How To Train Your Dog To Greet Visitors Nicely

A dog that jumps up at visitors can be intensely maddening for his owner and annoying for their guests. To straighten out this behaviour it will provide help to understand a bit about what has happened in your dog’s mind whilst he's energetically greeting your friends and family at the door.

Your dog’s educational process isn't complicated. Your dog will fundamentally repeat anything that rewards him in any way. As dog owners we need to keep this in mind through both training sessions and day-to-day life with our dog. With this learning process under consideration we will be able to start to reinforce the behaviours that we might like the dog to copy by rewarding them. We will also start to recognise the unhelpful behaviour that we wish to stop, and learn not to reward it.

Another thing not to forget is that your dog may see the most bizarre thing as reward. Pushing a dog off when he jumps up is physical contact, therefore can be thought of as a reward. Ignoring or turning ones back on a jumping dog is more effective, you are in effect totally ignoring the behaviour.

It sounds simple put this way and I'm to very first to admit that when the dog is jumping all over visitors it’s tough to think straight. It is often better to teach your dog a different and more handy behaviour. An example being instead of him getting excited and jumping up, teach him that to sit nicely in front of the visitor will earn him the reward he's hunting for. This can be done by repeatedly asking your dog to sit for a treat in front of you and rewarding instantly. Asking visitors to take on the same strategy should succeed in reforming your dog’s unhelpful habit.

There is not any use learning how to train your dog to sit nicely in front of visitors if you don't time the exercise properly. Your dog could easily learn that he can jump up and have the reward of touch (pushing off) then receive a second reward for sitting. It is vital to make a request for the sit rather than the jump, therefore avoiding the jump altogether.

To learn lots more about positive dog training techniques, tips and expert guidance, or if you would like to learn how to train your dog to sit, then please take one or two seconds and visit The Dog Trick Academy.