Do you have a dog that tends to jump up on you? Do they tend to jump up on other people? You might be wondering why they are doing this, especially if you are a newer pet parent.
We wanted to get some answers about this particular dog behavior. And since we have a staff pup who has a tendency to get excited and jump up on people, we knew that the best way to do this was to ask some experts.
Not only did we get responses from trainers, but we also got answers from an education coordinator, an animal Dietitian, and a veterinarian. The fact that we got a variety of experts in the field, meant that we definitely got a well-rounded idea of why our dogs do this.
Although it is not necessarily a bad thing that your dog is jumping on you, it’s also the kind of behavior you might want to curtail. You don’t necessarily want anyone to get hurt, including yourself. And depending on the size of your dog, it is entirely possible to get hurt if they jump up on you.
What did the experts have to say about why our dogs jump on us?
So before you can stop the behavior, you should probably understand it.
What did all of our experts have to say? Check out the response to our simple question of why do our dogs jump up on us below:
According to Dr. Aimee Warner at Waggel, it's as simple as "jumping is one of the dog’s attention-seeking behavior. It’s their way of greeting their humans/people."
Dani Dominguez of SunBright Wellness explained that, "jumping is a way for dogs to express excitement or seek attention. If jumping gets rewarded with attention (even if it is negative attention like pushing them away), it could reinforce the behavior."
Again, we also got this response from Paige Gordon, a professional dog trainer, "Generally dogs will jump up because jumping works! Jumping up is a very hard behaviour to ignore, so even if it’s negative attention they received, our dog still got their goal of our attention in the end."
Finally, we have this response to our question from Carla Dusel, who is the training and education coordinator for Central Bark, "dogs jump on their people for many reasons! As an expression of excitement or physiological arousal, to request support in moments of stress, when seeking social interaction, or simply because bouncing up is fun! Fully assessing why a dog jumps on a person requires a critical look at the environment and the dog’s body language. If the dog is jumping up, their body is loose and wiggly, and they are gleefully wagging their tail as their owner steps through the front door, that dog is likely soliciting attention and expressing excitement. However, if a dog is jumping up on their owner during a vet visit with a tucked tail, ears pinned back, while side eyeing the veterinary staff, that is a dog that is practically shouting “help me!."
Dogs jump for attention and because they can
Honestly, it makes perfect sense that our dog is jumping on us as a greeting, as well as a form of gaining attention. They are doing what they can to communicate with us.
We really appreciate all of this experts answering our question and making it easy to understand our dogs. Hopefully, this can also help to give you better insight into your pup and what they are trying to say to you.