More on dogs, alpha/beta, etc.
Posted by
ceregon
Jan 25 '12, 11:54
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I'm aware of the research and have never been a fan of the whole enforce your will so that you are the alpha. That said, dogs that have spent time together fall into patterns that they are comfortable with. If one dog hogs attention and the other one is ok with it, then the problem is in your perception and not with the dogs. There are a lot of ways you can work with this.
The easiest is to not make petting mutually exclusive and pet both at the same time. Sitting between them works, and you can sit on the floor and if he hogs the space in front of you, just rotate your body so he isn't blocking you from the other dog.
The next thing to do is to let the dog know you are not happy with what he's doing. I don't like yelling at a dog, so I just quietly show my teeth, make eye contact and stare. That usually makes the dog back down.
Another thing is to let the hog get petted first then switch to the other dog.
Having one dog sit/stay while you pet the other dog is just going to increase the stress level in the dog. You could give one dog a longer lasting rawhide chew and then pet the other dog, and when the first dog is bored with the rawhide and wants to be petted then its the other dog's turn to chew.
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