Ruth
Posted : 3/9/2006 11:23:24 PM
My dog has pushy tendencies, too.
Here are some things that have worked:
He was begging for petting, and especially for fetching -- the type of dog that constantly brings you toys and shoves them in your lap. I taught him an "enough" command. It means "go away and play by yourself." I got it from one of Patricia McConnell's books. You tap the dog on the dog on the head twice (not hard, just a pat, like how little kids pat dogs' heads) twice and say "enough." At first, he won't do anything, so you do something McConnell calls a "body block." Basically you stand up and lean forward over the dog and walk him out of your space, to somewhere he's not in the way. You don't (and shouldn't) touch him or pull him. Just make yourself look big and kind of loom over him, while you keep your head up and don't look at him. Leaning forward above him like that is a very dominant body posture, and he'll back up away from you.
Get him out of your space and stand there until he sits or lies down. Praise, maybe treat him, and then go back to what you were doing. At first he may come right back and you'll need to repeat this a couple of times in a row, but pretty soon he'll start anticipating your body block, and when you pat him and say enough, he'll move away. I also added a "three-strikes and you're out" consequence with my dog, since he always came armed with a toy -- if he came right back after I gave the command, he got one more chance, and then I confiscated his toy. He figured out *really* quickly that playing by himself was a better deal than losing his toy. Now I can pat him and say "enough," and he just wanders away.
Also it's a good idea to just randomly praise and treat him when he's not being pushy. If you notice that he's not bothering you, that's great -- make sure he knows it too.
Ace also had a demand barking problem. And let me tell you, there is *nothing* cute about a 50-lb demand barker. It was very pushy and very loud. For this issue, nothing positive seemed to work. After months of fruitless ignoring and redirecting, and praising for not being pushy, I resorted to the squirt gun. It really worked -- two squirts and no more demand barking -- but it scared my timid dog a *lot*, so I would only recommend it as a last resort.