Does your dog drive you crazy sometimes? Is he constantly barking at you; pawing you; grabbing things and running around with them?

 

Dogs do many things that annoy us; and unfortunately; we trained the dog to do most of them without realizing it. Dogs are so smart; they put together what rewards them and what doesn’t reward them.

For example; you are cooking dinner and the dog is pawing at you; barking, jumping up on the counter, etc. You may respond with: “stop it;” “bad dog;” “get out of here” or you may push the dog away from you. You might give the dog something to do to make him stop bothering you. Excellent. You just taught your dog how to get you to interact with him. You gave him attention. Negative attention is still attention.

I just worked with a client whose dog has started humping her leg when she ignores it. The woman knew to ignore attention seeking behaviors; but the dog upped the game and started humping. Humping is one thing people have a hard time ignoring. This dog was not dominating the woman; he was learning. He learned that humping got the attention he didn’t get with his previous behaviors. The owner would push him away; tell him “no,” etc. Again the dog got attention.

I asked the owner to just walk away from the dog; cross into a space where the dog could not go (over a baby gate) and ignore the dog for a few minutes. I just got an email from her saying how awesome this worked. The dog figured out quickly the humping behavior not only didn’t get him any attention; but it made his owner go away. This is definitely not what he wanted to happen.

Attention seeking behaviors can be very difficult to ignore because we have done such a great job of teaching the dog they work. Barking is especially difficult because it is so annoying. The same client also had an issue with her dog barking at the back door to be let back inside. If the woman wanted to take a shower while the dog was outside; she would get out of the shower to hear a dog barking and know the neighbors had been listening to the dog bark for the entire time she was in the shower.

The dog knew barking worked. It brought the owner running to open the door and let the dog inside. We put the dog outside and it immediately started barking. I stood just inside the door; but in a position so the dog could not see me. The second the dog took a breath during a huge barking tirade; I opened the door and tossed a treat five feet from the door. The dog ran to get the treat; spent a few seconds eating and sniffing (and not barking). I threw a few more treats. I then waited and the dog began barking again; he stopped for a second; I opened the door; tossed treats. I repeated this several times and gradually went from one second of no barking to six seconds of no barking. The dog began to stand away from the door instead of rushing in and pawing at it (because the treats were falling behind it). Over time the dog will learn barking does not make the door open.

Sometimes we inadvertently train the dog to annoy us so he can get something fun to do. For example; if your dog annoys you and you get up from the couch to get him a frozen Kong; then he just learned how to get the frozen Kong. Instead; put the frozen Kong down before you sit down. The dog will learn to settle when you settle. And think about this: Do you say “good dog” when your dog gets down after he jumps on you? Most people do. The dog may learn he loves to hear “good dog” and make you happy; and the way to do that is to jump on you so he can get off and then hear “good dog.”

Instead; say “good dog” right before your dog jumps on you when he still has four feet on the floor. Ignore him or walk away from him if he does jump on you. He will soon learn “good dog” happens when four feet are on the floor.

Think about what you want your dog to be doing instead of annoying you. When you find him practicing that behavior reward him for it. Believe me; your dog does sleep sometimes or lie down and rest. Find those times and give him a treat or praise him. Your dog does what gets him what he wants; which is your attention. Give him the attention for what you want him to do and life will be happier for both of you!