Am I too nice to my dog?

Hey so I’m a huge sucker myself and I have a very clingy puppy who sleeps in our bed. I’m okay with that, I have a partner and when our schedule becomes busier she is used to doggy daycare. She will likely not be able to handle 8 hours alone 5 days a week and we know that and we’ll have to work with it.

Although we do have rules, she barks or chews our stuff and she’s out simple as that.

Kindness - being nice to your dog is wonderful, but there are methods to train and be nice at the same time. Look into positive reinforcement.

The main thing that “concerns” me for your sake is your dog being protective of you.

You can work with your dog to look at you and sit while on walks when a dog passes you two and reinforce it for paying attention to you. Viewing the dog as equal is okay - but the dog is 1 year old, yes they mature faster but not THAT fast you are still it’s parent and guide, which means you teach it what’s safe and what’s not and what’s polite and so forth.

Trust me, your dog wants directions from you- this is not authoritative, it’s for the dogs safety and well-being. My dog has a lot of personality I do let her get away with somethings but generally every walk, every play time is in some ways training. Remember everything you do is training, your it’s world.

/r/Dogtraining Thread