Leerburg / Ask Cindy / Popular / My dog doesn’t seem to care where he puts his fe...

June 29, 2011

My dog doesn’t seem to care where he puts his feet, he carelessly steps on my feet often enough that I want to stop this behavior. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Full Question:

Hi Mr. Frawley,

I checked the training articles and discussion boards. Forgive me if the answer is there somewhere. My dog seems to care less where or what he steps on. He carelessly steps on my feet when walking near, running by, or even coming up to and sitting in front of me. It is not all the time but frequent enough that I want to stop this because I just do not like it. I have trouble thinking of a way to accurately correct this when the incident occurs- he steps on and off of my foot so quickly and with out warning that unless I wear electric shock shoes, I doubt I could time the correction properly. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Yours,
Randy

Cindy's Answer:

The dog doesn't respect your personal space. Have you tried to teach him “off”? Create a bubble of space around you and don't allow him to step in. This is a sign of disrespect and I'd treat it as such. I'd run him through our pack structure program and either do a lot of structured obedience where he was only allowed to stop a “safe” distance away(whatever you determine is acceptable).

Pack Structure for the Family Pet
Basic Dog Obedience

All dogs, no matter how well trained, seem to want to push the envelope in this regard to some extent. Some may push in for petting, put their head in your lap, etc. Some of them just crowd and step on you, others actually will crash into you.

You won't solve this unless you are set up to correct him, so be ready with your tools (leash, collar, etc).

I hope this helps.

Cindy Rhodes

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