Needing Advice, dog is ruining relationship.

It's tempting for me to to just say "dump him", because that's likely where this is going.

However, the first step is to communicate. As in, a sit-down discussion of what boundaries you need to be happy. This is a very poorly trained dog.

This can be fairly simple; for example:

  • No dog in the bedroom during sex. There is NOT room for debate on this one.
  • No dog between you when you hug. If the dogs jumps up on either of you, or between you, your boyfriend needs to scold the dog until it learns not to. You're not the jealous one here – the dog is. It's not your responsibility to accommodate a dog's jealousy for hugs.
  • If the dog is begging for attention (that includes staring and whining), it goes into its crate where it can whine without any reward for the behavior, until it learns how to deal with separation anxiety. Enforcing basic boundaries is the only way to train the dog to not be a neurotic mess.
  • Humans get greeted before dogs when you come home. This might sound petty, but it's not when placed in the context of feeling that you're ranked behind a dog in importance to your partner.

This isn't a lot to ask, but his response will tell you a great deal about your boyfriend and whether you want to stick around.

/r/Dogfree Thread