Begging for attention

[TerraBear]

My fiance and I have our computers side by side in our office where we typically spend our evenings practicing poor posture and surfing the web. Terra pretty constantly nudges my fiance, licks his arm, woo-woos at him and paws his legs until he acknowledges her. He assumes her constant interruptions are because she needs to go potty and he will often take her out. She almost NEVER does this with me. The only time she bugs me is when it's just the two of us and really has to go potty.

I am pretty convinced that she is just begging him for attention because he caves into her demands and will go outside, pet her head, hand her a treat or toy, etc. I've told him that he needs to ignore her and redirect her and she will stop badgering him. Anyone else have this issue?

 

[chipnjo]

Terra, you are most likely correct in your assessment. If your other half won't adjust, he will continue to have issues with the dog. If he is ok with it, but you are not, you will both have to come to some sort of compromise on the issue.

I have kids that drive my wife crazy because they will literally walk past me to get to her to ask her for something that I am closer to. It drives her batty, and I tell her if she made them wait more often, they would stop bugging her so much and start coming over to me when they don't get what they want from her. Dogs are not much different when it comes to attention. Our dog is getting with the program only because my wife seems to be able to ignore the puppy better than the kids....but, we'll see.

Good luck with the issue. It's pretty easily resolved if your other half actually wants the issue resolved.

 

[whiskers]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. There's a reason she doesn't do the behavior with you--it doesn't work. But she knows your fiance will give her attention for it. It's pretty easy to fix if you want to, and keep consistent with it. Just don't give her ANY attention when she's being demanding like that--don't even look at her. After she's been quiet for a couple seconds or stops her other forms of pestering, that's when she gets attention. As long as you both stick with it, she should realize pretty quickly that being calm and quiet is what gets her what she wants.

 

[larrygs]

LOL, oh well .... I am the sucker in my family. Layla knows how to push my buttons. I know better, and work at it, but it is so hard to ignore her.