Help, my dog is smarter than me!

[Reasonistreason]

DH and me have a 2 yr 4 month old beagle cross rescue dog. She’s been with us since March 2021 and is absolutely lovely. Very beagle-ish in that she’s stubborn and incredibly —greedy— food motivated!
However she’s seems to also be incredibly smart when it suits her. The main issue is that she has twigged that if she does something “wrong” ie gets on sofa but not on her seat which is covered, then I will lure her/command her off and she gets a reward. This has resulted in her deliberately doing this in order to get a reward. To the extent that she’ll run up to me before I’ve even said anything and sit waiting for the reward. I only use low value kibble for in-house training so nothing exciting. I’ve tried waiting and asking for a sit or down so that she maybe doesn’t associate the reward with her misbehaviour, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

How can I alter my behaviour to alter hers? We’ve already given up the sofa fight and she does have her own (covered) seat next to me for snuggles. I just want her to use it!

Ignore when she's in the wrong place, treat and fuss as soon as she's on the covered chair.

Okay - so, in the example in your post, Instead of rewarding her for getting off the sofa, start to lure her on to her seat and reward her for that instead. Give a command word when she's on her spot - place or bed or spot is fine.

You want to make her seat a really positive place to be - so whenever she goes there voluntarily, give her a treat. Eventually, she'll start going their herself because she knows good things happen when she does.

You can eventually start reducing the treats (swap them for praise/fuss) as it becomes habit for her to go to her spot when you tell her to.

I have a beagle myself and I really recognise the behaviour you're talking about - they are smart dogs and as you say, incredibly food motivated. Use it to your advantage but you often have to be one step ahead of them! The reward (for her) needs to happen when she's on her spot, not when she gets off from where she shouldn't be.

Thank you for your replies. Reading back I didn’t make it clear but I do only reward her when she goes to her seat on the sofa not just when she gets off. It’s just she actually gets on the other sofa in front of me, and as soon as I command her off (or even look at her and point at her seat) she’ll run off onto her seat and sit waiting for her reward. It’s like she’s choosing to do something she knows she shouldn’t in order to get a reward when she gets off.

I also reward her in a very excited voice (!!) when she chooses to go to her sofa seat and during the evening when we’re snuggling she’ll ask for treats before falling asleep. It’s a good place to be ☺️
I seem to be having trouble staying one step ahead of her!!

Hmm - personally I would just cover the entire sofa in blankets and let her have free reign

Beagles are pack animals and like to be with you/near you. Mine also loves to be snuggled up under blankets - is there a reason you only want her on a certain part of the sofa?

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Hmm - personally I would just cover the entire sofa in blankets and let her have free reign

Beagles are pack animals and like to be with you/near you. Mine also loves to be snuggled up under blankets - is there a reason you only want her on a certain part of the sofa?

It’s just because they were expensive sofas (purchased before ddog was a gleam in our eyes). When ddog first arrived we were very much not on beds or sofas at all - ddog now goes on beds and has her own spot on sofa right next to me for snuggles! I feel it’s only a matter of time before we surrender on all fronts.

I would just cover them in loads of fleece blankets and let her sleep up there, but I am a bit of a soft touch

I do understand some people don't want dogs on the furniture which is fine, I kind of think it's a bit daft to say you can go on one half of the sofa, but not another. It's just confusing for them and makes me feel a bit like it's making up rules for the sake of it?

Cover them in protective blankets (you can even buy special dog ones) and just let her go

Seems like you need to stop rewarding her when she goes to the forbidden half of the sofa, and then the good bit, and only reward her when she goes to her blanketed bit of sofa immediately?

Looking at it from her point of view, she gets rewarded for going to her spot straight away. And also gets rewarded if she goes to the wrong spot, and then gets down and relocates?

Could you use higher-value treats for immediately getting into the right spot? Bit of roast meat (duck, chicken, lamb) seems to work really well for this with my dog. No reward for getting int he wrong place and then reolcating?

However, I am an amateur here so feel free to completely disregard what I say. I know nothing :)

Prevent the behavour you dont want and reward the behaviour you do want.

So only reward for being on the correct part of the sofa. Put random treats on the correct part of the sofa and none for being on any other parts of the sofa. (or get a bigger mat to cover the whole sofa!)

Dogs are clever. My Ddog's example is when she thinks it's mealtime and she taps on the cupboard door (which I am ignoring) she'll start tapping the back door which is her telling me she needs out for a pee. Because that, she knows, will get me off my seat.

…. Or just give up !!!!
Thank you all for your thoughts. I’ll persevere with rewarding correct behaviour taking some of your ideas on board. See how we go.
Never thought I’d be outsmarted by a dog 😂😂

I read about a very clever dog in America

They have those electric fences that aren’t fences, but is like an invisible barrier and the dog wears a collar that will shock them if they try to pass through the fence.

This dog worked out that, if he stood near the barrier the collar would start to beep as a warning sign. By standing there long enough, the beep would run out the battery and he can walk through the fence with no shock. Clever shit

I'd just cover the sofa and let her sit where she likes.

It's what I did when I bought a new, expensive. sofa a couple of years ago.

My dog has always been used to sitting on the previous one and it never even occurred to me not to let her sit on the new one.

Maybe you just have to ignore the going to the wrong place and not give any attention including not commanding her off. Wait for her to get off on her own and then reward that behaviour.

My dog does a similar thing with stealing items to chew up. He has loads of soft toys, Kongs, chews etc but he much prefers to steal hats, gloves, socks, shoes and tea towels The dog trainer pointed out that this is because we chase after him trying to get the items back when he takes our stuff which to him is a great game whereas he likely gets no attention for playing with his own toys. We had to learn to put stuff away so he isn't tempted and calmly swop the items when he steals so he sees you can still get a fun game with your own toys.

We also had some success with trying to make a conscious effort to 'catch' him doing good behaviour eg lying down calmly, walking nicely, checking in with us on walks so we keep some kibble back and just give it out randomly through the day for any nice behaviour and that really helped lying calmly I think. I can see the logic that from dogs POV it often pays more to behave badly as you get attention (even a telling off) and maybe a treat to lure you away whereas being good gets you ignored.

Hi, great to see lots of good advice on here. She sounds like a very smart cookie. She doesn't see it as she's doing something she "shouldn't", she's simply chained together a few events and learnt that jumping on one sofa predicts a request to get on her own sofa which gets her a reward.
I agree that the way to unteach this is to completely ignore her when she gets on your sofa (not even looking in her direction) and only reward her when she voluntarily goes on her sofa. Do expect some extinction bursts with this (i.e., she will be confused, slightly frustrated when what has previously reliably got her treats stops working and may get worse before it gets better). You could try and also prevent this cycle of behaviour by making going onto her sofa the best thing ever (verbal praise, treats, chews, but only if she goes on there without having first gone on yours).
She's so smart that once she realises getting on your sofa = boring (no interaction, no food) but choosing to get on her sofa = praise and food, she will start making the right choice. Will just take a bit of consistency and patience from all her humans.

Some of them are ridiculously clever
I was trying to do sit with a dog from the rescue centre and somehow managed to teach her that if you said "fleas", she would sit snd scratch her ear
Still no idea how I managed that