Why Labradors Like Jumping

Labrador Retrievers are an especially social type of dog and will try to interact with all different types of people. However, they are also prone to becoming overly excited at the prospect of human interaction, which can result in your Labrador jumping up onto people. Due to their large size when fully grown, this can cause quite a problem for owners, and for any guests who are on the receiving end! Labs are a friendly type of dog and they like to show that affection when they can. However, if you find your Labrador jumping in the wrong situations then it becomes a habit that you should look at changing. Training your dog not to jump up needs to be done carefully, since it is usually only your dog attempting to show you how much they care for you.

Hurting Themselves and Breaking Things

Labrador jumping can be a serious problem, no matter what their intensions with it are. These dogs are large and powerful, meaning that they can easily cause injury to a person and damage to property. And if they start jumping around in a small, cluttered room they run the risk of injuring themselves as well.

While most adult Labradors are agile enough to keep from causing massive destruction of property by accident, puppies and young dogs are especially prone to accidentally knocking things over when they're leaping around.

In addition to the broken property potential, you'll find that children or elderly people might also be bumped over by an over-enthusiastic Labrador.

Your Dog's Athleticism

Very few Labs these days are allowed to get out in the bush and cut loose like they used to. They do still possess all of the physical attributes of their retrieving forebears, however, meaning that they are greatly athletic and love to engage in substantial activity.

If your Labrador doesn't have enough of a work out with you they will most likely start burning off that excess energy themselves, which as you may well know, will have them quite literally bouncing off the walls.

Labrador jumping is often something that results from this type of situation, meaning that one good way to keep your Labrador from jumping around so much is to simply wear him out.

Two things to try, to control your Labrador's Jumping

METHOD #1

The first approach will have you taking no notice of your dog when they begin jumping up on anyone, and it is actually a very effective method. As soon as your dog jumps up on you, don't give them any response. Some people call this "Becoming a tree". You don't engage your dog at all, and you keep your arms down by your sides. You don't talk to them in any way, and you should even try not to look at them either. What you are doing here is helping your labrador realise that their boisterous greeting is not the way to get a response, and after a while they will stop doing it. As with all other methods, this method needs to be repeated several times in order to be effective.

METHOD #2

What you do with this method is wait until the exact moment your dog is about to jump and you turn away. This requires faultless timing in order to work! You have to watch your Labrador jumping and quickly turn just as they make their move. You'll find that your turning will deflect your dog's jump and yet it won't result in any pain either. Your dog will lose interest in jumping up on you as a greeting once they realize that it isn't the right way to say hello.