All of our ForPaws Puppy Training Clients receive help and guidance on how to prevent and work on common puppy problems.  Our latest blog is an excerpt from our new handout on what to do if your dog or puppy jumps up.  If you need more help on this matter, please get in touch to arrange a private training session or sign up to our puppy course.

Why Do Dogs Jump Up?

Dogs that jump up are often difficult control both on and off lead and they cause many problems for owners, such as tearing and leaving muddy paw prints over clothes; causing accidents and injuries from scratches and knocking people over and upsetting guests or passing walkers.  Dogs can also give themselves back injuries through the bad posture they maintain in jumping up and resting paws on people.

Many owners effectively resolve jumping up in some scenarios, but not others.  They ask me to help and assume there will be a simple, ‘one size fits all answer’.  But there isn’t, the key to stopping jumping up, is to understand why the behavior is happening and then to address the underlying reason. 

Kongs provide dogs with a much needed source of mental (and sometimes physical!) stimulation.  They are a challenge, as your dog needs to work to extract the delicious food that you have packed into it, and ideally, this takes lots of time, keeping your dog entertained when you need some peace and teaching him a 'good thing' to chew, as opposed to a 'bad thing' to chew - such as your shoes, or the kitchen cabinet!  I often suggest to owners that one simple and practical approach to their dog's boredom or chewing problem is to use a Kong, but some look dismayed.  "My dog just isn't interested in it" they tell me, "we've tried and he just gives up".  Why is this?   

When people think of getting a puppy, they always think of all the good stuff, the cute little face, hilarious antics, walks in the sun, cuddles on the sofa.  The bad stuff, well it isn’t that bad is it?  You know loads of people that have had puppies and they did fine!  Recently I’ve met a few new puppy owners who haven’t quite been having as much fun as they thought they might have with their puppy and so I thought it was finally time to come clean about about my own experiences with ‘post puppy depression’ (and yes I know this is NOT the same as post natal depression, but its the best description I have)…