Why does my Labrador jump on me?

If your Labrador has been jumping on you a lot, this post will show you a number of possible reasons why it does it and what you can do to make it stop.

So, why does my Labrador jump on me? Possible causes are excitement, wanting attention, not having enough training or rewarding the behavior.

There are a number of possible causes but there are some things you can consider to figure out the exact reason. There are also a number of things you can do to get it to stop jumping on you.

Possible reasons your Labrador jumps on you

Each of the different reasons why it does it will likely come with some clues. Below are a number of reasons why your Labrador might be doing it and what would make them more likely to be the cause.

Excitement

The reason why it jumps on you could be that it is excited and it is showing its excitement. This would be more likely if it jumps on you in situations such as when you arrive home or when you’re playing with it. The reason why excitement could be a cause is because it might want to greet you at the face and because dogs mothers would feed them from the face as puppies and they would jump up.

Attention

The cause could also be that it is trying to get attention from you. This would be more likely if it does it at random times, if it does it more when you have not been giving it much attention and if you tend to give it extra attention when it does it.

To prevent this, it would help to give it attention throughout the day by playing with it, exercising it and training it. But, it would also help to avoid rewarding it with attention when it jumps up by not letting it jump up and ignoring it until it calms down.

Not enough training

If you have not given your Labrador much training then it will behave the way that it feels like behaving. The way it feels like behaving is unlikely to be the way that you would like it to behave. This is why it is important to give it lots of positive reinforcement training by starting with the basics and building up from there.

Fear

The cause could also be that something is causing it to be fearful. This would be more likely if it does it more at certain times such as when there are noises outside.

Rewarding the behavior

It could also be the case that you have encouraged your Labrador to jump on you by giving it things it wants when it does it. If you give it things such as extra attention, toys or treats when it jumps then it will likely do it more in order to get more rewards.

Instead, it would help to reward it when it does not jump up but to avoid rewarding it when it does jump up and to wait for it to calm down.

How to get your Labrador to stop jumping on you

Below are some options you have when getting it to stop doing it.

Ignore

Since it might be doing it in order to get attention and other rewards from you, one option would be to ignore it, leaving the room if necessary, until it calms down. By doing so you should be able to teach it that jumping on you does not result in it getting what it wants. When it stops jumping you would then go back to rewarding it until it starts jumping again so you would stop giving it attention again.

Redirect

Another option would be to redirect its focus when it seems like it is about to jump on you. To do so, you could train it to do something such as to lay down on command using positive reinforcement training and then tell it to do that when it is about to jump up.

Train it not to

You could also train it not to jump up using positive reinforcement training. This is where you reward it when it does not jump up and stop rewarding it when it does.

To use positive reinforcement training to get it to stop jumping do as follows:

1. Get some treats that your Labrador likes
2. Get it to sit. If you haven’t taught your Labrador how to sit yet then you can do this by luring the treat above its head until it sits naturally
3. Tell it to stay and then wait for half a second then give it a treat. The idea is to reward it for staying sat and keeping its attention on you so you want to reward it before it has a chance to fail.
4. Do the same as above but increase the duration each time you get it to stay.
5. When your Labrador is able to stay for over 15 seconds start to introduce distractions such as the squeaking of a toy. Start out with minor distractions such as simply showing it the toy and then build up to harder ones such as rolling the toy in front of it.

You can watch the video below to see how it is done.

Give lots of exercise

In order to keep your Labrador fully stimulated and to reduce how hyper it becomes, it would help to give it lots of daily exercise. Generally, it is recommended for healthy adult Labradors to get at least an hour of exercise per day.

Things to consider

Below are some things to consider about your Labrador jumping up.

Be patient

When training your Labrador it is important to be patient. It is not likely that you will be able to get it to stop jumping with one training session. But, if you keep training it, you will be able to get better results over the course of weeks.

When it started jumping

If it did not always jump up at you, it would help to consider if anything else happened when it first started doing it.

If it started doing it suddenly, it would be more likely to be due to things such as it learning that it gets rewards when it does it, suddenly giving it less attention or a sudden change in its daily routine.

When it jumps more

It would also help to consider if there is a certain time that it does it more.

If it does it more when you arrive home, it would be more likely to be due to excitement. But, it would still help to train it to stop doing it as mentioned above.