# Pawing



## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

It took me about a week of determined ignoring. I put up with a lot of pawing in the first few days, because they'll just escalate the pawing. So, heavy jeans are in order. 

I also taught a replacement behavior, "put your head down." So he does get pets if he lays his head in my lap. 

I'm currently working on elbow bumping. I need to be careful or he's going to think that I want "bump - head down" instead of "head down" only.

You're probably going to have to get each person in the house to do this. If the kids continue to allow it, he'll continue to do it to them. My husband and I were talking about this recently. Casper licks his pants/legs, but never mine. We have no idea what reinforcement he's getting, but there must be something.


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## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Thanks for the question and for the response. Ellie is an attention hog and sounds identical to Samson. She's 6 months now so we need to get it under control before it goes on any longer.


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## caroline162 (Jun 11, 2013)

quilter said:


> It took me about a week of determined ignoring. I put up with a lot of pawing in the first few days, because they'll just escalate the pawing. So, heavy jeans are in order.
> 
> I also taught a replacement behavior, "put your head down." So he does get pets if he lays his head in my lap.
> 
> ...


Casper is GORGEOUS - he looks so soft!! I don't know how you ignore him 

Oh that is the other thing he does - when I ignore him, he starts furiously licking his lips, which I just recently learned (from GRF!) is something they do when they think they are in danger and trying to appease you, so then I feel guilty and confused - which is probably what he wants ha! Sammy is still new to us and was VERY neglected before, so I am hoping he will become less demanding when he is less insecure. But you're right, I need to teach him an alternative for saying "I want attention." Also, sorry dude, but sometimes I actually AM doing something on the computer that requires two hands!


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## Mirinde (Jun 8, 2011)

Try not to take him getting flustered personally  This is certainly not a situation in which he is in any danger, experiencing anything unreasonably harmful (although I'm sure he thinks not getting attention will be the death of him), and he has lots of other options available to him. When Iorek is being especially demanding like this, I put him in a down/stay at my feet. That way he can still have contact and be included but it's on my terms and out of my way. Would something like that be an option?


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## caroline162 (Jun 11, 2013)

Mirinde said:


> Try not to take him getting flustered personally  This is certainly not a situation in which he is in any danger, experiencing anything unreasonably harmful (although I'm sure he thinks not getting attention will be the death of him), and he has lots of other options available to him. When Iorek is being especially demanding like this, I put him in a down/stay at my feet. That way he can still have contact and be included but it's on my terms and out of my way. Would something like that be an option?


He's lovely when I am clearly moving around and doing something - like when I'm cooking, he puts himself in a down/stay at my feet - he's a little bit in the way, but he's so happy just to be near me, and he stays laying down, so it's fine. It's wonderful. He follows me from room to room and if I'm doing something like putting on makeup standing in the bathroom or changing a diaper standing at the changing table - he's fine. As soon as I sit down, he decides it is PETTING TIME BAAAAAAABY!!!!! :artydude

I've tried to get him to "down" when he's like that, but haven't managed it. He just follows my hand back up and nudges it to get petted and/or paws at me. We're working on it. I don't mind petting him most of the time when he's asking for it, it's just that I don't want him to ask by pawing. So mainly what I've been doing is trying to pet him immediately when he walks up, before he paws, so that he knows he can get attention without pawing. But that's harder with the kids, and doesn't help those times that I'm busy.


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

I would also use an alternate behavior such as down. If the dog really understands down then the dog when following the cue will not be able to paw you in this position. If the dog gets up the dog doesn't have a good enough understanding of down. Which is do not get up until you are released. (I would then practice my down in situations where I would really be supervising (training) until it is solid before asking for it in that position.
Sometimes a down right by your side is just to much for young dogs or dogs that don't have an absolute solid down yet. In this case I would work on a go to your spot or mat which can be at more of a distance from you. In the beginning lots of rewards for being in the position slowly putting it on a variable reinforcement schedule. Putting them at a little distance will in fact be easier on the dog as it won't be as much temptation to paw you since the pup/dog isn't right under you.


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## Chaya (Aug 18, 2012)

We're sort of having the same problem with Laika's licking. She'll press her head/body into your hand, but the second we start petting her, she'll start licking us. If we don't let her lick us, she'll lick herself. I used to let her because I thought it was harmless and a form of "mutual grooming" but now it's kinda gross because it's so incessant. So now we just don't allow her to lick us, and if she does, we stop petting/paying attention to her. It's slowly working, I think.


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## caroline162 (Jun 11, 2013)

solinvictus said:


> I would also use an alternate behavior such as down. If the dog really understands down then the dog when following the cue will not be able to paw you in this position. If the dog gets up the dog doesn't have a good enough understanding of down. Which is do not get up until you are released. (I would then practice my down in situations where I would really be supervising (training) until it is solid before asking for it in that position.
> Sometimes a down right by your side is just to much for young dogs or dogs that don't have an absolute solid down yet. In this case I would work on a go to your spot or mat which can be at more of a distance from you. In the beginning lots of rewards for being in the position slowly putting it on a variable reinforcement schedule. Putting them at a little distance will in fact be easier on the dog as it won't be as much temptation to paw you since the pup/dog isn't right under you.


Oh we definitely have work to do on staying in down - we've only had him for one month


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

Both my Smooch did and now my Tucker do the pawing for attention.
When Tucker does it, we just tell him no. So hard to say not to them as they are so cute and I love NEEDY Dogs!!


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## Leslie B (Mar 17, 2011)

When Pavlov did his Classical Conditioning experiments on dogs he discovered that the hardest behavior to extinguish was when the dog got a reward at random times. So when you sometimes pet the dog when he paws, or licks, and then other times do nothing, you are encouraging him to KEEP TRYING. The idea that you can eliminate a behavior by ignoring the specific behavior works well only if you ignore it every time. That is impossible for most families and is not what most people want. After all, I want to pet my dogs and I want them to interact with me.

So, to teach the dog to not paw you have to start out by teaching him to use his paw to give you a "High Five" or a "Low Five" on command. Once he gets the action along with the command you will add a new command "No Paw". Again you have to teach this just like the high five. So now your dog has a specific target on your body (your hand) for him to paw and a command to tell him when he should not paw. Like any trick - you need to practice it regularly even if it is only one or two times a week.

I know this seems counter intuitive but it does work. It also works for barking with the "Speak" command and the "Quiet" command. Teaching the absence of something is a very hard concept for many dogs. I have found the best way is to first give the targeted behavior a name that the dog understands.

Good Luck!


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