Hello guys, anyone experiences this, your dog gets jealous when you pet other dogs? - like mine. Bowie would try to get in between me and the other dog/s and start pushing or barking at the other dogs. I'm not sure how to approach in this situation. Any suggestions? or training suggestions?
Vanilla will do this but only towards dogs that she feels are taking over. There are a few dogs we meet, and she has no issues with them. But she will let me and them know it is now time to stop and pay me attention. I have not trained anything, but somehow by default she will sit between my legs and then allow the dog to come closer. As long as I give her attention too. Maybe train a between the legs cue? Sure others will have ideas on what would be the best way to deal with this.
Mmm... I'm interested in seeing replies as I've never had this problem but always wondered how the best way to handle it would be. It's certainly something I've seen a lot in friends' dogs. I think with mine, they were so used to me fawning all over other dogs that it didn't occur to them to interfere. Brogan's attitude when he wasn't working was always, "Hey, she's paying attention to another dog - now's my chance to get a butt scratch from an innocent bystander." And then he would mosey over to the nearest free hand and start charming them into petting him, all while giving me a look that said, "See, THIS person knows how to do it - you are rubbish in comparison". I wonder if you could work at it with a partner and high value treats? Similar to LAT (Look at That) training? So do a set up where someone else holds Bowie on leash and rewards him for calmness while you approach and eventually pet another dog. You'd need to start at a greater distance and/or in an environment where Bowie feels secure so that he gives you the calm behaviour to reward. Eventually you could reward him with one hand while you pet another dog with your other hand, but I imagine that would take a while to work up to. I'm not a trainer, just trying to think of something that may work. Hopefully others will have more proven ideas.
Good question. We had Molly for a year as an 'only' dog before Sam joined us - not by choice but necessity. So, Molly had enjoyed our undivided attention for that 1st year. She has shown and continues to show a sort of jealousy when Sam is petted, or given much attention generally. The good thing is, she adores him and I would say she is much happier sharing her life with another dog as well as her humans. Like you, I have had to deal with this by trial and error. Mainly I try to give them both a pat and play when she comes over to push herself between me and Sam. I certainly don't tell her off or try to stop her but neither do I stop doing whatever I was doing with Sam. It's taking time but on the whole, she is getting better, by which I mean we are able to have Sam close up more and more without Molls getting too bothered and barging in. I guess its easier to deal with as we have both dogs all the time, not so easy for you when presumably you are talking about visiting dogs who are only with you occasionally. Good luck.
Reward calmness, as Emily says. While you're petting the other dog, toss treats for Bowie to sniff out on the floor, away from you. Depending on his level of "irritation", you might have to start off with a physical boundary or leash, as suggested. Keep it short at first, a brief pat and lots of high value rewards for Bowie.
Yeah, you're right, we only have Bowie alone at home and the interactions with other dogs are at dog parks or when we're staying at my husband's parents place (they've got another labrador/kelpie x). I guess I just need to keep reinforcing and rewarding calm behaviours towards other dogs. Any thoughts on perhaps getting Bowie used to sleep overs at other family's house with dogs? Will that help with sharing?
Good luck! I think you've won half the battle simply by recognising that this is behaviour you'd like to modify and thinking about positive ways to go about it. Lots of people with 'jealous' dogs think it's cute and don't see that it's actually stressful on their dog. In the long run, Bowie will be a much happier boy when getting out with you and other dogs just means fun and no drama.
