Thread: "clingyness"

Some of the main ways used to motivate a dog is food, prey item(toy) handler reward (praise).

I would be utilising crate training, when the dog comes out, try to motivate the pup with food or play (prey) motivational methods.

You mentioned you stood still, this is giving the pup no motivation. Further to this I would be socialising this pup as much as I could. Parks, shopping centres, everywhere.

Jamie

Originally Posted by Jasada

Some of the main ways used to motivate a dog is food, prey item(toy) handler reward (praise).

I would be utilising crate training, when the dog comes out, try to motivate the pup with food or play (prey) motivational methods.

You mentioned you stood still, this is giving the pup no motivation. Further to this I would be socialising this pup as much as I could. Parks, shopping centres, everywhere.

Jamie

G'day,

I was standing still so he would go and pee :P Otherwise whenever I put him in drive he has to do a pee every 30 secs and it drives me insane as he'll be chasing then start peeing while chasing and it goes everywhere so I have to bath him.

He is in a crate at all times unless out with me really, so far I've done parks, train station, airport (near choppers and small jets, as close as I could get which is about 40-50m away) and near a lot of heavy farm machinery but haven't ventured to any high population areas. He is also out when eating his dinner - I feed a mix of prey model and a barf model so he gets carcasses a lot which take time to devour (ever seen a pup try and eat a pigs head?)

He is going in a run eventually, I've just decided to weld my own so I am learning how to weld first.

Originally Posted by Midol

G'day guys,

Was told this is normal, but the bloke who I pester (Jeff) isn't online right now (though very few people are probably online at 3am.)

How long should my dog remain "clingy" to me. He doesn't like moving away from my feet outside and if I stand still doing nothing he'll just sit or lay down till I get bored and move.

When playing it'll take me a while to get him game enough to move away from me and when I eventually do he gets right into it... But then when I out the item he goes straight back to my feet.

Should I be spending more time with him? Showing him less/more affection?

Hi Midol

I just read your post and thought I'd add my 2 cents in for what its worth.

It appears from your description, your pup is exhibiting overly dependant behaviour.

Although an assessment is very difficult without actually seeing your pup and your relationship with him....

How old is your pup?

You state that your pup is always in his crate except when out with you. This has me a little worried. You could be without realising it creating what I consider overly dependant behaviour.

Does your pup spend extended free time outside without you? If not you (in my opinion) may not be allowing your pup to develop his own sense of self and self confidence. If you are mothering your pup too much, then you most probably are reinforcing this dependant behaviour.

Whenever we give our pup/dog a positive such as praise, food, affection, etc, we are reinforcing a state of mind. For example, we reward drive, we reinforce this state of mind, and also strengthen it. If we give a positive to a pup that is showing overly dependant behaviour or fearful behaviour, then we reinforce this state of mind and make the behaviour stronger. Being out of his crate and being with you is a positive.

In my opinion many give their pups too much affection. Giving affection because it makes "the owner" feel good, but not necessarily whats best for the pup. Many that are overly affectionate to their pups are without realising it giving affection at the wrong times, and therefore reinforcing the wrong state of mind.

Affection or any type of positive reinforcement should "ALWAYS" be seen as rewarding a state of mind. It is so important to understand and read in your pup his current state of mind before administering any affection or positive reward.

A pup that tends to stay "clingy" is conditioned to this behaviour by the owners because of being mothered to much. In my opnion to much affection and at the wrong times. Also I feel that only being out of his crate when you are with him is also contributing to this behaviour. You need to becareful you are not conditioning your pup to always be with you when out of the crate, this could lead to even more behaviour problems later when you want your dog to live outside.

My suggestion is that your pup should spend free time outside away from, where he can develop his own sense of self and self confidence. Not just kept in his crate and only let out when you are spending time with him. Also if you feel you are being overly affectionate to your pup, cut down the amount of affection you give him, and use it as a reward for doing something for you, instead of doing it because it feels good to you. Make sure your pup is displaying confident and happy behaviour before giving any affection. Make sure you understand by reading his body language, his state of mind, before deciding to show any affection. Try not to show affection or give attention to your dog when he is showing this"clingy" behaviour. Totally ignore him.


Not sure if my understanding of the situation is correct. But after nearly 29 years of working with dogs and studying canine behaviour, 90% of clingyness in pups/dogs is due to in part, what I have written here.

Alsways remember. A dog is a product of its environment.

Cheers

Well said Mark........ praise/reward for the sake of it makes a pup/dog blasé about it....and when it comes time to actually give your dog a reward/praise for doing something correct....it just will not mean as much because you’ve been doing it far too often; same with a toy or other methods of positive reinforcement.

Peter

What you've said makes sense.

He does get free time outside but I was always directly supervising him, while I was away (just got home) I had to as there was no back fence but here I can let him out without me but I'm starting now

I let him outside for two one hour blocks today without me, he is teething now as well so I might put him out there with kangaroo tails to chew on or something. So that's about 90 minutes each block outside (as I was with him for 30 mins) and he'll go out again before work. I aim to give him 4 hours a day out of his crate as that is what I did with my Huskies as they slept for about 20 hours a day as pups.

I probably am giving him far too much affection, I'll stop giving him so much and try and build some confidence in him. First time with a working dog so it was pretty much inevitable (imo) that I was going to do some things wrong like this but hopefully I can correct the issue relatively easily.