Training an Australian Shepherd Puppy to Stop Jumping on Guests

In this Omaha puppy training session we worked with Rocky, a ten-month-old Australian Shepherd, who needed help to stop jumping stop barking and stop door dashing.

When I first arrived the guardians were holding Rocky back by the collar to prevent her from jumping on me when I walked through the door. I see this often because people want to be respectful of their guests when they arrive, however this actually makes the problem worse. When a dog is being help back it actually triggers their opposition reflex making them want to jump more! When I asked the guardian to release Rocky, Rocky jumped up at me initially, but because I averted my gaze away from her and didn’t start petting her she quickly stopped jumping and calmed down.

To help Rocky stop jumping on guests when they arrive her guardians will want to stop petting her and start ignoring her when they come home until Rocky calms down enough to get affection. This will help her learn how to greet guests in the same way. I also showed the guardians our Claiming the Door technique to help Rocky learn to stay respectfully away from guests when they first arrive. To see how I did this you can watch the video below.

As you can see in the video above Rocky tested the boundaries quite a bit. However, with time and practice she can learn to respect the boundaries and look to her guardians for direction. Other things that can help Rocky learn to be more respectful are going to doggy daycare or dog parks where she can play with other dogs her age and getting more exercise so she can be calmer when beginning these exercises.

To keep up with Rocky’s good behavior the guardians will want to continue to use our Petting with a Purpose technique to reward her for good behavior and use the Escalating Consequences to disagree with her or ignore her when she starts demanding attention. We wrapped up this puppy behavior session with Rocky’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.