog is jumping up at someone, and the other person says they don’t mind and gives them cuddles! This results in your dog continuing to jump up at people as although it doesn’t get them attention all of the time, sometimes it does.

(See my next blog post for top tips on how to stop your dog jumping up.)