off the sofa

[onlyoneboot]

off the back of RosieLig's thread... I've realised I've been a bit of a wimp about letting Onlydog on the sofa and need to make it out of bounds because she guards it. If she's on it and someone wants to sit down we make her get off and then invite her on but she can growl if someone approaches her on it. She has 2 beds in the house, one in the living room and one in a quiet corner in the kitchen, which is more than anyone else has!! How do I get her to see her beds as the best thing ever. There are 5 of us, 2 small sofas and she's taking up one of them.

reward her for going in her beds and NEVER let her on the sofa, if she's guarding then it can't be allowed......

My puppy was doing this until I got her a bed right by the sofa. If she's more comfy in her bed she'll go there. I also bribe her off at night to go out then in her crate. Personally I don't mind her on the sofa so will carry on getting her to stop the guarding but let her on the sofa still.

I guess giving her treats in her bed is the best way to do it.

Every time you catch her on the sofa, tell her "off" if she knows it, if she doesn't train it. Every time you catch her in her own bed, feed her a treat. When I'm training a particular thing that requires me to have treats on hand I put little pots of cheese in every room in the house and keep a stash of dried treats in my pocket.

Hide treats in her bed while she is not watching for her to find later.

Working on the 'off' but actually shouldn't be hard because she was very sheepish about going up in the first place. Same with going upstairs. My fault for being too soft and I enjoyed seeing her relax and have a tummy tickle on the sofa. Not doing her any favours though...DOoin - I'm always impressed by your abundance and organisation of treats!

I'm often impressed by that too, organisation is not my strong point

DH reminded me at work last night that I have an essay due on Wednesday, as in this Wednesday coming up I don't even know the title let alone the word count [panic]

Devil Dog taught me very early on that when dealing with reactive and fear aggressive dogs every minute of every day is a potential training session. I use that method a lot now with foster dogs. Having treats handy to treat behavior you just happen upon is really worth it. Think about it, if your dog only gets attention when she's being a pain, why would she stay quiet during the day, when she's normally ignored for that? I often drop a treat or two on beds now when my dogs are quiet or being unusually sociable in Devil Dog's case. For the newest foster (who has SA) every time I leave the room, I shut him in, wait a wee while and then go back and treat him and let him follow me, always changing the length of time between leaving him and going back. Just while generally pottering about the house as opposed to having specific training times for it. I find I get in a lot more training time this way.

I thought having a dog would make me more organised (and disciplined, and assertive) and it has in a way but I realise, in comparison, my parenting has been quite unintentional up til now and while I have lovely, creative, independent kids (today) I don't really want a creative dog, she needs boundaries and I need to stick to them.

Good luck with the essay