Our Lab Bentley just turned a year old and he is a huge sniffer we are working on appropriate greetings of people and he is making progress. I was curious though is there an appropriate amount of time dogs should "sniff" other dogs rears? When Bentley is interacting with another dog he seems to constantly have his nose there, he will play then his nose is there, like really in there for awhile where some times the other dog will be like that's enough but he just keeps doing it, should we be working on not letting him do this?
I have not seen any lierature on your issue. So, I am putting foward a tentative plan. All members feel free to shoot full of holes. I am happy to bear the P+. Appropriate time is defined by the sniffee. If the sniffee is objecting, and your dog is not reading the signals, then a fight may take place. I suggest you leave a short house line on your dog while she is playing. Use it carefully to disrupt your dog should you read the other dog is objecting, and your dog is ignorant of such. Be careful in how you use the house line. You don't want your dog to feel that flight has been eliminated. I suggest you mime that you are pulling the house line. As you run your hands along the line, vibrations will occur in the houseline. When your dog disengages in response to vibrations, then quickly move your dog away from the other dog. The lead technique is described in Grisha Stewart's BAT.
Thank you for your input, that does make total sense. I just don't want owners to think he or we are being rude because Bentley pays so much attention to that end a lot. He also does it to humans which we are trying to correct as it can be quite embarrassing. Ideas on how to curb with people? We are telling him leave it and having him sit which works but only until he gets up again, or we tell them to put their hand out to sniff but again eventually he goes "there".
