Dominance / Shaking?

[HandH]

Our 3yr old may be trying to asseret herself over our 4 yr old boy. She has been sitting on him and laying on top of him on the couch. Now the boy has been walking off by himself and when we go check on him he is sometimes shaking. The next day he is usually back to normal, but the shaking is beginning to scare us...

Any comments?

 

[gmacleod]

There is no way for anyone here to say whether or not his shaking has anything to do with the dog (I'd suggest a trip to your family doctor in that regard probably wouldn't hurt).

But as for the rest - no, she shouldn't be sitting on him. She probably shouldn't be sitting on the couch either (unless it's at your express invitation). Dogs are dogs, not humans. And if you treat them as the latter, then it does tend to lead to problems. It sounds as though you need to take a little more control of your household here, and set some clear boundaries for the dog. Interactions between small children and dogs should always be supervised, of course, so it's a fairly simple matter to ensure that if she's taking a liberty or two too many, that you instruct her otherwise (but don't forget to reward her compliance).

LOL - small edit to add that I was assuming here that you were talking about a child... If the 'boy' is a dog, the above all still applies minus the bit about a family doctor

 

[Joe Beam]

That's weird that the female is trying to take over. I would think the male would be on his toes and keep his top spot.

My 7 month old male is now bigger than my 4 year old female. They rough house a lot and one of his favorite wrestling moves is to sit/lay on her. They both seem to like it...as it's never the same dog that starts the play session. When they're done they usually take a nap all snuggled up with each other.

Shaking is never good...When he is shaking you should never baby him because that will only encourage his behavior. When my female was a pup, she was babied during thunderstorms because she would shake. She still does it to this day but it's getting better.

 

[ELubas]

Both my girls were the boss of my boy It is very common for the female to shoot for top position. But I agree with gmacleod that I woud rule out illness as far as the shaking goes.

 

[HandH]

Response

Thanks for the replies...

To clarify, we were talking about two dogs and not a child! We were babying him during his shaking and will need to correct this action -- we just feel bad for him...