To step, or not to step....... on/over the dog?

CoBuHe

rwbeagles

when my husband (and only him BTW...) goes to walk past, around or over her she immediate stretches out a paw to try and trip him! It is fricking hysterical.

Now that IS funny! 

Hot shot is a paw user too.   He mostly uses his to make you stay seated as in.....dont get up cause your not done pettin me!  He is a leaner too.  If he doesnt want you to pass or go to another room he will stand in the doorway and block it then he will start leaning on you so you have to pet him or at least acknowledge him.  All I have to do is tell him to go lay down but usually I get so tickled I cant speak, lol.  When he goes to lay down I tell him "thank you" then he beats the wood floor with his wagging tail.

my dogs know "look out!" and "move" heh. I never formally taught them these commands but they associated the words with the action pretty quickly ;p

Btw, sometimes I step around / over them other times I tell them to move. Just depends on my mood and what I'm trying to do. I don't see the whole step around vs move thing as a dominance / alpha thing at all.

JackieG

Kim_MacMillan

My issue with not stepping over them is only my own worry of tripping up, not of any sort of behaviour problem. 

Same here and as my DH and I are not getting any younger, tripping becomes much more of an issue.  I've always done what Kim does which is keep moving forward as I say "move".   When they do, I say "good boy or girl or their name".   

I do the same. There have been times when I was in the process of stepping over and the dog decided to get up quickly. That doesn't always go very well for either of us. If there's room, I'll go around vs. disturbing a nice nap but stepping over is tricky for someone as klutzy as I am.

Thank you Kim, for the good advice. as always

Lies;\

 I agree None of my dogs have attacked me because I don't step on them...Not a pack dominance fan. but I think I will start teaching them to move when I say. Thanks for good advice,

There is only one place in the house (little hallway between kitchen an office) where they will sometimes block the way. I usually just step over whoever picked the spot but they are also trained to move out of the way if asked to.

Very useful when you need to vaccuum or broom under a dog and not just around it.

Thank you willow!

I don't remember seeing you before. Do you usually post here? Of couse I am absent for Looong periods so we may have missed eachother that way, Thanks again.