Hi Our 5months old Labrador Daisy is very friendly she isn’t allowed on our couches (son has allergies) she tries at least 10-15 times a day to get up on couch when we take her down she snaps at us she used to show her teeth but now snapping she doesn’t actually bite but snaps into the air - my 18 year old was left alone today with her she was so upset when I got home she was sure Daisy was going to bite her. When my husband is here she rarely jumps on couch and if she does she gets down no prob for him Also Daisy jumps and knocks down my 3 year old how do I stop her from jumping up
Hi @Daisy boo, if your dog is obeying your husband but not you, then you need to display more leadership, By that I'm not saying to be aggressive with her--that will not help. If she gets down from the couch when you cue the desired behaviour, then she gets a positive reward. High value treat so that she wins and you win. Use the cue your husband has already established. Reward the dog each time she gets down. Move to intermittent reinforcement when she is complying at least 90% of the time to your cue. Re the jumping up, I suggest you establish a reliable sit, and drop. If she is sitting, she can't jump up. If you are not attending an obedience school, then my advice is to enrol in one now.
Hello, I would say pretty normal behaviour for her age. We addressed these issues at obedience classes...they were hard work but worth it. Meg learnt to settle and be calm. I kept her apart from my children though until this giddy stage was over . The Kennel club classes were brilliant
Thanks for your advice my husband just has to shout at her and she jumps down she rarely jumps up when he is here she adores my husband we are all ignored when he comes home our last dog loved my husband as well I swore the next dog we get that I would do most of the feeding so she would hopefully see me as master but Daisy doesn’t she seems to see herself as one of us She really frightened my daughter today and did the same to me just a few minutes ago I will have to look into dog lessons thanks again
Thanks for your advice I would love to go to kennel club but it’s too far for us we live in Wicklow Daisy isn’t great in car she hates being in car
Forgot to forgot to say she playing dead as in - she lies down that we can’t lift her when we try to lift her or say get down that’s when she snaps I have tried hitting her (gently) with newspaper but she just jumps around the couch
Hi @Daisy boo, I'm not surprised she is snapping at you if you are hitting her with a newspaper. She feels threatened. And she is correct. Please stop hitting the dog. Manifestly it's resulting in undesirable behaviour. And it's unreasonable and cruel. How would you feel if I were to hit you with a newspaper so that you would get off the couch? If she is playing dead, then use a higher value treat, something like a piece of roast chicken. Lure her off the couch. Reward her for getting down. If she gets sick in the car, then classically condion her to liking the car. Walk out. She looks at it. Treat. Next time, you open the door. Treat. Next time she hops in. Treat. Next time she hops in and you close the door. Treat. And so on. Start the motor. Treat. Next time you drive 2 metres and stop. Treat. And so on. Dogs generally stop getting car sick. If you do not want to do that, then ask a trainer to come out and teach you how to train a dog.
There are a few things here to think about....firstly shouting at a dog is pretty meaningless...it may seem like it is working, but Daisy is only reacting to the tone of your husband's voice, a temporary solution,and not good if she is has a sensitive nature. Daisy isn't actually being given any other behaviour to do instead, so what you have is a confused dog. Much better to cue "go to bed" and reward consistently with a tasty treat. Well I am not sure I understand what you mean by being the "master" I think in the context of your post you are referring more to a caregiver by taking on the responsibility of the feeding. Well that's OK, but maybe have a look at your relationship from a slightly different perspective. Just feeding your dog is just that, it doesn't really mean you will be developing a meaningful bond. Using food does help if it is used as a reinforcer of desirable behaviours. By this I mean rewarding the good things, such as being calm and quiet, getting off the sofa, going to her bed etc. But you need to work on it in a constructive manner. I don't mean ignore the things you don't like, but make it more difficult for Daisy to rehearse them, constantly trying to get on the sofa, perhaps think about crate training. Don't forget Daisy is on 5 months old and still very much a puppy. Lots of positive and fun interactions are the way to build that bond with your puppy, whilst reinforcing all those good behaviours you want to establish. Some links here you might find useful, also enroling in some training classes will help too. Lots more help here: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/dog-dominance/
God I am not cruel to her I don’t hit her with a newspaper all the time Yes I did once or twice only because I was afraid she would snap at me she can be very loving but for some reason she just seems a different dog when on the couch I would love to let her on our couch but my son is allergic to dog hairs I am trying to train her to stay off it I think she can sense that I am anxious when she is snapping my daughter 18 was very upset when she did it to her she did get a fright my 4 kids idolise Daisy
Thanks for your reply What I meant by being the master is my husband mostly fed our last dog and our dog defo seen him as his master I am at home with kids I just wanted this dog to see me in charge our last dog if someone came to gate Our dog would go mad but if my husband called him he would come straight away for me he would ignore me until I would go and get him I just wanted to have a better relationship with Daisy that’s all
God I am upset I came on here looking for advice with our puppy - I am not cruel yes I did hit daisy once or twice with newspaper only because I was afraid she would bite me and my daughter was very upset when Daisy was snapping at her. Our last dog seen my husband as her “master” I used that word only because I really wanted Daisy to see me as her master I am not saying my husband can’t be her master but I am mostly at home with her so I wanted to have a good relationship with her. Also when I said my husband shouts at her to get down he just says “down” and she hops down
@Daisy boo, I'm sure you love your dog, but hitting her even once with a newspaper is too much. It is not the way to teach a dog. And aside from ethical concerns you can clearly recognise it is not stopping the problem. if she is resource guarding the couch (it's hard to tell from the discussion whether this is the pro), then the couch is off limits. Ask a trainer how to teach you how to teach your dog boundaries, using positive reinforcement.
@Daisy boo I really hope - for your puppy's sake but also for your sake and your family's sake - that you can try to hear what people are saying, here, beyond your initial reaction of defensiveness. There are a few things: Your husband shouts at her and she jumps off. You have tried hitting her with newspaper. You are removing her from the sofa and she is snapping at you. And she is only a 5 month old puppy. This is really not good. You really need some help to understand how to train a dog and how a dog thinks and learns. Yet, you are not seeming to want to understand or be told. So the prognosis isn't very good, for you or the dog. We all made mistakes starting out with dogs, and many of us used punishment before we understood better, so I hope you are not feeling judged by responses here - yet the point remains the same - what you have going here, with Daisy, isn't good. And for it to change, you need to be prepared to learn and to accept that some of the things you have done and are doing, are unhelpful and damaging for your relationship with Daisy. Teaching a dog not to get on a piece of furniture, is very complex. See it from the dog's eyes: She has found a nice place to sleep, a place where she can successfully sleep when no one sees her there and has learnt it is nice. Inexplicably, her owners charge at her and attack her with words or the newspaper, when they find her there. She has no idea why. Why is she constantly being attacked? She doesn't associate it with the sofa - after all, she is there fine for some time before someone spots her. To protect herself from her aggressive owners, she snaps at them to tell them she really doesn't like being physically manhandled. How would you like it, if you got in your bed in the evenings, and then this person you don't know very well, ran in and shouted at you in an intimidating way and grabbed at you and pushed you... for no reason, in your eyes. And they did this over and over, every night - when all you want to do is sleep... You are well on your way to creating a reactive dog. So I really hope you can listen to what you are being told here, because if you continue to physically move Daisy off the sofa, you will create even more dog aggression - and you will be responsible for that and for whatever happens next. Not Daisy. If there is a piece of furniture the dog is not allowed on, then 100% of the time when you cannot directly supervise the sofa, the dog needs to be physically prevented from getting on it. That means: The doors to the room need to be shut. Or upside down chairs put on the sofa to barricade it. No human can spend their entire life preventing a dog from getting on the sofa and, any time she successfully gets on it, she is being rewarded by the pleasure of being on the sofa - and she is only going to do it more. So unless you can prevent this behaviour in a way which works when you are not around (doors shut, sofa barricaded), you are simply not going to be successful and the situation will escalate. Next, any time you are around, she needs to be trailing a puppy tag line, so you can grab this if she gathers herself as if to jump or even does jump up, and you can say her name, encourage her down, give her a treat for getting off, and then (importantly) distract her with something else on the floor. Like a toy or a Kong etc. You don't want to give her a treat frequently for getting off the sofa, because dogs are very smart and will soon be jumping on the sofa to be asked to get off, so they can earn a treat. This can become a great game, with the dog immediately jumping back on again after they have received the previous treat for jumping off. So save that for the occasions you don't quite manage to prevent it. Prevention and stopping the wrong habits developing in the first place, is always far more effective. If you can implement prevention effectively you simply never have these problems because the dog never learns how rewarding it is to do the things you don't want them to do. In your situation, there is such a history to jumping on the sofa and so much reinforcement in sleeping there, that it is going to take a lot of prevention and supervision to break the habit. It would have been far better to anticipate that dogs try to get on furniture before you ever brought her home and then never to allow her in that room by herself, from the beginning. A week or two of that, done from the beginning, would have fixed it. Prevention and supervision do not mean 'punishment' and you should not be punishing your dog, whether with newspaper or voices raised. If you continue to take this approach, she will escalate what she is doing - and she will eventually show real aggression. She will then learn to show real aggression earlier and earlier, until just seeing you approach her on the sofa leads to a growl and snapping to see you off the sofa. You really can't train a dog in this way, you will do great damage. Training a dog is about identifying what you DO want and then using motivators, like food, to achieve that. Finally, do make sure she has her own very soft and comfortable bed to lie in. If she has a dog bed of comparable comfort at floor level, it is very likely she will choose to sleep there of her own accord.
Hi there. It’s difficult explaining a situation on a forum in text and when no one knows a person really, and I’m sure you realise you’ve made a couple of mistakes, but also I’m sure you love your dog and are just trying to do what’s best, so I won’t judge you on it (I’m new to all this myself) and while it may feel like you’re being told off a bit, it is actually all good advice and true. Shouting and other things will do nothing for your dog, but I guess you’ve realised that now so let’s move on. I don’t know the dynamic of your household, or exactly how dogs work, but maybe your dog instantly saw your husband as the alpha male? This has happened in our house. However, this is not a sexist/true/across the board comment or scenario, and it isn’t just because I’m ‘the man’ it was probably more down to me having to be a bit more dominant/consistent etc with him to begin trading, and let the rest of the family do all the other cuddly puppy stuff. (I do do this as well) Obviously you can become your dogs ‘master’ but this really takes time,effort, and patience to bond with your dog. My daughter got annoyed because buddy was listening to me and not her. We explained that he saw her more as a sibling, and played great with her (more than anyone) and that was her initial role. She put the effort in to train him and they’ve done brilliantly together. He’ll sit, stay, drop, wait for food etc for her, it’s so rewarding and I’m so proud of them both. So try training your dog, reinforcing calm, bonding etc. Do as much research as you can, it won’t just happen. I think you have your work cut out with the sofa, but you CAN do it, with patience and consistency of rewarding positives, and your dog will respect you more for it. Sorry it feels like you’ve been attacked a bit on here, but all the advice is valid. Lab pups are hard work, but so clever and the rewards are priceless. Good luck!
Thank you for your kind reply we love Daisy to bits we made mistakes but only because Daisy was snapping and I was afraid she would bite one of us - I know now that we have caused this - Daisy is a loving pup but she is very clever she knows she isn’t allowed on couch - couch is in kitchen we have tried putting our kitchen chairs on it but she still jumps up I think now she sees it as a game she literally sits on couch and waits for for a reaction - I would love her to be able to sit on couch but can’t let her because of my son. She does have her own basket in kitchen
Without getting into everything else (I completely agree with everything that has already been said) a bed in the living room might be a good idea as she probably wants to be near her family when she rests. My pup will sometimes choose to nap away from is- mostly when there's an attractive sunbeam, but mostly wants to be near us (and when I say that, I mean on my lap).
