How do I stop my dog jumping up at people?

Removing the reward the jumping is for, teaching a specific alternative behaviour, and the consistency across everyone in the house that makes it stick.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 20 min
Read: 5 min

Short answer

Jumping up is attention-seeking, so the method is to remove all attention the instant the paws leave the ground — turn away silently — and to pay generously for four feet on the floor and for a sit. Practise it deliberately with a helper rather than only in real greetings. Expect two to six weeks with family, longer with visitors.

A dog jumps up because faces are where the interesting information is, and because it has worked: even pushing the dog down and saying no is contact, eye contact and speech, which is attention. That is why the behaviour survives years of telling off. The fix is not a correction at all — it is making the jumping produce nothing and making the alternative produce everything.

What you'll need

High-value treats
A lead
A helper to play the visitor (optional)
A house line (optional)

Step by step

Agree the rule with everyone in the house, including visitors.One person who lets the dog jump up when they are wearing old clothes undoes everyone else's work, because intermittent reward is the strongest kind. Tell visitors what to do before you open the door rather than apologising afterwards.
Remove the reward the instant the paws leave the floor.Turn away, fold your arms, look at the ceiling, say nothing. No 'no', no 'down', no pushing — all of those are attention. Stand still and boring. The moment all four feet are on the floor, turn back and greet warmly.
Pay the alternative behaviour heavily.Removing the reward alone is slow. Teach a sit for greeting and reward it generously, or scatter a few treats on the floor as you arrive so the dog's head goes down. A dog eating off the floor cannot be jumping.
Greet at the dog's level.Crouch down so the dog does not need to come up to reach your face. This alone removes the motivation for a lot of jumping, particularly with small dogs and puppies.
Set up practice repetitions rather than waiting for real ones.This is the step that makes it fast. Ask a helper to come to the door ten times in a row. Dog on a lead, helper approaches; if the dog jumps, the helper turns and walks away; if the dog keeps four feet down or sits, the helper approaches and greets. Ten repetitions in ten minutes teaches more than a fortnight of real arrivals.
Manage the front door while you train it.A house line, a baby gate across the hall, or the dog sent to a mat before you open the door. Every successful jump at a visitor rehearses the behaviour, so preventing it during the training period is doing real work.
Practise your own arrivals home calmly.Come in, ignore the dog completely for a minute, then greet when it is calm. Big emotional arrivals build exactly the excitement you are trying to reduce.
Generalise to different people and places.Dogs do not automatically transfer this. Practise with men and women, children, people in hats and high-vis, in the house, in the garden, on the pavement. Each new context needs a few repetitions.
Expect it to get briefly worse before it improves.When a behaviour that always worked stops working, the dog tries harder for a few days. If everyone holds the line, it passes within a week.
Take jumping at strangers in public seriously.Jumping at children and elderly people can cause genuine injury and creates a legal exposure if someone is hurt. Until it is reliable, keep the dog on a lead near people and step off the path when someone approaches.

Tips

Scattering five treats on the floor as a visitor comes in is the single most effective quick fix. It puts the dog's nose down at exactly the moment it would have jumped.
Never use a knee to the chest. It can injure the dog, it is still attention, and it teaches some dogs to jump from the side.
A dog that jumps at everyone in the street is usually under-exercised and over-excited before it even leaves the house. Work on arousal generally, not just on the jump.

Common mistakes

Saying 'down' and pushing the dog off — It is contact, eye contact and speech — all attention, which is the reward the dog was seeking. It also confuses the 'down' cue if you use it for lying down.
Allowing it sometimes — Intermittent reward makes a behaviour far more persistent than consistent reward. One person allowing it is enough to keep it going indefinitely.
Only working on it during real greetings — Real greetings are rare, highly exciting and hard to control. Set-up repetitions with a helper are where the learning actually happens.
Giving up in the first week — There is usually a short burst of harder trying when the behaviour stops working. It passes if the response stays consistent.

If it doesn't work

Dog jumps at visitors but not at you

Cause: Visitors are more exciting and less consistent — Fix: Manage the door with a gate or a lead, brief visitors before they come in, and run set-up practice sessions with a helper.

Jumping got worse after a few days

Cause: An extinction burst — the dog trying harder — Fix: Hold the line. It typically passes within a week provided nobody rewards it in the meantime.

Dog sits, then jumps as soon as you greet it

Cause: The greeting itself is over-exciting — Fix: Greet more quietly and briefly, crouch to the dog's level, and reward the sit before greeting rather than after.

Dog jumps at children

Cause: Children move fast, squeal and are at face height — Fix: Manage it completely with a lead or a gate until it is reliable, and practise with a calm helper first. This is the version that causes injuries.

Questions people ask

How long does it take to stop a dog jumping up?

Two to six weeks with the household if everyone is consistent, and longer for visitors and strangers because those situations are rarer and more exciting. Set-up practice sessions are what shorten it.

Why does telling the dog off not work?

Because attention is what the dog wants, and being spoken to, looked at and touched is attention. Silence and turning away removes the reward; a telling-off delivers it.

Is kneeing the dog in the chest effective?

No, and it can injure the dog. It is also still a reaction from you, which some dogs find rewarding, and it can make a nervous dog frightened of greetings.