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Thread: How best to handle this

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  1. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Chicagoland, IL
    Posts
    8,499
    I'm not saying people should conform to her standards. I'm saying cooperation in how I'm trying to stop the behavior would be helpful. The best way to get a message across to the dog is for the person who the behavior is being displayed to react in a certain manner rather than someone from the outside jumping in. It's the fastest and surest way to get the message across on what is proper. I'm not sure how having them turn their backs to her when she does it and give her attention when she doesn't is conforming to the dog's standards

    ETA: My point in quoting was to point out I understand where the behavior comes from (instincts on greeting other members), not to say it's fine and I want to let her do it. My whole point is to say, how best can I get her to understand this is not something to do when the people she is doing it to are reinforcing it in how they react to it. I think "discipline" and "asserting dominance" is only going to sew more confusion in a dog who is already quite submissive. Biggest problem is as soon as she stops, she gets ignored. Thus her good behavior is always going without reinforcement, while the bad behavior is being reinforced because she is most certainly getting "attention" when she's doing it, even if it's not good attention.

    Edited again to add some more clarification: This is not an occasional guest situation at my home. This is my dogs and I being either at my parents' house or they here, around each other for several hours at least once a week. If, say, a PTer showed up at my house, Raven would not do this. She doesn't know you. She would wag and be cautious but she doesn't associate you as part of the pack and as if you were coming home after an absence. That is a big reason I'm feeling some frustration. I'm not always around when this occurs. They may be over and I'll run an errand. I may be over and go out somewhere with my mom while the dogs stay there with my stepfather. I truly feel I need some teamwork to work on this issue if it's to be something that gets the message across. All I can do at this point is step in and divert the situation when I see it happening. But my question was is there any real way to teach her the unacceptability of this towards them without their help, to the point where she would not do the behavior if I were in another room, or even out on an errand.
    Last edited by K9soul; 02-27-2009 at 05:28 PM.
    Mom to Raven and Rudy the greyhound

    Missing always: Tasha & Tommy, at the Rainbow Bridge

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