Any help with a worrying problem that's started to escalate,much appreciated.
Please bare with me it's a long post !
Hi all. As you may know Harley is coming up to 6 months old , she's our second Bullie having lost our first 4 years ago. Harley is the first puppy my girls have had as my previous Bullie was an adult by the time they came along.
Mostly Harley's responding well to training but we're noticing a developing problem with Harley's behaviour around our 11 year old daughter . Harley has stopped most of the playful nipping around my husband myself and eldest daughter but seems to nip my youngest all the time. Harley will cuddle up to the rest of us, gives us puppy kisses but will always try to get a nip in with my youngest.
My initial thought was that as my youngest daughter has always been timid around bouncy dogs Harley was picking up on that and/ or was just pushing boundaries because my daughter is the youngest of our family. When we're around when it happens we distract Harley and use positive methods although in the past have resorted to pinning her a few times. I would be grateful for any advice and methods that my daughter could use when she's dealing with Harley directly. I had her sobbing yesterday saying that Harley Quinn hates her.
Part of the problem maybe that Harley seems to have bonded strongly with me, for example I seem to be her 'go to' person. She will always choose to sit next to me or sleep on my lap if I'm in the room, even to the extent that if she's settled elsewhere she'll get up and come over. I work full time but other family members work shifts so she's got someone around daily.
Earlier this afternoon I was on the phone to my friend with Harley lounging beside me when my daughter joined us. All was well for a short time but then Harley started to push her off the settee with her legs, later on Harley got out of her bed to sit on my lap when my daughter was sitting beside me. Harley pushed against her again, getting down and going back to her bed once my daughter moved, only to repeat this behaviour when my daughter came back. Even my daughter couldn't miss the dynamic that time and asked if Harley was jealous?
It doesn't help that my youngest is a clingy child and does have problems with being mindful of personal body space. I've had to and still do check her when she's smothering Harley. When Harley was little my daughter constantly picked Harley up and tried to carry her around .
We've noticed (and unfortunately so has my daughter) that Harley is over the moon when someone comes into the room, family, friends and strangers, she sits and waits to be fussed but her tail is going ninety to a dozen however she can be quite indifferent when my daughter comes home. I imagine that the recent escalation of the nipping has something to do with the fact that she thinks Harley doesn't like her and she's trying too hard to compensate.
I'm going to see if we can get a trainer who can do some one to one work with Harley and my daughter. We're using clicker training so we should be able to reinforce current positive interactions quickly. Howevef any suggestions gratefully received as understandably I don't want this behaviour to escalate.
Here's the obligatory photograph of the culprit doing her 'Butter wouldn't melt routine'
Hi all. As you may know Harley is coming up to 6 months old , she's our second Bullie having lost our first 4 years ago. Harley is the first puppy my girls have had as my previous Bullie was an adult by the time they came along.
Mostly Harley's responding well to training but we're noticing a developing problem with Harley's behaviour around our 11 year old daughter . Harley has stopped most of the playful nipping around my husband myself and eldest daughter but seems to nip my youngest all the time. Harley will cuddle up to the rest of us, gives us puppy kisses but will always try to get a nip in with my youngest.
My initial thought was that as my youngest daughter has always been timid around bouncy dogs Harley was picking up on that and/ or was just pushing boundaries because my daughter is the youngest of our family. When we're around when it happens we distract Harley and use positive methods although in the past have resorted to pinning her a few times. I would be grateful for any advice and methods that my daughter could use when she's dealing with Harley directly. I had her sobbing yesterday saying that Harley Quinn hates her.
Part of the problem maybe that Harley seems to have bonded strongly with me, for example I seem to be her 'go to' person. She will always choose to sit next to me or sleep on my lap if I'm in the room, even to the extent that if she's settled elsewhere she'll get up and come over. I work full time but other family members work shifts so she's got someone around daily.
Earlier this afternoon I was on the phone to my friend with Harley lounging beside me when my daughter joined us. All was well for a short time but then Harley started to push her off the settee with her legs, later on Harley got out of her bed to sit on my lap when my daughter was sitting beside me. Harley pushed against her again, getting down and going back to her bed once my daughter moved, only to repeat this behaviour when my daughter came back. Even my daughter couldn't miss the dynamic that time and asked if Harley was jealous?
It doesn't help that my youngest is a clingy child and does have problems with being mindful of personal body space. I've had to and still do check her when she's smothering Harley. When Harley was little my daughter constantly picked Harley up and tried to carry her around .
We've noticed (and unfortunately so has my daughter) that Harley is over the moon when someone comes into the room, family, friends and strangers, she sits and waits to be fussed but her tail is going ninety to a dozen however she can be quite indifferent when my daughter comes home. I imagine that the recent escalation of the nipping has something to do with the fact that she thinks Harley doesn't like her and she's trying too hard to compensate.
I'm going to see if we can get a trainer who can do some one to one work with Harley and my daughter. We're using clicker training so we should be able to reinforce current positive interactions quickly. Howevef any suggestions gratefully received as understandably I don't want this behaviour to escalate.
Here's the obligatory photograph of the culprit doing her 'Butter wouldn't melt routine'
image.jpg
3264 x 2448 - 2M
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