How to stop your dog jumping up at the door

To put this into context let me give you an example...

Have you ever watched a mother be at a social gathering, notice that her child was getting into trouble, and turn to tell her child to BEHAVE?

And then pay attention to what the child does after the mother turns her attention back to what she was previously doing?

What often times will happen is that mothers will get caught up in social interactions for MUCH longer then the child wishes she would. So the kid get's bored and starts looking for stuff to do.

And when he finally finds something interesting, like playing with Grandmas VERY breakable antiques, he gets yelled at.

But if you pay attention to the child, you'll often times notice the child get a mischievous look on his face and go right back to playing with the same object... but this time he's reaching for that object with one eye on his Mother, actually HOPING he get's caught.

Isn't this interesting?

The child could often times find much more entertaining things to play with, but they seem to like to play with things that get their mother's attention.
And in effect, these mothers are "Paying For Trouble". They're rewarding their child with the attention and relief from boredom that they crave with exactly what the kid wants... Mommy's attention!

And if this goes unchecked, it becomes a bad habit.

But because it's EASIER for a mother to just yell at the child instead of giving the child attention when he's NOT causing trouble the problem get's worse.

Clever mothers who make an effort to go pay attention to their kids who are BEHAVING in public usually have better behaved kids.

So I always find it helpful to try to ask myself if I'm accidently

'Paying my Dog for Trouble'.

Which is what almost everyone does to a dog who jumps up.

You'll walk in the front door from a long day at work, your dog will run over and jump up on you, and you'll subconsciously reach down and rub his head. In effect, rewarding trouble.

Sure you'll then push him off you and tell him to get "Off". But all the dog knows is that if he runs over and jumps up on you he'll get pet. And if you don't pay attention to this you'll actually train your dog to run over and jump on every new person he sees!

So how do you fix it?

First realize what your dog wants when he jumps up. Does he want attention? If so, do NOT give it to him. Make a strong effort to completely ionone the jumping up.
That means no eye contact, no reaching for the dog with your hands, and no talking to the dog.

Second, set a goal for a behaviour you'd like to start rewarding your dog for doing INSTEAD of jumping up.Personally for me, this is a dog that will stay on all fours.
You may decide you'd like a dog to sit at your feet, or lay down. Whatever you choose, it doesn't matter,just pick something.

And lastly... once you've stopped Paying for Trouble behaviours, you need to switch to Paying for the Positive behaviour you'd like your dog to do for attention besides jumping up.

That means that you only pay attention, pet, look at or talk to your dog if he greets you on all fours, or whatever your goal behaviour is.

Do this enough times and your dog will realize that it's easier to get the attention he so highly craves by keeping all four paws on the ground, instead of jumping up.

If you'll just do this consistently for 5 days you'll be able to break his jump up habit.