A frequent and frustrating dog behavior is jumping up for attention. Often, the solution to an undesirable behavior is get a better understanding of why the dog does it, so you can then deny the dog what it wants until you get what you want.

Jumping up is attention-seeking behavior. Our attention -- from the dog's perspective -- comes through eye contact, voice and physical touch. If you scold and push your dog away, you are giving him exactly what he is seeking. It might be grumpy, but it's attention.

Keep in mind that dogs are bright and spend lots of time figuring out how to glean what they want from their environment. Dogs repeat behavior that "pays" them in some sort of way, and they quickly discard behavior that doesn't provide a positive outcome.

So, you must start by ignoring the behavior you don't like. When the dog jumps up, avoid eye contact, turn away from the dog or walk past him, as if he doesn't exist. Repeat this as long as the dog is jumping. Once he determines that jumping is getting him nowhere, he will stop doing it.

Watch and wait for your dog to behave differently and then reward "all four paws on the floor" behavior. When this happens, you, for the first time, calmly acknowledge your dog and give him a bit of attention.

The second you begin to pet and interact with your dog, the jumping will start again; it's a well-ingrained pattern. You must be patient, and expect to repeat this message many times before the dedicated jumper changes his behavior.

Honestly, the dog will usually jump more often when you initially begin this modification process. This is called the extinction burst.

In the dog's mind, jumping has been a successful way to get your attention for quite a while, but now suddenly it isn't working. The dog won't immediately abandon a behavior that has been working so well up to this point. Instead, he will increase the amount of jumping, as if he is testing the theory, before finally coming to the conclusion that it no longer works. In the meantime, the dog begins to see a new pattern emerge -- that of getting attention when all four paws are on the floor.

There is a way, however, to get even faster results.

Dog trainers who use clickers and apply positive training techniques can help a dog get the message more quickly. By using a clicker to "mark" correct behavior the instant it happens, we can click the dog for having all four paws on the floor before he jumps. The clicker allows us to deliver the message much faster than our bodies can respond, thus creating an accelerated learning process for the dog.

That's part of the beauty of clicker training. Once the dog understands what the clicker means, communicating with your dog becomes easier and learning occurs at a faster rate, including but not limited to, learning not to jump up for attention.