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Possessive Dog


Digitalis
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My dog seems a bit obsessed with me at times. I will lay down and he will come lay down so close to me he lays his big ol head on my chest or shoulder and always on the left side, weird. If I am reading, writing a letter, correcting papers, using my laptop .... basically just doing anything with my hands he will lick my hands to death or push my hands away with his nose until I stop whatever it is I am doing.

At first I thought he just wanted attention and I would try to pet him or play with him but he won't have that either. He just simply seems as if he wants me to lay down and do nothing but be his pillow at times. He is a healthy, active two year old Doberman.

I love him dearly, he is like my kid, my friend and my protector but sometime I need the use of my hands and can't seem to break him of this. Its been happening daily lately.

Any ideas?

Anyone else have possessive pets?

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White Dove: Hahahahahahahaha!!!!

Digi, it's great to see you here.

My dog also has an obsessive streak. If I'm sitting on the couch watching TV or reading, she won't leave me alone. She sits right next to me and paws at me every second that I'm not paying attention to her. I've tried scolding, saying a sharp NO!, turning away from her...nothing works in that particular situation. I love her, but it's a pain. If I tell her no or move her paw away 100 times, she's back for number 101.

I did manage to train her to stop this behavior when I'm in bed. She used to sit down right next to my head, put her face close to mine, and do the pawing thing. After months of consistently responding by turning my face to my pillow, putting my arm over my head as if I'm going to sleep, and telling her to go lie down, she's learned to let me be. And she stays at the foot of the bed even when she can see that I'm not really going to sleep yet, if I'm reading or watching TV in bed.

I'm guessing it's the consistency and the fact that I don't give in. That's harder to do on the couch, for some reason. When I'm there, if I try turning my back to her, she just paws at my back or hops on the back of the couch and gets in my face from the other side!

I'm hoping you get some suggestions that I can try, too.

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I a four year old German Shepherd mix (that we got from a pound), she had a litter of 10 before we got her 'fixed', she is great with children, and so long as I am near her she is freindly with strangers.

But this summer, once while talkng to a contractor and petting his dog, My bitch came out through an open car window and attacked his bitch. I stopped by an animal hospital to ask about this behavior. A young female vet told me that this is not un-common 'female-jealousy'. She recommended meds that they commonly proscribe for 'female-jealousy', she assured me that it is common in all mammals and is easily treated. This vet was a lady in her late twentys and when she told me this, I laughed in her face (though I soon apologized to her). .

Today we live with a 90 pound German Shepherd bitch that is very possessive of me, very jealous and is anxious anytime that I leave her behind. I can not go near other bitches, though other male dogs dont seem to effect any response from her.

She insists on sleeping in the same room. When I sit down she must lay on my feet. She is fine with Bonnie and the kids, though when Bonnie and I am talking she must position herself between us.

Have fun.

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A friend of mine has two yellow Labs that do anything he says. He's a guitar picker, and occassionally when he comes to jam sessions (in the summertime), he brings the dogs along rather than leave them at home.

He has an open box pickup and the dogs are in the back. I don't know how he trained them, but those dogs will stay right there in the back of the truck (while we are playing music 20 feet away), and not even attempt to jump out if he didn't say so.

Next time I see him, I'll ask him what his secret is. He is a computer programmer and would never put up wih the *hands* thing, even though he loves his pets.

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There are several ways to handle the situation. Regardless, consistency is the key. If they eventually get their way then they learn that there's a breaking point. ANY attention is good attention and yelling at them just sounds like another "bark" to them.

With Vixen I consistently told her "not right now" when she would try to get attention at an inappropriate time. Now, when she comes up to me and I tell her "not right now", she huffs and goes to her bed or gets a toy as if trying to entice me to come play with her and her toy. :wub:

If you consistently ignore them they will eventually give up and go away. As soon as they do, you need to reward them to teach them that that is the correct behavior. Because they have been allowed to get away with it for a long time, the behavior will get worse before it gets better. The KNOW it's worked in the past and will try that much harder because it's gotta work! ;)

Another option is to teach them to "go to your place" - Vixen has a crate in the living room. I can say "Kennel up" from anywhere in the house and she will go to her crate. If she's especially annoying at times, I tell her to "Kennel up" and she'll go lay in there - sometimes she stays and takes a nap, other times she'll sneakily crawl out, but not bother me. Since she's not bothering me and she initially went to the crate, I let her get away with it.

She was crated as a puppy, so she heard that command several times a day every day. To teach it to a dog as a new command - have a bed, a mat, crate, something that can be designated as the dog's "place". Sit someplace near the "place" so you can toss treats to it. (Dogs have short attention spans, so I do things like this during the commercials when I'm watching a show.)

- Toss a treat onto the bed

- say "Go to your place" - or whatever command you're going to use

- When they go to get the treat praise them lavishly and with enthusiasm

- Call them to you - "Come here"

- Give a treat and praise

- Toss a treat onto the bed

- Say "Go to your place"

- Praise lavishly!

Do this about five or six times then take a break. If your dog knows "stay" then you can add that command to the bed once you have them reliably going to the bed/place on command.

If the dog does not know "stay" then that will need to be taught, but, your dog could be like Vixen and just need the command "Go to your place" to know that really means - go to your place and then leave Mom alone. :dance:

I'm heavily involved with training with Vixen - we have our Championship Conformation Title - we're hoping to get our Junior Earthdog Title this week-end and we'll be competing for our Agility, Obedience and Canine Good Citizen Award Titles this year as well. I took this past year off from training because of the divorce and leaving TWI - I didn't do much of anything, but we've been training again pretty consistently the past few months.

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Linda, thanks its great to be back here. At least I am not the only one who is going through this here and others here have experience in this category of life they can share to help.

Galen, your "jealousy" situation I find really interesting. Duke my Doberman is also 90lbs and is jealous of other male dogs, but only if they have not been nutured. I can't pet another non nutured male dog if Duke is around. I would have to tel Duke to get in the truck or stay in another room and actually close him up or he comes out all teeth bared ready to do battle with the offending male.

DMiller ........ I have been working on voice command with Duke and he is responding well but not well enough for me to be able to walk with him unleashed. In our town laws if a dog is under complete voice command by the owner at all times they are considered leashed and under control.

Belle ..... sounds like Vixen is the cream of the crop. What breed is Vixen? I understand the importance of consistency ..... it seems in that category teaching a dog is similar to teaching children. Of course our dogs become like our children. I think I need to work on the reward system better. Instead of just always giving him his doggy bones whenever he would like one for the most par ......... give them as rewards ...

Duke does listens and adheres "Stay" "Come" "Go to bed" "Sit" "Get in the truck" and of course "Easy." He is a very intelligent dog he just needs to stop obsessing over me. We are looking for a female to breed him with for just one litter of puppies and are going to donate a pup or two to our local police department so they can start a K9 unit and keep one for ourselves. This way we have our country property guarded.

Duke doesn't cling to my husband or son like he does me. He obeys my husband but not always my 12 year old son. I think he might think my son like a sibling and play mate ....... on equal standing with him ... I know it sounds funny but if you could see the two together you would swear they were brothers and not boy and dog LOL.

Thanks all for the great ideas, looking forward for more food for thought. I've read books on the subject and even on my particular breed of dog but hearing from other dog owners is great and more personal.

Digi

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Radar is the Pug lover. :wub:

I have the same kind of dog as our beloved Jim's Rusty.....a Border Terrier. IMNSHO, the greatest breed of dogs in the world!

bterrierpix.jpg

She is spoiled rotten, but she also gets tons of attention since since it's just her and me. She's also my hobby. We train during commercials at home and take different training classes together.

I love talking dogs and will post more later, but not much time tonight.

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Belle

She is beautiful. My husband loves Terriers has for years, although we have never owned one. I was almost ready to start acting like Galens dog ... after watching hubby salivate over Vixen LOL.

Her pose is magnificient.

This is probably a dumb question, but because I have always been a doby person minus my husbands one sharpai, I must ask. Is her tail slightly cropped?

One more question . Are Border Terriers known for herding cattle? or is that the Border Collie?

Digi

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Thanks, Digi, I agree, but I'm completely biased. :P

There are NO dumb questions! And I'll talk dogs all day happily - in case you can't tell. ;)

Her tail is not cropped, they are medium length, thick carrot-like tails. The purpose for them is to be able to grab the dog by the tail and pull him out of a fox hole - or other critter hole - when necessary. They were bread to go underground to catch or chase the foxes out of their holes on fox hunts so that the men and the fox hounds could continue the hunt. They also went underground to catch and rid the farmer's land of other vermin like badgers and such.

In fact, I've been trying to find a picture of a Fox Hunt that actually shows the Border Terrier running with the Fox Hounds. Because the Border Terriers were owned by the farmers and used primarily on the farm, they weren't considered the "upper class" dog that the Fox Hounds were. As a result of that they aren't usually included in the pictures. :(

Border Collies are the herding dogs and, yes, they are very, very smart! They also do agility and those are the dogs you usually see winning the top awards for agility.

Dobies are awesome dogs and I just love Shar Pei's! They are so regally goofy. :)

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I miss Dahlila ...... That was the Sharpai my husband showed up with at my shop many years ago. She was never a good dog to have in the shop she was over protective and uncontrollable with strangers. She was an excellent dog at hom with our children and friends though. She really latched onto my daughter as her favorite person in the house. She died young at the age of 7. They don't have long life spans. She stayed super wrinkly her whole life and petite. She was beautiful.

Dobermans are intelligent dogs and very agile. Duke is my third one in my lifetime and will be the first one I actually breed with when I can find him a female. He can jump a six foot fence with ease. Whenever we return home we run him on the half mile road we have that dead ends at our property, and then we have a 300plus foot driveway in addition. We clock Duke running steady at 28 miles the whole way. In fact we can't beat him in the truck because we have to slow down for the bend in our road and he doesn't LOL

Duke has been raised to protect me and I do have a feeling that has something to do with his possessiveness. I have had some injuries and am not as agile as I once was and we also live in the middle of no where and he gaurds home while husband is at work. When he is on leash with me I have to introduce him to anyone we might meet along the our walk, if I want him to relax around them. If I don't introduce him, he lets people know not to come within a 4ft radius of me.

He truly is very friendly, has never bitten anyone, but he won't let you pass onto our property without an invitation. Its his job and he does do it well, yet he is just as playful as protective, he does have a nice balance to him.

I might have to see if I can find a picture of a Border Terrier running with fox hounds now that I know what a Border Terrier is. That would be a picture to have. Although I don't know how to post a pic. LOL We have lots of fox up here. I have seen fox hounds before. To often people up here trap instead of hunt.

Digi

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  • 1 month later...

The top picture I posted is not Vixen. It's CH Orenburg Inkling and it was wrong for me to paste that picture instead of one of Vixen in my post. I apologize. I wanted to paste a picture to show the entire dog and do not have one of Vixen except for her Conformation Show photos and those are framed and hanging in the house.

Vixen has been mistaken for this dog at a few shows and has the same lines, color ticking and look which is why I chose that picture to post. Rascal can confirm that Vixen does look almost identical to the picture. If I can get one of her conformation show pictures scanned, I will. I do have lots of pictures of Vixen posted on a couple of other websites, but couldn't figure out how to link to them since they don't have picture addresses. If someone would like to see those for fun or to compare, feel free to PM me and I'll gladly give you the website addresses. I didn't think it was a big deal. Regardless of which, it was wrong.

Digi pointed this out to me last night and I want to set the record straight. Thank you and I hope that y'all can forgive me.

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wow a topic i can truly relate to :P

I have two boxers and they are adorable

since my children are now teenagers 15, 17, 19 the two boxers are my babies,

chloe is the female and ty is the male, they are soul mates and very affectionate,

sleep with me and hubby and also fight for the covers lol, i love them dearly and

never tell them off they are so sweet and look at you like butter wouldnt melt in there

mouth, but they can be very naughty running off with shoes, and things they are not

suppose to, but i love them anyways....... :wub:

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MaryPoppins,

Your Dogs are just beautiful ............ I have a pic, but its up to you to post or let me. Can you please put up Chloe for all to see. I am sure the dog lovers here would absolutely appreciate it. Powerfilled can scan them in for you if he would ......... he is great with those things.

Digi

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This is my chloe she is now 4 years old

but she was 2 when this pic was taken, we showed her up till she was 3

We have a big dog show here called CRUFTS every year, she came Reserve Dog in 2003

Which was great, she also Won Puppy of the year for the whole of the United Kingdom in the

Boxer catagory in 2002

Sorry about the writing on photo it was a proof that we didnt buy but were aloud to keep.

post-1607-1135249758_thumb.jpg

Edited by marypoppins
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This is a beautiful pic of Chloe. Thanks for sending it to me. It was one I did not have. I am proud that you were able to scan it in yourself.

Chloe has a great stance and her weight is absolutely perfect for her breed. I can't wait to see more pics.

Hubby and I are going to develop new film of Duke tomorrow seeing as he is almost full grown now, we just took new pics to post. He is 2 yrs and 4 months. Full size Dobermans generally grow up until 3 yrs. Some do stop earlier but Duke is giving no sign. But his weight and size proportianately are superb.

He has gotten much better about not pawing my hands when I am on the computer too. I think he just got jealous of me being on the computer and wanted my attention.

Can't wait to see more pics from you.

Digi

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This is a pic of the family

Chloe is on the left, her dad is Pablo in the middle, and Chloe's Grandmother on the right,

which of course is Pablo's mum.

This picture was taken in 2003 when chloe came Reserve dog at Crufts, They are sat on the green

outside... This was also a proof, but it was so lovely we bought it and framed it :wub:

post-1606-1135251496_thumb.jpg

They really are my wifes babies lol :P

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OK...We have a JRT named Chewy...poor thing doesn't believe she's a dog for starters...my wife gave her a pink & green sweater...the goof ball loves it! LOL

She will sit in her "get me dressed position" every morning now...the other dogs in the area come up to her, sniff and then back off now...it's hilarious.

I love those terriers too...coolchef...send me that recipe...LOL

Merry Christmas Y'all :wave:

post-646-1135440639_thumb.jpg

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DobieGrrrl......

Well, I'm no expert, but if I can add my 2 cents.........your baby will outgrow it. When Nico was 2 she was still the monster from hell. I mean, she was always friendly, (she was bred for temperment...bragging) but she had chewed up about everything in sight by that age.

Attention? Ha! She came out of her mama's womb begging for attention. Another breeder wanted her because she is such a pretty dog (bragging rights) but the breeder swung her over to me because she figured I would be a more appropriate owner for her narcissistic personality....and she was right!

Your dobie will outgrow it....somewhat. But that's probably her personality trait. And you really can't change a dog's personality anymore than a human.

So just lay back and get used to it. We serve our animals as much as they serve us I suppose!

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