Best way to discourage with "I wanna play" harassment from dog?

...when you work at home and dropping everything to play with him
right then isn't an option. :-)

Janet B...

I notice that you didn't include "engage in play sessions throughout
the day, on the humans' terms". That's what I would choose. You have
a young, playful dog. When your child is 2, you'll have a better
idea. yes - entertaining oneself is an important skill, but they both
need your interaction at reasonable intervals as well.

t...

Hi Janet,

Sounds like a reasonable suggestion. Easy enough to try to see if it
stems it, and I suspect it'll certainly help.

A 10month old miniature poodle was bestowed upon me ... who's
generally a delight and we're half way through our obedience classes.
He's been with us for about 2 months now, the last 3 weeks of which
has included a new baby in the household.

The only problem I'm having with him is that both my wife and I work
from home, and inevitably, in the midday, the dog will come pestering
us to play. Barking loudly and getting low and staring at us, and
being evasive if you try to go to him, so you really can't catch him
to do any correction. Or, other times coming up and scratching on
your arm (ow), or nipping at your heels if you walk down the hall. In
response to this stuff, which can indicate either "I wanna play" or
the all important "I need to go out" I'll send him outside, and most
times, nope, it wasn't "I need to go to the bathroom" -- most times
you find he just wanted to play or get attention. This is further
complicated by him using these same signals to indicate that he really
does need to go out.

This sort of behavior was also an issue before the baby, but the baby
has intensified it since he's not getting as much attention
now.

Here's what I've tried:

-Dominance down-holding him down by the shoulder for a bit to get him
submisive again... but that's only if I can catch him in the act or
shortly thereafter. If there's too much of me chasing him involved,
it becomes a game to him, and I'm rewarding the barking behavior.
And, it doesn't seem to be terribly effective as a deterrent. If he's
jacked up to play, he pretty much remains that way.

-Crating we've tried during the day, but this poodle being the uber
people dog (gets really put off and barks incessantly if he's locked
in his crate while there are folks in the house and stuff is going on.
The feeling slighted if left out is evidently a bit of a poodle thing
if some breed descriptions i've read are to be believe. Otherwise, he
doesn't min the crate per se--he'll opt to sleep there voluntarily
with the door open if he's in eyesight of one of our offices, and he's
fine with it if we're leaving the house (no barks heard from the
garage as we move to depart), but if you're at home and he's locked
in, holy moses, it's a loud annoying scene unfortunately.

-Best I can do is to go to him, get him on a short lead with his
training color, tie it to my belt and have him follow me around.
When I sit down, I down him (which he seems to take pretty well now)
and he does calm a bit.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or ideas on how to handle the nuissance
barking or scratching for attention, or it's something that'll
eventually pass as he gets more used to the baby and gets older and
mellower.

Caveat: If you are a nutjob and responses include the word "HOWEDY",
it's unlikely I'll read it. :-) To everyone else, I'd enjoy the
input!

Best Regards,

pfoley...

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Maybe you could hire someone to take the dog for a daily walk, if you are
unable to do it, to keep the dog from being bored and to tire him out, so
that when he is around you, he will mostly want to rest. Poodles are very
active dogs.
You could also allow certain times of the day set aside just to spend with
the dog, i.e.. 10 a.m. 30 minutes every morning, maybe tossing the ball for
the dog to chase or walking the dog, or playing and talking to the dog, and
again maybe at 3 pm. 30 minutes of attention in the afternoon and maybe 7
p.m., 30 minutes again after dinner. It is hard when you have a baby, but it
sounds as though the dog is seeking some much needed exercise and attention.