Teaching a Big Goofy Rottweiler and 3 Little Dogs to Stop Jumping Up on People

For this Omaha dog training session we shared tips to help dogs calm down and stop jumping on humans to help 1 year-old Rottweiler Abby, 12 year-old Chihuahua mix Phoebe, 10 year-old Longhair Chihuahua Chopper and 11 year-old Pom mix Bailey.

Knowing that Abby liked to jump up and the little dogs got excited, I waited outside the door after knocking to give the dogs an opportunity to calm themselves down. It took several minutes, taking longer due to the little dog’s barking, but eventually they all settled down enough for me to come inside without the dog jumping up on the guest, me!

There are a number of things you an do to stop a dog from jumping up on people. Finding a way to get the dogs to stop getting over excited should be at the top of the list. Fact of the matter is most dogs jump up on guests when they are excited.

I shared a number of tips to help the dogs learn that getting excited actually stops the thing they want from happening. There are many ways to achieve this like stopping of petting when a dog starts to get excited. Stop playing when the energy level gets too high is another solid option. And recreating situations where the dog gets excited, but stopping before the climax or thing the dog wants can also work wonders. We call this desensitizing.

One of the guardians joined us part way through the session so I used this as an opportunity to demonstrate my preferred way to stop a dog from jumping on people when excited.

Fortunately, anyone can use this method to stop dog jumping, even if you are not a professional Rottweiler dog trainer.

Id like to see the guardians call or text one another ahead of arriving, then practice playing the part of a guest at the door. I also recommended they ask friends and neighbors to drop by so they can practice this exercise to stop dogs from jumping up on guests. Ideally, you want to practice every day when rehabilitating unwanted dog behaviors. But at the minimum, I’d like to see them practice a few times a week (more is better and will help the dogs learn faster).

Teaching dogs to stop jumping on people is best done with a dog by itself. Often dogs will cascade their energy from one another when multiple dogs are together. That is certainly the case here.

In addition to sharing secrets to stop dog jumping, I went over a ton of other dog behavior tips in this in home dog training session. To help the humans remember, we filmed a roadmap to success video that you can check out below.