Owners often ask me how they can teach a dog to respect their personal space. Usually these owners have dogs that push for play and attention at inappropriate times or vocalise incessantly if they are ignored. This can become quite frustrating for the owner especially when a dog physically pushes for attention by jumping, nudging, barking or even mouthing. Teaching a dog to respect your personal bounds when it is required is a valuable lesson for them to learn. Not only does it teach a dog how to control its impulses but it also reduces the chances of accidental injury to the dog, their owner or other unsuspecting persons.

How many times have you watched Fido jump all over you or your guests no matter how many times you tell him no? Or felt him constantly nudge you while you are trying to do something even though you push him away? Why doesn’t he just get the message? It all has to do with our actions that follow the problem behaviour. Whilst we may think that telling Fido off, pushing him away or even ignoring him will make him understand that jumping or nudging is not allowed we fail to see the bigger picture. A person’s natural instinct when a dog jumps on them, nudges them or barks at them is to either verbally reprimand or physically push the dog away with their hands. What we have actually done by doing this is inadvertently reinforce the unwanted behaviour. It’s a common mistake a lot of owners make. For example, when a dog nudges you, even though you look at them and say “Go away” you have just given them what they were after – verbal attention. It’s similar for jumping, by pushing the dog off in annoyance the dog has still managed to gain physical attention from you via contact. Ignoring the behaviour completely may not work either. In fact for a dog that jumps this could really go against you whereby you can sustain some very painful marks and scratches if the act of jumping is self-rewarding for the dog. Not to mention if the dog is jumping on you to push you around. For dogs that bark for attention yelling at them may encourage the dog to bark more as they join in on your new found duet. And what’s even more astonishing is that some dogs find the slightest bit of attention so appealing that they even learn to put up with punishment just to get it! But if we can’t do that then what can we do, I hear you ask? Instead of waiting until it’s too late when the dog has already displayed the behaviour, set the dog up! Set up a training scenario where you can predict and interrupt these behaviours before they occur and show your dog what to do instead.

Teaching your dog an incompatible behaviour can assist in changing their current behaviour to a more desirable one. What is an incompatible behaviour? It’s basically teaching your dog to perform a behaviour that goes against what they instinctually would want to do or have learnt to do. For example, if you have a dog that jumps, teach it to sit for attention instead. It’s difficult for a dog to sit and jump at the same time! For a dog that barks for attention teach them a “quiet” command and put the barking on cue for more control of your dog’s vocalisations. If your dog is the type that dislikes being put outside and vocalises or scratches at the door to get back in then the most effective method to extinguish this kind of behaviour is extinction training (see our Scratching at the Door blog). For the dogs that constantly nudge and invade your space do some independence exercises with them. A solid stay command or teaching your dog to go to a particular place, such as their bed or mat, is quite a handy skill for them to learn. It’s great for impulse control and allows you both to have your own space. This method can be useful for a number of scenarios such as meal times, when guests arrive, while you’re cleaning or simply relaxing in the home.

Consistency is the ultimate key to success here, and in any training that we do. If we aren’t consistent in what we are trying to teach our dogs how can we expect our dogs to be consistent? There can be no grey areas in training a dog, everything must be black and white. Dogs thrive on structure! By setting clear rules and boundaries for our dogs we can switch their mindset around and reduce the chances of the unwanted behaviours manifesting.

In addition to this training, set aside some time in the day where you spend quality time with your dog. Teach your dog a new trick, go for a walk or run, set out on a bike ride together, play ball, go for a swim…anything! By giving them a valuable piece of your time, especially after a long day away, it will help to satisfy their urges and make for a much calmer, more content pooch .