Stop....being so submissive!

[riptides]

So,

One of our dogs had to have part of its tail amputated. Looked like a hot spot, vet, vet,vet, then inside of a week, and three vet visits, it chewed the tail to the bone.

Talk about money spent.

Anyway, she is female, and WAS an outside dog. She is 100lbs.

Now she has to be inside for the next week. She is 100lbs!

Needless to say, she is good, but EVERY time she sees me she squats!

I try and NOT make eye contact with her.

I am telling her NO, when she does it, and have started to rub her nose in it.

I am open for suggestions. How do I break her of the squat?


-Mike Z.

 

[RonMar]

Ignore her!

By getting upset, telling her NO and physically rubbing her nose in it you are asserting your dominance over her and re-enforcing her perception that you are the "A" dog. This will only makes it worse.

Let me guess, she gets excited when you walk into the house, or even the room and take a few steps in her direction? Do not acknowledge her in any way. If she gets excited, turn around and walk away or just walk right on by and continue about your business. If she wants attention, she will seek it from you, such as trying to stick her nose and head under your hand while you are setting on the couch. Don't make a fuss over her when she does something like this, but continue to ignore her at first. Move your hand, but keep it within her reach. She will do it again. After a time or two, slowly start to acknowledge that she is there(scratch her behind the ears ect), while you continue doing whatever it was you were doing(TV, reading). If she starts to get excited, remove your hand and again ignore her.

Let HER come to you and casually make contact. By having to work at getting attention, she will have to assert a little bit of dominance over you and it is really hard to be dominant when you are squatting and peeing. After a bit of this with a positive result(she gets attention) without you getting upset, or most importantly changing the TONE of your voice(it is not what you say, it is how you say it), she will get the idea that this is how it should be done and will relax.

I have a 3year old yellow lab named Sadie who will do this. That is her and my granddaughter pictured below. She hasn't peed in the house for me in quite a while, but I can still make her do it if I overwhelm her with attention at the first meeting when I get home from work. Strangers in the house have to be told to ignore here at first and let her make casual contact till she relaxes a bit. Same is true when I take her out in public. Occasionally someone gets their hand on her before I can stop them. I usually hand them the paper towel from my back pocket for them to clean it up as a reward for not asking first to pet my dog