Am I doing this right?

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Am I doing this right?

Posted : 3/21/2006 10:23:18 PM

I am working on a bad habit of Gracie's and I want to know if I am on the right track.

Grace has a bad habit of reaching out with her paws and "slapping" you on the arm if you reach to touch and pet her face (sometimes she uses both front legs and wraps them around my arm). She gets a little crazy and has actually reared up and done it. She is going to be a big dog and I don't want this behavior to continue.

My brother has a gsd who does it, and they think it's cute. To me it's kind of annoying to have a 95 pound dog with feet almost as big as my hand reach out and slap me on the arm when he wants my attention.

Anyway, what I have been doing is each time I reach to pet her and she does it I withdraw my hand and tell her no. When she has settled down and again has all 4 feet on the floor, we try again. Sometimes she catches on rather quickly, other times she just acts crazy and keeps doing it and I turn away from her completely.

Am I on the right track, or is there something else I should try?

griffinej5

Posted : 3/22/2006 10:19:29 AM

Well, if you want to teach a trick out of it, you could teach her to give a high 5. That's kinda how I broke Max of doing that. Get a clicker and teach her to give a high 5 or a paw. Then ignore it if she does it at any time other than when you ask. Of course, this is now coming back to bite me in the butt. Last night in Max's class I was supposed to have him in a sit stay, and then push on his chest a little bit. He seems to think of course that by putting my hand down in front of him, I want him to slap it with his paw. I'm also supposed to reteach stand, and I say reteach because he did learn it before, I just screwed it up by using such a similar hand signal for down. Anyway, when luring him from sit to stand, he was reaching out and slapping my hand, because he thought that's what I wanted. So, I might just end up with a stand and wave, but i'll take it.