Last night, Maddi growled a little bit at me when I put my head on her chest. I've done it before with no problems. I made her get off the couch after I finished listening to her heartbeat and went about my business. I can't help but notice that she's been getting more "grumpy" towards us (mainly me) lately... and pushy/demanding about attention and play. I've often caught myself giving in to the "pushiness" but try not to.
She almost 19 months old now, and I'm starting to think that she's going through a stage of challenging me, though not directly. So, this morning, I left her in her kennel for the typical ~45 min before I let her out. Upon letting her out, I silently put her collar and leash on and went down stairs. I've got her tethered to my chair right now and am going to try (It's so hard!) not to pet her or speak to her for an hour. It's been about 15 minutes and she's spent most of it thrusting her head into my lap trying to make me pet her/pay attention to her. I've used my elbow to push her away ('cause it tickles) but have otherwise not acknowledge her. I've also removed any of her toys. Let's just say that she's carrying on about it all, (nudging me, howling and carrying on vocally, chewing her leash, picking on the cats, chasing her tail, etc).
I'm going to go onto a more strict NILIF protocol and try to up the training. My question really is, do you think I am viewing this wrong and am I handling it correctly?