Hi everyone!
My husband and I have a(for the most part)wonderful year old Brittany named Rory. Over the past year as she's grown we saw a marked improvement in her behavior when we finally began to help her get more exercise and used positive reinforcement to train. However, recently she has been actively DARING us to chase her and play even when we've already taken her on a long walk and played outside with the ball.
At the same time, every night as my husband and I sit down to relax after a full day, Rory finds something, anything, to chew on and bring just out of reach 10 feet away. Chewing ISN'T her goal. It's to get us up and lead us on an active chase around our kitchen island, living room, hallway, etc. Her amber eyes say it all..."Get up and come get me NOW!" And this is after a full day of play and exercise. I'm home in the summers from teaching and my husband works out of a studio office around the house, so I know the behavior can't be from being cooped up in a crate(which she's never in anyhow). She even stops in the middle of some indoor fetch to grab a couch pillow so we have to chase her around the house!
She LOVES to be chased, and we're unsure of how to make her understand the difference between play time and OUR time! Any suggestions? Has anyone else had the same problems?
Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
Re: Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
Clever dawg!
So firstly are you sure that your evaluation of a day full of exercise and play is actually meeting her physical and mental needs - the chances are its meeting the physical ones but not the mental ones.
Can you run through exactly what you do on a daily basis?
The 'cure' for the 'chase me chase me' attention seeking behaviour is to do the exact opposite of what she wants. It may cost you a pillow or two.... and you have to be completely consistant with it, but it does work.... however if you are not meeting her mental and physical exercise needs (and it is her that determines what these are, you cannot shoe-horn a dog into what your ideals are for exercise and brain work), then whilst you might fix that behaviour, she will come up with another.
Soooo.. assuming you up the level of thinky-work she has to do each day, when she grabs a pillow or some other item of yours and suggests playing with it, walk out the room, go the other way from her, shut the door, count to ten. Go back in and sit down as if nothing had happened.
Do not warn her, discuss it with her, look at her or even acknowledge her presence or behaviour, just silently get up, walk out, count ten, return.
If you do this enough the message is 'do that and you dont EVEN have our presence' ie, 'this behaviour will NOT work'.
As I say though it is crucial that you are providing the outlets for play, thinking and physical exercise she needs because if you arent, whilst this particular behaviour will probably go away, it will be replaced by another.
I am also loathe to suggest to peoplel that they never respond to their dogs requests for play - thats not a relationship i want with my dogs, i like that they can suggest things to me any time, as long as they are also happy if i say 'no not right now'.
One thing you can do, and it happens naturally as well... is to provide a visual cue. These occur naturally in your every day life anyway you will just be manipulating the situation on purpose. For instance, me sitting at my computer is a visual cue that they wont get my full attention and are likely to be told to go away unless its an important request (such as toilet breaks). For others, picking up your keys and putting your coat on is a visual cue that you are going to go out. Picking up the dog lead or putting on certain shoes is a visual cue that its walkies time.
So you can pick a particular object, set it somewhere different - say, a beach towel over the back of a chair, if you n ever normally leave towels on chairs in your living room... that would be a good visual cue. Then you set that item out, and ignore the dog completely for say five minutes. Do that a few times a day and it will soon become clear that when that item is in that place, there is no point in asking you for anything because it wont work.
Again, this ought not be over used, and without the dogs needs being met elsewhere it will not cure attention seeking overall, just push it to something different.
If you let us know your dogs normal daily routine we can suggest changes/additions to that that ought to help.
So firstly are you sure that your evaluation of a day full of exercise and play is actually meeting her physical and mental needs - the chances are its meeting the physical ones but not the mental ones.
Can you run through exactly what you do on a daily basis?
The 'cure' for the 'chase me chase me' attention seeking behaviour is to do the exact opposite of what she wants. It may cost you a pillow or two.... and you have to be completely consistant with it, but it does work.... however if you are not meeting her mental and physical exercise needs (and it is her that determines what these are, you cannot shoe-horn a dog into what your ideals are for exercise and brain work), then whilst you might fix that behaviour, she will come up with another.
Soooo.. assuming you up the level of thinky-work she has to do each day, when she grabs a pillow or some other item of yours and suggests playing with it, walk out the room, go the other way from her, shut the door, count to ten. Go back in and sit down as if nothing had happened.
Do not warn her, discuss it with her, look at her or even acknowledge her presence or behaviour, just silently get up, walk out, count ten, return.
If you do this enough the message is 'do that and you dont EVEN have our presence' ie, 'this behaviour will NOT work'.
As I say though it is crucial that you are providing the outlets for play, thinking and physical exercise she needs because if you arent, whilst this particular behaviour will probably go away, it will be replaced by another.
I am also loathe to suggest to peoplel that they never respond to their dogs requests for play - thats not a relationship i want with my dogs, i like that they can suggest things to me any time, as long as they are also happy if i say 'no not right now'.
One thing you can do, and it happens naturally as well... is to provide a visual cue. These occur naturally in your every day life anyway you will just be manipulating the situation on purpose. For instance, me sitting at my computer is a visual cue that they wont get my full attention and are likely to be told to go away unless its an important request (such as toilet breaks). For others, picking up your keys and putting your coat on is a visual cue that you are going to go out. Picking up the dog lead or putting on certain shoes is a visual cue that its walkies time.
So you can pick a particular object, set it somewhere different - say, a beach towel over the back of a chair, if you n ever normally leave towels on chairs in your living room... that would be a good visual cue. Then you set that item out, and ignore the dog completely for say five minutes. Do that a few times a day and it will soon become clear that when that item is in that place, there is no point in asking you for anything because it wont work.
Again, this ought not be over used, and without the dogs needs being met elsewhere it will not cure attention seeking overall, just push it to something different.
If you let us know your dogs normal daily routine we can suggest changes/additions to that that ought to help.
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Re: Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
I have a VERY high energy dog that will do the same thing! For instance, she will jump up on counters/tables, knock over my purse and/or grab the keys/wallet/phone/mail/etc., and bring them to me, just out of reach, with the intention of getting me to chase her. And...she's almost 4. Fact of the matter is, she KNOWS what would give me a heart attack if she ruined them so she uses them as incentive to get me to go after her. Like you said, her desire is not to chew or destroy what she has. Once I discovered this, I found the best way to remedy the problem was.....to ignore her. Of course, telling her to drop/leave it and give her a treat is my preferred method, especially if it's something valuable, but for most things, while you obviously need to keep an eye out, I go about my business pretending I don't notice what she has. She always ends up laying down, bored, with the item next to her. Only when I look at her will she put it back in her mouth. Which is actually quite funny. After a few minutes, she usually loses interest in my lack of attention and lets me casually take it back on my own time. Worth a try....
Re: Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
If you guys teach the dog to retrieve, they do the running and you can sit still 
you also get the items back.
you also get the items back.A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog
SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
Re: Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
Lol, Rupert does this and the best thing to do is ignore him. I have noticed that if me and my husband cuddle up on the sofa to watch a movie he'll go find a toy and try to get us to chase him and pay him attention instead and when that doesn't work will push his way in so he's included in our cuddle (if told to go and lie down he does, with a dirty look and a huge, hard done by sigh 
)
I've actually put the chase game on cue and Rupe's whole face lights up when he realises we're going to play it, he searches franticly for something, anything, to grab and run off with. It's a fun game for both of us, especially as we have a door from the front room leading into the hallway and a door from the kitchen leading into the other end of the hallway so I can double back and trick him which results in even more excitement. He's worked this out now though and sometimes its him tricking me.
)I've actually put the chase game on cue and Rupe's whole face lights up when he realises we're going to play it, he searches franticly for something, anything, to grab and run off with. It's a fun game for both of us, especially as we have a door from the front room leading into the hallway and a door from the kitchen leading into the other end of the hallway so I can double back and trick him which results in even more excitement. He's worked this out now though and sometimes its him tricking me.
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***Melissa***
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Re: Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
Striker also likes being chased. When we sit on the couch he'll bump bump bump our legs with his nose untill we get up to chase him. My OH usually gets up and go for a smoke outside - chasing Striker in the backyard. He doesn't need to have anything in his mouth that we want - he just runs around and we chase him around bushes, furniture, etc.
In addition to what the others have said - do you do clicker training with him? It tires out the mind too, not only the body.
He doesn't need to have anything in his mouth that we want - he just runs around and we chase him around bushes, furniture, etc. In addition to what the others have said - do you do clicker training with him? It tires out the mind too, not only the body.
There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face. ~Ben Williams
Re: Dog DARES us and loves to be chased!
Tat sounds like My Basset Hound DutchieJilT wrote:Hi everyone!
My husband and I have a(for the most part)wonderful year old Brittany named Rory. Over the past year as she's grown we saw a marked improvement in her behavior when we finally began to help her get more exercise and used positive reinforcement to train. However, recently she has been actively DARING us to chase her and play even when we've already taken her on a long walk and played outside with the ball.
At the same time, every night as my husband and I sit down to relax after a full day, Rory finds something, anything, to chew on and bring just out of reach 10 feet away. Chewing ISN'T her goal. It's to get us up and lead us on an active chase around our kitchen island, living room, hallway, etc. Her amber eyes say it all..."Get up and come get me NOW!" And this is after a full day of play and exercise. I'm home in the summers from teaching and my husband works out of a studio office around the house, so I know the behavior can't be from being cooped up in a crate(which she's never in anyhow). She even stops in the middle of some indoor fetch to grab a couch pillow so we have to chase her around the house!
She LOVES to be chased, and we're unsure of how to make her understand the difference between play time and OUR time! Any suggestions? Has anyone else had the same problems?