Now imagine that you are walking into your home with your family from out of town. You open the door for your guests and soon realize your mistake as your energetic and very excited Australian Shepherd runs to the door, jumping on your surprised guests, and getting so much air when he leaps that he practically licks them on their faces. You grimace and wonder if the jumping is simply unavoidable with your bundle of energy and fur, or if perhaps there is something that you can do about it?
Jumping is natural for your dog, but jumping becomes a problem when it is on people and causes injury, annoyance, and sometimes fear. Jumping on people is something that your dog can learn not to do though. With your help, he can learn to greet people in more appropriate ways and to save his jumping for all of the other, more appropriate, areas of his life.
Your dog is likely jumping on people to get closer to whoever he is jumping on and to receive attention from that person. Your dog is probably trying to be friendly, which is a good thing, but he needs to be taught a better way to express his friendliness. It is important to show your dog a different way to greet people while he is learning not to jump. The training is more likely to be successful if your dog is being rewarded for his calm behavior while he is being taught not to jump. It is also important for your dog not to be rewarded by anyone with attention for jumping. If your dog is being rewarded with attention for jumping then any efforts at training him not to jump will not be very successful.