Hi,
I was wondering if anyone has any advice or suggestions on this...
Our 18 week old black lab doesn't seem tolike anyone kissing or cuddling - I don't know if it's a jealousy thing or what but when my partner & I hug he runs up to us, barks like mad & tries to push his head so he is inbetween us. He doesn't stop barking until we stop cuddling. We thought maybe it may have had something to do with him not wanting any other babies to be made...but it seems to be when anyone in the family cuddles anyone else.
Also, whilst my partner & I were "busy" (if you get me!) upstairs, (he was locked out of the room) he pooed on the carpet in what seemed to be in protest, as he is otherwise housetrained.
So my questions are, is it jealousy & if so, how can we stop him being so jealous when people cuddle?
He gets loads of attention & cuddles himself - could that be the problem? When he does it, he can even be half asleep in another room, he races through & the barking begins - so it's not ike he feels we are blatantly ignoring him to cuddle each other.
Anyway, any advice on this would be great - the dog books I have don't seem to cover it & I'm not quite sure on how to stop his behaviour as it is starting to become a bit of a probem.
SS
x
RE: Jealous Dog?
He's doing this at 18 WEEKS? Gosh!
It sounds to me as if he has not yet learned that his place in the pecking order is at the bottom, not the top - not meant unkindly, I assure you - but that what he HAS learned is that barking gets results, it works for him, it's effective.
The general concensus of opinion on this kind of behaviour seems to be to ignore the bad, and reward the good. I've seen the Victoria Stillwell problem dog TV progs, and she seems to walk away from a dog that's behaving badly. Dog quickly learns his bad behaviour doesn't work any more. Bits of chicken reward the good behaviour.
If he's old enough for some sort of socialisation classes - I'd recommend you consider taking him to those. Otherwise, you're going to have a very antisocial large dog in no time at all, and male labradors CAN be aggressive.
Another thing might be to give him some training involving developinghis natural instinct, which is to fetch and carry. It doesn't have to be a freshly shot pheasant ... the daily newspaper would be fine!
I hope you manage to nip this in the bud, and good luck 🙂
Holistic
RE: Jealous Dog?
Hi,
I agree with Holistic, your dog has made himself the Alpha of your pack; get youself and the dog to obediance classes ASAP or you could get a trainer to come to your house and do a private training with you your partener and the dog www.barkbusters.co.uk offer a service where you pay a one off fee and that covers you for the life of your dog and the therapist/trainer will visit your home and help you with the dog.
Hope you get this sorted out soon.
[color="#003399"]Magno
RE: Jealous Dog?
Hi Holistic & Magno& thanks for your replies. 🙂
I probably should have mentioned that otherwise, he is mostly well behaved. He has learnt the "sit", "stay", (lay)"down", "off" & "take it", "back", "here", "heel", "bed",rollover, commands & I really don't think he thinks he is top dog. He obeys commands 99% of the time (moreso in the house when theres no other dogs/kids/people to distract him as he wants to play with them) but when it comes to us cuddling...he doesn't seem to like it & nothing we seem to do makes him stop. We did try ignoring him & carrying on hugging each other but I'm sure there's only so much barking the neighbours can take! So we end up moving away from each other & he stops barking. I really think it is a jealousy thing. He doesn't bark a lot normally at all. Infact after watching an episode of that programme "It's me or the dog" I taught him to bark & be quiet on command so I could use it on the off-times he did start barking- he is much better with the barking part though than the "quiet" command which is probably my fault! I know I need to pursue on thatone.
Even if he doesn't bark when we cuddle, he stil insists on squeezing himself between the people who are cuddling. It seems to be the only time he will blatantly ignore any commands.
Otherwise he is a very social dog - & he is never aggressive - he has a lovely gentle nature.
He does fetch things we throw for him, & bring them back but he seemed to get bored of that game recently... he will now fetch the toy bring it back to you but he just wants to chew it sitting at your feet. Recently chewing is what he wants to do the most lol. He is teething (I have found 3 teeth this week so far) so getting him to fetch a newspaper would end up in a chewed up newspaper!
I think maybe we need to try ignoring it when he does it & let the neighbours know beforehand that the behaviour is not going to last forever 😀
We generally do ignore the bad behaviour & reward the good but with this, it's difficult to ignore him & he hasn't done the good bit yet to get rewarded for.
The other issue with him we have been trying to work on is having him associate "walkies" with going to the toilet. When we first got him, he was 11 weeks old & hadn't had his injections etc so we couldn't take him for a walk for the first 3 weeks we had him - in that time he learnt to go outside into the back garden to go to the toilet. Now, when we take him for his walks, he sometimes starts whining because he wants to go home & into the garden so he can go to the toilet. We have tried staying out for hours so we can rewards his behaviour of going to the toilet but he has rather a strong bladder! One day I was out walking him, soon after he'd eaten& stayed out for four hours, came back home, he rushed to the backdoor, so I took him straight back out for another 45 mins, but nothing. When he does go to the toilet outside, I say the word "outside" over & over & when he starts whining on his walks, I say "outside" again,hoping that he will do it there.It hasn't seemed to work so far though.
Any suggestions?
SS
RE: Jealous Dog?
Essences of rose quartz and peridot work well with jealousy issues in animals. Might be worth getting hold of some.
Love
Rosi x