I have a rescued 9yr old beautiful male neutered doberman with a major bad habit of crotch sniffing. It's not really sniffing, it's investigating. I have kept him on a prong and a drag line and corrected him for doing this to guests in my home but he is VERY smart and decides it's worth the correction or he'll just wait until he knows he's not wearing the collar. He also has a smart but annoying habbit of bumping my crotch with his nose (which of course immediatley gets my attention) and then waiting for me to give him all my attention (even if it's negative) he thinks he's love starved. Should I ignore the bumping? Or correct? Sometimes I think he likes the negative attention.

Hi Vanessa,
sounds like the correction isn't really getting through to him. And that usually means the correction wasn't hard enough.
If its not causing him to rethink what he's doing, you need to take it up a notch until he realizes that the correction means more to him than the crotch sniffing.
Some dogs do thrive on any attention they get, be it good or bad.
I know some trainers say to just ignore a dog when he's doing something undesireable. If he's not getting any attention (good or bad) from his actions he should learn that bumping you no longer works.

I think crotch sniffing is self-rewarding, regardless of negative attention so ignoring it would not diminish the behavior. Dogs like to smell, indentify, and explore with their noses, so every crotch, well...is a new adventure to a dog. (oh, that's a sentence you won't hear often!) It is more motivating than to avoid a correction, like you said he chooses when he will ignore a correction. If it's extra interesting & motivating, he'll do it.

I had a border collie who would stick his nose everywhere in a pushy manner-how obnoxious- and would push back against your hand when pushing him away. I would make a loud, verbal correction (ah-ah noise), frown & make eye contact and push into him with my legs, as if I was going to walk over him like a steam roller.

At first, he would just trip out of the way and maybe get a foot stepped on as he figured out what would happen if he didn't knock it off, but he soon began to scat farther and quicker away and stop soooner when I would start to correct him. Eventually he decided that he would rather not sniff anymore and get chased off.

This worked, I think, because I was consistently delivering an unpleasant experience everytime he wanted to sniff. He was a hard dog and bounced back from the correction with no problems. I consider obnoxios crotch sniffing to be a dominant thing, which he was. He would even hump our leg sometimes.

I preferred this type of correction over a collar correction because, as the pack leader, I was personally making a point to "get in his face", so to speak. (Don't really get in his face, or you could get bit.) I used my body physically to take over his space and make him back off while making a loud noise of dissapproval. The collar correction, I finds works after your pack structure is more recognized. I always left a drag lin eon himi though, as well, in case he was to become aggressive and challenge me.

Once he got into the right pack order though, he became very easy to train and would comply nicely (good pack driven dog). So, make sure you are practicing good pack leader ship and bonding exercises with your dog, since you just got him.

Watch your dog closely. When he moves close to you & begins making his way to your crotch, now's the time to correct. Try to determine when he begins thinking about sniffing or bumping you. That's when the correction should happen, don't wait for him to bump and be pushy and then correct. Correct for even thinking about being obnoxious. If you notice him change his mind at the last minute, praise him.

You could also get one of those hand buzzers, like they use to trick someone when they shake your hand. Press it against that big nose when he sniffs. He won't like the sound or feel. But you have to have it on you everytime your around him until he's reliable, as well as anyone else in the room.

Hope this helps!
Alison Voore

Thanks! This all sounds good! He is a hard dog and he's 90lbs and hard for me to give a good correction too since he's so big. I think I definately need to be more consistant. It's hard when you 're going about your daily business and not ready to react to him properly. I need to be on guard at all times. I know he has a few dominant issues which we've been working on. No being in bedrooms, no being on furniture, through doors last etc. and it's helped.

One more thing, how do I react when he crotch sniffs strangers? I can leash correct when he's on one, but if he's not what should I do? Because he's a big doberman, when I leash correct and say "no" firmly it usually scares the person so bad because they think I'm calling off the attack or something!

Well, until he realizes that all attention comes from you and only when he isn't crotch sniffing. I wouldn't allow access to other people unleashed. It gives him too much opportunity to continue doing it. I wouldn't let him until he is reliably not sniffing crotches.
Once he is reliable, control access to strangers. If he starts sniffing to test the waters, deep voice, firm -whatever your no command is- & walk up or pull him to you and then no more access. He can just follow you around attached to your belt. Crotch sniffing=no strangers. You can do this very nonchalant and remember to catch him before he does it- so important. They are sneaky too huh?!!

I'm with Alison.

Ditto with dogs who are learning not to jump up on people.

JMO.

You are right!

I know this is an old-old-old topic, but I had a question regarding solutions to this and didn't want to start a whole new thread. :P Sorry for ganking it out of oblivion!

Would an e-collar be an effective deterrent to crotch-sniffing? I've been bringing my dog to work, and she's very passive around the customers, is fairly good about not bothering them (note, I say fairly, we're not perfect yet), but she's VERY sneaky about getting to sniff their crotch. She's JUST at that right level and it scares our customers off and makes them uncomfortable. Due to risk of people tripping and tanglement with tripods, I can't keep a drag line on her. But when 6-8 people are inside and she's about, I can't always run from a customer to get her to stay in the back. Trainer fault there - she sometimes wanders from a sit or down to check someone out.

Since I can't pop her in front of customers (boss said no, would make customers think I'm abusing her) and there's a CHANCE I can't jump over the counter when she greets customers for a pet and sniffs them, would an e-collar be effective? I've used the shake can and it works 50/50... she'll approach, sniff, I shake and she cowers off, only to go to the next person and try to sneak in a sniff.
Or should I just keep her in back to ensure it just doesn't happen, or try for an e-collar to discourage the sniffing? Thanks guys, and again sorry for bringing up such an old topic. :P

I wouldnt use the e collar for this. She may think the crotch she's sniffing just nicked her. Kidding aside, I don't like to use an ecollar when people or other dogs are close enough or in actual contact that your dog could mistake where it came from. This is one of those things you want some friends to help you out with and teach her she doesnt get attention until she sits calmly.