When my highly arousable herder mix dog, Matt-Matt came to live with me, he jumped on me often.
I tried ignoring him and I tried turning my back to him (I regret doing that), but neither of these techniques worked. I didn't want to punish my dog for being over aroused, so I decided to just put up with the jumping.
He was only 30 pounds and his paws were rarely dirty. And even if he did get me dirty, I could just change clothes.
Then one day, I realized he wasn't jumping on me anymore. My first thought was that he was getting older and probably couldn't jump. But he jumped around quite easily when playing with his younger sister, Puddin.
I suspect he stopped because I helped him learn to calm down. I rewarded him often for lying on a mat or relaxing in his crate. I reduced as much stress and over-arousing stimuli in his life. I now see jumping up as a whole dog issue. Determine the cause of the jumping and work on the cause. The jumping should cease.
More to come on jumping up. See future posts here
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Jumping up because of reinforcement
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