If you’ve ever had a dog or been around a puppy, you’ll know that they have a tendancy to jump up on you if they haven’t been trained properly.
While the act is most often innocent – as the dog just want to say hi to you – it can feel annoying or even a bit scary at times.
To help new dog owners train their pups to not jump up on people or fences, a dog trainer named Kim Paciotti has waded in.
The expert, known online as the ‘Empowered Puppy Program’, posts advice on Instagram. She has gained more than 217,000 followers by teaching people how to train their dogs correctly.
And in a recent clip, she outlined the simple method to get dogs from stop jumping on you.
“Are you actually teaching your puppy to jump?” she wrote at the start of the video.
In the video, a labrador puppy is seen jumping up to lean on the small fence keeping it from saying hi to Kim.
Kim is standing with a straight face on the other side of the fence, not giving the puppy any attention. However, as soon as the puppy gets down from the fence and has all four paws back on the floor, she praises him and gives him a treat.
She went on to explain in the caption of the video: ” Where the reward comes from = where your puppy will go. If you reward from your hand when they jump? They’ll keep jumping to reach the reward. If you reward at the floor? They’ll stay down. Simple.”
Kim then walks in and out of the room, repeating the same process. As soon as the puppy stops jumping and gets back down onto the floor, she rewards him.
“If you tell them no or push them down, you taught them to jump,” she explained. “You can stop jumping in days with these simple tips.”
She’s then seen climbing over the fence and kneeling down in front of the puppy, who quickly puts its front paws up on her knee. But as soon as the puppy gets back onto the floor, it gets rewarded.
She then tries to encourage the puppy to jump up on her by tapping on her knee. When the puppy stays on the floor, she once again rewards the puppy with a treat.
“Even if your guests are over the top… It is so simple, I can do it with all four of them.”
In the caption, the dog trainer add that her method could be used for when the dogs try to jump up on other things.
She explained: “Counter surfing? SAME RULES APPLY. Let them jump. Wait. As soon as they get down, reward away from the counter.
“Be careful not to chain the behaviours. When you walk away ask for another behavior before you reward.”
The post has garnered more than 724,000 likes – and plenty of people took to the comments section to thank Kim for her help.
One responder wrote: “I taught my dog not to jump on guests. Now she crawls, belly to the ground to greet them with the tail wiping the floor behind her. It’s hilarious! (And so much better then jumping on people).”
And another added: “I wish people knew how effective positive reinforcement is over negative.”