The Jump-Sit Cycle: Why Your Dog Keeps Jumping Up

One of the most common training mistakes I see isn't a lack of training—it's accidentally rewarding the very behaviour people are trying to stop.Picture the scene.Your dog jumps up at you.You tell them to sit.They sit.You reward them.Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?The problem is that your dog doesn't necessarily see it the same way.What many dogs see is:Jump up → Sit down → Get rewardedThe jumping up becomes part of the chain that leads to the reward.So next time they want a reward, attention, or interaction, what do they do?They jump up again.After all, that's how the sequence starts.This is what I call the Jump-Sit Cycle.Owners often think they're rewarding the sit because that's the behaviour happening immediately before the reward. But from the dog's perspective, the entire sequence may be linked together.Imagine if every time you wanted a biscuit, you had to touch the wall first. Before long, touching the wall would become part of the process of earning the biscuit.Dogs are no different.The answer isn't to stop rewarding sits. The answer is to stop making the sit happen after the unwanted behaviour.Instead, look for opportunities to reward before the jump occurs.Approach your dog when all four paws are on the floor and reward that.Ask visitors to only interact when the dog remains grounded.Reward calm approaches.Reward standing politely.Reward the behaviours you actually want to see repeated.If your dog does jump up, avoid turning it into a training exercise where jumping is the first step and sitting is the second. Simply remove attention, reset the situation, and wait for the behaviour you'd like before rewarding.Remember, dogs learn in sequences.The question isn't just "What am I rewarding?"It's "What behaviour does my dog think earned the reward?"Understanding that difference can completely change your training results.Helen x