Rottweilers are big dogs and can cause serious injury when they jump on people, especially children and seniors. Not only that, but it can be a nuisance if you are trying to get in the door with your hands full or are all dressed up for a job interview. Having a Rottie that has nice manners when greeting will make everyone happy, but it can be tricky to teach. The following is an easy three-step method to teaching your Rottweiler to stop jumping on people.
Why Your Rottweiler Jumps On People
Dogs are opportunistic creatures. This means if they can do something to get what they want, they will do it and then that behavior is reinforced. So unless your Rottie is jumping on people out of fear or aggression (in which case, you should seek a professional dog trainer for help), he is doing it because it gets him what he wants – attention, a toy, food, etc. The good news is that this makes it easy to stop the behavior. First, make sure he is not being rewarded for it. This includes managing the behavior while he is still learning the new rules. Second, give him another behavior to do instead that does get rewarded. Problem solved.
3 Steps To Getting Your Rottweiler To Not Jump On People
#1 – Stop Rewarding The Jumping
Every time your rambunctious Rottweiler jumps on someone, they need to not give him attention! The best thing to do is turn around and walk away. Shouting “down,” “no,” and/or pushing him away still gives your dog negative attention, and in his book, attention is attention. In other words, these corrections will actually reinforce the jumping. Instead, he needs to get nothing when he jumps. The trick is that every single person, 100 percent of the time, needs to do this. One person saying “Oh, I don’t mind” will make the behavior stronger. So insist upon your rules.
#2 – Ask For A Conflicting Behavior
Most people ask for a “sit.” Your Rottweiler can’t sit and jump up at the same time. So, ask for a “sit” (or wait until your dog offers one) and then reward him by giving him the attention he was looking for. This can be petting, a toy, a treat, even his food dish! Anything your Rottie normally jumps up on you for, he now only gets if he is sitting. If your Rottie is young, this will be hard for them. Be sure you wait for a calm, still sit before rewarding. This takes some training and patience, but it will work because, as mentioned above, dogs repeat behaviors that get them what they want.
#3 – Management
This is the last piece of the puzzle and it’s what you have to do while your Rottie is learning to sit for things, which won’t happen overnight. Since you can’t control everyone that meets her, some may pet her as she jumps up, anyway. Or, she may end up in a situation that is just too exciting for her to remember her newly-learned skills. In these cases, you need to manage the behavior. Keep your Rottweiler on a leash so you can walk her away, step on it to prevent her from jumping, and/or put her in a different room to calm down and try again later.
