We’ve all met the dog that jumps all over friends when they come to visit . Some of us have personally experienced the dog that jumps all over us.

We hear simple logical remedies like turn your back and ignore the dog…great advice and it works in most situations.

But what about the dog that jumps on your back? That guy is determined to get your attention no matter how determined you are to ignore him, and being climbed like a tree is not good fun. Those toenails are sharp.

It’s almost impossible not to try to correct this in the moment, and it probably should be corrected because you’re being hurt.

You could carry a boat air horn in your pocket and (assuming it doesn’t drive your neighbors crazy) give that dog a blast with the air horn when he tries to climb your back. If this happened every time he climbed on someone he would stop it quickly. Not all neighborhoods are air horn friendly, and even if you just found a quick fix ,only the symptom has been controlled and the underlying problem is still there.

Here are steps you can take to change it:

• Start by giving the dog a job so they can earn attention and praise. The first jobs you will give them are both obedience jobs: sit ,and stay!
• It doesn’t matter how you teach them-clicker, classic conditioning, old school, new school-get the dog’s mind engaged and give them attention for doing what you want.
• If you put in ten minutes working with your dog each day you will see changes. If you put in two ten minute sessions it will go faster.

The take-away is that dogs are intelligent social animals that need a relationship with their people. We give them the interaction and mental stimulation they need when we train them.