The doorbell rings, and Marcus — your little Jack Russell Terrier — immediately bolts to the foyer. Great Aunt Matilda walks in and Marcus jumps up, landing his front paws on her new silk skirt. Great Aunt Matilda is not pleased.
Why does Marcus jump on her?
To find the answer, we need to answer our three questions:
To find the answer, we need to answer our three questions:
- What is the dog doing? (Name the exact behavior the dog is doing.) Jumping up on Great Aunt Matilda
- What is the dog's body language? (List what the dog looks and sounds like.) Relaxed face, looks like he’s wearing a big happy grin, relaxed ears, relaxed mouth, tail is wagging, and when he lands all four paws on the ground, his body wiggles.
- What is going on? (Describe the context.) A visitor rings the doorbell and then enters your home.
Now we put the information together:
We know from Jumping on People in All About Dogs, that one of the ways dogs greet people and other dogs is to lick their faces — it’s a behavior that traces ancestrally back to wolf puppies who lick their parents’ faces for food.
While it’s possible for dogs to keep all four paws on the floor when saying hello to other dogs, even the largest of dogs will have to stand up on his back legs to get close to most people’s faces. So, they jump up.
Marcus’s jumping up on Great Aunt Matilda seems like a pretty simple puzzle to solve — he’s jumping up to say hi. But we still need to prove that we’re correct by looking at his body language. We need to make sure he looks like a happy pup who is wanting to say hello, and not a scared dog jumping up to protect himself.
While it’s possible for dogs to keep all four paws on the floor when saying hello to other dogs, even the largest of dogs will have to stand up on his back legs to get close to most people’s faces. So, they jump up.
Marcus’s jumping up on Great Aunt Matilda seems like a pretty simple puzzle to solve — he’s jumping up to say hi. But we still need to prove that we’re correct by looking at his body language. We need to make sure he looks like a happy pup who is wanting to say hello, and not a scared dog jumping up to protect himself.
Looking at Marcus’s body language, we see that he is, in fact, really relaxed and happy. If you visit the Body Language Gallery, you can see that his actions squarely place him in the “not-distressed” category: relaxed face, mouth, and ears, happy grinning “play face,” wagging tail, and wiggly body.
So we know that dogs jump up to say hello, and we can see that Marcus looks to be a social, happy pup.
Let’s wrap this up by bringing Step Three into the equation.
Marcus is jumping up on people when they enter the house.
What's the answer?
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Slam dunk. When you put one, two, and three together, it’s very clear that Marcus is jumping up because that’s how dogs say hello — they want to get close to people’s faces.
Good news! If jumping on people is something you’d rather your dog not do, a qualified force-free trainer can help teach your pup to do something else instead. To give you a taste of how you can accomplish this, watch this video, and click here to learn how to find a trainer to help. |
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