Why I Don’t Teach ‘Off’

puppy jumping excitedly on human companion

Many trainers teach an ‘off’ cue, and use it to mean if you’re jumping on someone or something, get off.

It is certainly natural to want to correct your dog for doing what we perceive to be an incorrect or bad behavior.  The problem is the only way for an ‘off’ cue to be reinforced is for the dog to jump up on someone or something first!  In effect, when we reinforce the dog for getting off, we end up also reinforcing the dog for jumping up to begin with!  This is called a behavior chain, the dog learns that jumping up on someone makes you say ‘off’ which results in a cookie for getting off the person!  if you aren’t reinforcing the ‘off’ cue it isn’t teaching your dog to do anything.

And if you don't reinforce the off cue, your aren't really teaching your dog to do anything, you may be interrupting the behavior, but if the behavior continues there has been no learning! Ask yourself how many dogs do you know who’s owners tell Off EVERY time you see the dog.  If the word was working wouldn’t the dog learn NOT to jump?

Instead of focusing on what the dog does wrong, I like to focus on what I want the dog to do instead.  There are a lot of behaviors we can substitute for jumping up, like four feet on the floor, or sit, or down, or go to mat, or walk away!  With so many options there are a lot of ways to prevent the dog from jumping up to begin with, all of which can be reinforced,  and when we reinforce a behavior it is more likely to repeat. We just have to ask for or set up the substitute behavior BEFORE the dog jumps!

So BEFORE the dog has a chance to jump up, we can simply throw food on the floor away from the person or counter they are about to jump on.  This will keep the dogs feet firmly on the floor, redirect the dogs attention away from the person AND reinforce the dog for both of those behaviors!  This is simple and it works!  You will have to repeat it a lot of times, and you can add a cue as you toss the food (like 'find it') but eventually the dog will learn when an interesting person shows up, food happens on the floor away from that person, if the food is more valuable to the dog than the person, the dog learns to look around on the floor away from people rather than jumping. When THAT happens we Definitely want to reinforce the voluntary behavior too!

So, here’s the rub, the reinforcer has to be higher value than the distraction!  So, if the food you are using to reinforce the behaviors isn’t as interesting as the person who just walked in the door, you may need to use a different approach.

Like, teaching your dog a rock solid sit! We make Sit a really strong behavior by practicing and reinforcing it a lot without distractions. Then use that cue BEFORE the dog starts to jump on a person. I typically like to do this at a distance to start as it is easier for an excitable puppy to sit further away from someone than it is if they are RIGHT there!

Personally, I’ve used both of these techniques with Alex AND I always prevented her from jumping up on people by stepping on her leash as people approach her to pet her. The leash is always loose enough to allow her to sit comfortably, but tight enough to prevent a jump.  This is the technique I used before she had a really good sit cue.  Consistency is key!  If the dog sometimes gets to jump on people and gets reinforced by their response, and sometimes gets prevented the reinforced behavior will win out!  So in addition to preventing the undesirable behavior, by stepping on the leash, I also reinforced her for maintaining  a ‘four on the floor’ behavior by feeding her while people were greeting her, this also served to associate good things with being petted by strangers.

By the way, this same techniques can be used for counter surfing, jumping up on couches or beds, or any other surface you don’t want your dog to be on.

So there is no need for an OFF cue when you set the dog up for success by asking for sit or redirecting them and reinforcing the dog for all four feet on the floor!