off my sofa!!!

[lynneylou]

Hi Tyler our rotti x is now 13 wks old and has overcome both parvo and pneumonia, he can go for his 1st walk on boxing day!!!

He has only ever been on the sofa when he was on someones lap but is now jumping up onto it and making himself at home anytime and growls and shows teeth when you call him and approach him to remove. Help!!!

H

[funnywebsite]

I think you need to reward him with treats if you get him off. I saw a dog training programme and each time the dog did something good he got a little treat. Try encouraging off with something. It doesn't always have to be food but a good show of affection. Obviously, affection won't get him off in your case this time but you will have to work at it. Maybe in this case give him a snack or pull him off and shut him out of the room when he tried to misbehave by jumping back on the sofa.

[maggie01]

Leave him be. He's gone through enough poor thing. Whats a few hairs on the sofa. Joking aside you have to show him whose boss. Try giving him a treat and showing him that good things happen off the sofa too. When you have mastered it please get back to me and I will try to apply it to my two. Best of Luck.

[drgnrdr]

Okay, if he is already bearing his teeth you do need a class, to show him whose boss. A 3 month old dog should not be doing this, only the boss shows his displeasure, because no one tells the boss where or what to do. You have trained him that it is okay to get on the sofa, and laying in someones lap is like laying on top of a subordinate, and that put him on equal status with everyone so he is now trying to move up a bit, but at 13 weeks this is a bit young to try this, you must be doing other kinds of "invisible" training to give him the message he is above or equal to you, or he doesn't have a leader so thinks he needs to become one, all dogs need a leader, if there isn't one they take the job whether they want it or are capable of doing it, then you won't like their rules, ie..growling when told to get OFF the couch. I'll try to give some tips but need to split this.. "will continue"

[drgnrdr]

If he growls and you back off, this let's him know how he can deal with you. You should actually start talking in a friendly happy voice and show him a cookie, and tell him off, when he does he gets a cookie.

To keep him off the sofa you can let the couch reprimand him, you can buy a carpet runner ( I usually try this first, the computer chair plastic has SERIOUS spikes so I use that last if a dog doesn't FEEL the small spikes and doesn't care if they lay on it), plastic, or a plastic thing they put under a computer chair so your chair doesn't sink into the carpet?? it has spikeys on the under side, cut that to fit on your sofa ( so you can remove it for company) and when he jumps up there he gets bit by the sofa. If you forget to put the plastic up there use the first part to coax him OFF, so you can reapply the plastic. And quickly get to a class, aggression is both Nature and nurture, hopefully he's young enough to get over this nature aspect of his, but usually genetics wins over nurture, but not always, if you can do it quickly. Some have actually kept a leash on the dog when they are home( make sure to watch so they don't get stuck on something) and can pull them off if a cookie doesn't entice them, that way you don't get near the collar, ( close to the biting end). Good luck let us know how it goes..~/:\~

[Marvin84]

another thing you could try is to buy him his own bed and try "swapping" him over to it with treats and bedding. Then slowly start replacing the treats with affection and praise.

But one thing you need to do is to ascertain who is boss in the house - cos' it sounds like you have shown that he is!!! Maybe it might be good to get an animal trainer in for the day so that they can train the BOTH of you - which is what it's all about!! :-)

Good luck - and give him hugs from all of us!!