We’ve all experienced coming home to a happy dog, and it’s immediatedly jumping up and down. But luckily training a Labradoodle not to jump is fairly easy.
The reason why a labradoodle jumps up onto humans is that they want to say hello and get your attention, and seeing as you are taller than it, it has to jump to get your attention.
Sadly it’s a minority of people that actually enjoys having an unknown dog jumping up on them, and it’s your duty as the owner of the dog to prevent it from bothering other people.
Thankfully it’s reasonable easy to teach your dog to be a “polite greeter”.
This is best done by teaching it some minor exercises where the Labradoodle learns the correlation between staying on the floor and receiving attention.
Is this guide I’ll show you some of these exercises so that your Labradoodle will stop jumping onto other people.
Why Labradoodles jump on you
Labradoodles has a natural tendency to jump or leap onto people when it wants to greet them, but why is that exactly?
The answer is simple: We are taller than them.
When dogs meet outside they will sniff each others faces, and therefore it’s also perfectly reasonable that it wants to do the same thing when encountering humans.
And it is also a very effective method of making sure they have your fullest attention.
How to handle a jumping Labradoodle
The key to teaching your dog not to jump on you, is to tell it that you will only greet a dog that has all four of its’ paws planted fully on the ground.
Even if it’s not exactly possible telling that to a
When your dog excitedly greets you, its’ main goal is to get your attention and that you will end up petting it.
Keeping this in mind, try and show your Labradoodle what you want it to do to get your full attention instead of jumping up and down.
There are two small things to keep in mind every time you’re greeted by your dog.
- Don’t let your dog have your attention or your petting hands unless all of its’ paws are planted on the ground
- As soon as all of the paws are on the ground, then immediatedly starting giving it all of your love and pet it as much as you have the strength for
For example: What do you do when you get home from a long day at work, and the first thing you are greeted by is a happy and jumping Labradoodle?
As tempting it is to give it at big old hug and petting it like crazy, dont!
Just ignore it.
Don’t push it away from you or tell it to go away.
Instead just stand straight up and look directly over it’s head.
If you absolutely have to move your arms and hands, then move them to your chest and cross your arms.
If the dog continues to jump, now is the time to turn around and look away.
This means that the dog will have to put its’ paws on the ground and follow you.
The second you notice the dog is on the ground you turn back into the loving and caring dog-owner you’ve always been, and start praising and petting the dog.
If this leads to the dog once again jumping up and down again stand straight up and ignore the dog until its’ paws once again are fully grounded.
When they are back on the ground, it’s time for another petting session.
Your attention and petting are your weapons to communicating with your Labradoodle.
Never hold back your attention and affection to your dog as soon as its’ paws are on the ground.
Not even if you were extremely annoyed by your Labradoodle just a few seconds ago.
The main point for your dog to learn here is the magical connection between it keeping its’ paws on the ground, and the attention it receives when it does so.
3 Exercises to stop the jumping
It’s extremely important that you yourself are clear on what you want to teach your Labradoodle to do instead of jumping when greeting people.
Some of the usual commands would be Sit or Stay.
The following exercises could help your dog learn how to be more “polite” when greeting people.
- When your dog starts jumping: Stand straight up and look directly into the air, not onto your dog. Cross your arms and wait patiently for your dog to stop jumping. When its’ paws are touching the ground you can begin petting it calmly. If the Labradoodle doesn’t stop jumping after this, repeat the exercise.
- If your Labradoodle has already learned to Sit on command, try this when it starts jumping: Stand straight up, look directly into the horizon and cross your arms. Say a command like “Stop” and immediately turn your back against the dog, so it can’t see your face. Now say “Sit”. When the dog is sitting, try catching a glimpse of it out of the corner of your eye, you turn around, kneel are start petting the dog calmly. Repeat the exercise if the jumping continues.
- When you enter through the door and the dog jumps on you: Immediately step back out the door closing it behind you, but let it be open just a bit. Say “Sit” through the opening. When the dog sits, you can casually enter the room, kneel and pet it. Repeat if the dog continues to jump.
When your Labradoodle has learned how to be a polite greeter, try inviting some of your friends over so it also has a chance of learning how to greet guests.
Have them enter the house one at a time, and explain them the following exercise:
The guest rings the doorbell or knocks on the door, you open the door together with your dog and the guest enters your home.
If the dog starts jumping onto the guest, have the guest turn around and leave out the door again.
Have your guest once again ring/knock on the door, but this time you tell your Labradoodle to “Sit” before opening the door.
You don’t open the door until the dog is sitting down.
If your dog once again starts jumping, your guest should know what to do.
If the Labradoodle keeps sitting, the guest is more than welcome to enter and greet the dog, and give it a treat as a little bonus for the dog.
Have multiple different guest do this exercise several times, until you dog knows exactly what to do.
5 Things to avoid in Labradoodle training
- Never give your Labradoodle attention or pet for it, when it’s jumping onto you. By doing that you will confirm that behavior as something positive, and your dog will think it’s’ doing the right thing by jumping up and down.
- Don’t seem overly eager or happy when greeting your dog. The calmer and steadier you are, the calmer and steadier your dog will be.
- Never shout at the dog when it’s jumping on you or other people. Your shouting and yelling will only make the dog more agitated which in return will lead to even more jumping around.
- Don’t push the dog and don’t grab it either when it’s jumping. Again this will only lead to more jumping, as a dog interprets these signals different than humans.
- Don’t punish your Labradoodle, either physically or mentally. This type of punishment will in no way teach your dog how to greet people in the correct way.
As you can see, teaching a Labradoodle not to jump can be done quite easily.
But if you experience that your dog is extremely difficult to teach this, try and find a dog behavior expert who can have a chat with you and see if there is anything special you should do with your dog.
