Keep your paws off!!!!

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what this means? My dog will come up to me and put his paws on me (only when I'm sitting). He'll go back and forth with each paw. So, I put his paws down and pet him or sometimes I don't pet him because I'm annoyed. Mostly I don't. If I'm petting him he'll continue to do this to me. I HATE it and I'm wondering if it's a dominance thing with him. And what can be done to stop him?

 

Dogs lift their paws one at a time generally as a friendship type behavior... but not two at a time...sounds like he's digging to get your attention which IS a dominance thing and needs correcting... Ignore the behavior and redirect it to where he will sit for petting or a treat rather than digging on you...

 

I guess I didn't describe this quite right. He puts one paw on me, I push it off. He puts another paw on me, I push it off. It's not a digging thing. It's just putting his paw (one at a time) on me.

I have tried to redirect this action. I tell him "no". But he continues to do it. I was just curious to know if anyone knows what this means. It's very annoying because I feel it's a dominance sort of thing. It's not that he wants me to pet him, because even though I pet him he'll continue to do it. I just don't understand it!

Thanks for the ideas so far...I really appreciate it

 

That's interesting that it could be a friendship behaviour. I feel bad now for getting mad about it. I just don't want to encourage it if it's more of a dominance thing. If it's him being friendly than I can deal with that. Anyone know for certain?

I guess it just doesn't feel friendly when he continues to do it and pulls away from my petting so that he can do it.

 

Maybe he is trying to "shake"? lol, i really have no idea, sorry. Our shepard does this occassionally when he's comes looking for attention. We'll be laying on the couch and he will come over and sit by us. If we don't acknowledge him, then he will push his nose under our hands to be petted. If we stop petting him, then he will put a paw up on us like a signal that he isn't done yet

Maybe you could just have him lay down if he starts to do it after you've already started petting him.

 

Hello,

When my Abbey does this sort of thing, it usually means she wants to go outside.

 

It sound to me like he just wants your attention or maybe he's trying to get you to play. If you don't want him to do it you should just ignore him...pretend that you don't even notice he's doing it and move your legs without even looking at him to knock his paws off.

 

I don't think its a dominance thing or anything. My dog used to do that to me a lot. one paw then two paws. i'd put them down and she'd do it again. it would drive me nuts. I think it was just her way of getting my attention.

 

i agree its not a dominance thing. hmm, i wish kuma would actually give me her paw. im trying to teach her to shake and its just going no where! [except for the treats!]

 

kyles101, is it really that hard to train your dog to shake? Thats weird, it only took me not even an hour to teach Shianne how to shake.
Once she learned how to sit, it was easy.
I just made her sit and then say 'Shake!' pretty loud to make sure she is listening and then I would grab her paw and say 'Shake' the entire time I shook her paw. And then say "Good girl! Thats my good girl!!" lol and then give her a treat. And I would do this a few times in a row and it didnt take long for her to do it herself when I put my hand in front of her and say "Shake". And make sure she definitely gets a treat when she does it herself and lots of praise.
To teach her to 'speak', when she would bark at something I would say 'speak' really loud everytime she barked and do the same with praise and treats and that didnt take long either.
I guess some dogs just learn quicker because I taught Shianne how to sit and shake in one day and speak took about two days.
Goodluck!


Brittany, Shianne does the same thing when my friends come over. They sit down and she comes right to them and thats how she gets their attention. But when they pet her she climbs half way on their lap and licks them and goes crazy.
I tried to break her of climbing on the lap thing and tell her "down" but I dont think I will ever break her of it because my friends say ' oh its ok, shes fine, no problem'

 

I had a Catahoula that did that for 10 yrs. She was very submissive with people but aggressive with the other dogs. She wanted to be the one and only dog in the family.

It made me crazy because she would put one paw on me and I would almost have to pry it off, and then she would put the other one on me. This would go on over and over and over. There was absolutely nothing I could do to keep her from doing this. I even held both legs down for 15 minutes thinking she would understand. NOPE!!

I don't think it's a dominance issue but an act of being possessive. She would chase off all the other dogs and cats if they wanted some attention. Then I would scold her and she would cower down like she was going to be beat.

She came from a shelter, so possibly this is why she ended up there. She was abused and neglected.

 

The place were i board and ride my horse has a chocolate lab that will do this. they have 3 dogs the lab and 2 corgies and i always greet them with a hello and a pet. the lab will chase off the 2 corgies to be petted and i will pet her and then turn to my horse who gets incredibly jelous when i pay attention to the dogs and not him. when i would turn around she would run her claws down my leg to get attention and to get me to pet her again. i would just ignore her and go on taking care of my horse. eventually she would stop and i could pet the 2 corgies without her chasing them off. i don't think it's dominance, only attention seeking.
love da pits: my sister's dog is the same way only she won't chase off the other animals. she will sit on top of them if need be to get more attention than everyone else, but when i tell her to get on her pillow she slinks away and cowers a bit. we've never hit her or anything. only scold her when she chewed the mud flap off our truck. lol

 

Bonnie does this to me, and she is the furthest thing from a dominant or aggressive dog that there is. I think it's just a bid for attention. I want to get her programmed to the clicker so I can click her for it and then put it on command. Sometimes putting something on command makes it go away except for when you ask for it.

If ignoring the behavior doesn't work, you can try something like getting up and storming out of the room the second his paw touches you. Stay away for a minute or so and then come back. Rinse and repeat. If it really is a bid for attention, he should learn that the behavior is taking you away from him and hopefully he will stop. Moving his paw or telling him no is actually rewarding him by giving him attention.

 

My dog does that to me, and it just means he wants a belly rub. He will keep his paw on your wrist (once you have started on the belly rub) until you get to that perfect spot on his tummy

 

Luther does stuff like this, he has the personality, that makes you think no way he is dominant-- unless he has the super sneaky double opposite mind game dominant. He always puts his head on me for attention, if that doesn't work the paw, and when he wants to be terribly annoying he will sort of scratch, but I can't tell if he knows he is scratching (his nails are sort of long right now) but I can't stand any of it so I ingore it, but when he does thehard push (the scratch) the just urks me!! And I can't take it anymore and I have to remove him. He is always jealous of anthing and eveything, he can not stand for the cat to be pet. One day we looked all over the house (very big house, 4 story with baement) couldn't find him so hubby and I sat down and cuddled and immediately he ran right up to us and started begging for attention! If we are sitting around watching tv not paying any attention, he ignores us and walks out of the room and goes to sleep. But we know if we give each other attention, a hug a small kiss anything, he comes running! Which is why I wonder if it is a super sneaky double opposite dominance thing, he always tries to get in the middle of us. But then the slightest no or we know you did something bad and he cowers, curls up in a ball and rolls over on his stomach as if we beat him.
So I think that some dogs do have his pretending to be super submissive to be the dominant one thing going on, does that make sense?

 

probably bad of me to say this

but when my dog used to do that - and he did the exact thing you're saying - on my couch and i really really disliked that. i tried ignoring it, yelling no etc. nothing worked. so i started pinching his paw. he stopped doing it....

 

I stick by my solution. Yelling won't work. If ignoring does not, then you should storm out of the room for a minute or two and then come back. You will have to repeat it a LOT for the first day or two. Could be a whole hour or two of nothing but the dog putting his paw on you and you storming off, but he will eventually get the idea that the paw makes you go away and he will stop doing it. Unless of course he likes the new game....

Lil, Nala used to be super-jealous like that too. She still is to an extent - if we are petting Bonnie or a cat she will come up and ask to be petted too, but she's not as demanding as she used to be and she ignores human-human affection now for the most part.