Sorry if this is in the wrong area of the forum. I wasn't sure if I should put it here or in General Dog Conversation, or where...

One of the e-books I read recently talked about dogs who demand attention in some fashion or other. I did read the most recent topic in this forum regarding "force-petting", but my question is a little different.

How can you tell, or what signs can you look for to distinguish the difference between dominance and genuine attention seekers?

McCaskey used to have a habit of sitting against my leg and putting one paw on my knee and looking up at me with those puppy-dog eyes. When I first brought him home I thought it was adorable until I realised "wait, what the hell am I doing?!" and I put a stop to it by only petting him after all four feet were on the floor.

Oxz has her moments too, but then again her head is above hand-level. She will sometimes stride up and sit against my leg, thrusting her head under my hand, then looks up teeth sparkling and tongue lolling. As a pup she used to have a problem of rushing between my legs to get butt-rubs. This was stopped a LONG time ago because I knew she would get big enough to knock me over or run me into walls etc. (Although, I do invite her to receive the occasional butt-rub because she loves to do her trademark butt-dance, as inherited by her grandsire.) Sometimes she will snuffle her head in or near my lap, my response to which is not to move my hand at all and ignore her completely; she then concludes the exercise by licking my hand in a very slow, deliberate, gentle and calm manner - and then lies down.

I've also noticed McCaskey walking up to Oxz while she is lying down, and she will voluntarily ...ahem... groom his private area. Although, I don't see him groom her very frequently; he usually does her ears. (Before he was altered though, he was VERY interested in grooming her...everywhere.) But even growing up with dogs, I can't recall ever seeing the dogs grooming each other. Dog grooms cat, cat grooms dog, yes, but not dog grooms dog so I was just curious to learn more about the behaviour.

 Quote: tiffany aiche

I've also noticed McCaskey walking up to Oxz while she is lying down, and she will voluntarily ...ahem... groom his private area. Although, I don't see him groom her very frequently; he usually does her ears.

We only ever had one dog growing up so never saw this and I don't recall any of my old pack of 5 doing this either but the 3 I have now all seem to do the same behaviour and in the private areas boy on boy and girl on boy, no boy on girl but they will do her ears also, on desexed and one not. Not exactly sure of why, with these it seems so pretty much be a dominance thing with Hank usually getting the "grooming". Hope someone can offer you more insight!

My dogs groom each other. My dog bindi is the ear cleaner, she grooms all the dogs ears. My Cody only grooms when play gets rough and I ask him to calm down (jack russel mix, calm down a very common word for Cody) he grooms the legs, feet or back of someone he is wrestling too rough with. Terra grooms the other dogs by licking their faces. Sometimes all three dogs groom each other at the same time. We call it a love fest. Ha!
Sharon