Your dog jumps on everyone
Dog jumping up
Off means get off someone or something. That's our standard.
Jumping up is a way for a dog to engage with you, engage with somebody else, or go surf counters or get on furniture. It's hard not to pick a puppy up when they jump on you for attention. But now they're bigger, and you don't like it or want it. So maybe you started pushing them off, raising your voice, using your knee — to no avail. Now you and anybody who comes to your home has to deal with your embarrassing dog. So you're putting your dog away before company comes over. And here you are.
What are you searching for? You don't have to read the rest to get started.
Get StartedTaught by Garrett Ridley — twenty years of dogs, and he wrote the book the training runs on.
Why is your dog jumping on people?
Jumping up is your dog engaging and telling you something about itself. A dog that jumps up on you at home may be showing you confidence or arrogance. A dog that jumps up in a new place may be telling you the opposite — it's uncertain, and it's coming to you for help. Same jumping behavior, different dogs, different reasons.
What they have in common is that the jumping pays. Your dog wants your face, your hands, your attention, and jumping gets all three. The knee, the shout, the push — that's still attention. You're reinforcing the behavior, and your dog banks it.
Pushing a dog off does something worse. It turns a greeting into a contest, or into conflict depending on your dog's temperament, and that contest can cost you the relationship. Turning your back doesn't work either, because your movement makes your dog chase your face, and that winds up a dog that's already excited.
None of it shows your dog what actually pays.
How we stop the jumping
We make four feet on the floor the only thing that pays, and we take the conflict out of the greeting.
First your dog's temperament is evaluated — drives, disposition, engagement. The confident jumper and the uncertain jumper get different work, and the evaluation tells us which one is at your door.
Then your dog gets a map: the foundation first, the focus and handling a greeting depends on, then chapter 32 itself. And we brief your whole household, because a dog does the math fast when every person holds the same line, and just as fast when one person doesn't.
The finished picture isn't a dog that ignores your guests. It's a dog that's happy to see them with all four feet down, and off there the moment you need it.
20+ years · author of Building A Solid Canine · every dog is evaluated first
Three ways to start.
And the first one is just watching. No pressure, no dog to bring.
General Admission
$50
The lecture, no dog.
Come learn the system. Stay after lunch and watch the evaluations, or head home. Garrett teaches the Foundation — what drives your dog and how training is actually built — then reads dogs live in front of the room. No dog of your own to handle, nothing to manage, just the day and a notepad.
Placerville, CA. The workbook is optional — $50 at the table if you want one.
Working Evaluation
$200
The full Saturday, and your dog is evaluated live by Garrett.
Everything in the lecture, and then you work your dog in a small group with Garrett coaching — what drives him, what kind of dog he is, and your first handling skills with your own hands on the leash. You leave with your dog's training map in writing.
Comes with it:
- The printed workbook
- The full digital book
- Your dog's report and week-one homework on your free owner account
Every dog is evaluated first. All dogs welcome with accurate disclosure, including dogs with a bite history. One adult handler and one dog per spot. Placerville, CA.
In-Home Session
$400
Two hours at your house, built around your dog.
Garrett comes to you, evaluates your dog where the problem actually lives, builds the training map, and teaches you the work with you holding the leash. Everything in the Working Evaluation comes with it.
We book in-home by phone so we can ask about your dog first.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, within fifty miles of Placerville.
Evaluation seats close the Wednesday before at 9 PM. Open General Admission seats, up until Friday at 9 PM. Twenty evaluation spots per date. All sales are final.