Polly must smell everything. We go the dog park and it's like she's taking
inventory of every tree, human and dog by sniffing them. She sniffs
everything at nose level like our drinking glasses, crotches, butts, etc.
It's really embarrassing when we have guests and she walks up and buries
her nose into someone's crotch or rearend. Not a quick sniff either.
Yesterday she goosed a guest pretty good, made the lady jump. Even the
dogs at the dog park get irratated at her constant smelling and start
snapping at her.

Mac Cool said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

Polly must smell everything. We go the dog park and it's
like she's taking inventory of every tree, human and dog by
sniffing them. She sniffs everything at nose level like our
drinking glasses, crotches, butts, etc. It's really
embarrassing when we have guests and she walks up and
buries her nose into someone's crotch or rearend. Not a
quick sniff either. Yesterday she goosed a guest pretty
good, made the lady jump. Even the dogs at the dog park get
irratated at her constant smelling and start snapping at
her.

Every subject in each of your sentences involves a training
issue.

Don't let your dog do that.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Mac Cool wrote:

Polly must smell everything. We go the dog park and it's like she's taking
inventory of every tree, human and dog by sniffing them. She sniffs
everything at nose level like our drinking glasses, crotches, butts, etc.
It's really embarrassing when we have guests and she walks up and buries
her nose into someone's crotch or rearend. Not a quick sniff either.
Yesterday she goosed a guest pretty good, made the lady jump. Even the
dogs at the dog park get irratated at her constant smelling and start
snapping at her.

All three of mine know that no matter how sniffalicious someone or
something smells, they are not allowed to jam their snout in there and
make loud, joyful snorting noises*. To be honest, I don't even really
remember addressing this as a specific issue, it just fell in with basic
good manners and training.

I would strongly suggest taking a training class with your dog so that
you can learn how to teach your dog appropriate behavior.

*One fairly recent exception to this was Scully's close-range olfactory
examination of a mouse that was trapped - pinned by one leg - but
decidedly not dead. She sounded like she was trying to snort him like a
line of Colombian flake.

Then she picked up both trap and mouse and headed down the hall to the
bedroom to continue her experiments in private. I confiscated the
rodent, to her evident disappointment.

Rocky:

Don't let your dog do that.

The easy solution to every problem, don't let them do that!

"Mac Cool" wrote in message
...
Polly must smell everything. We go the dog park and it's like she's taking
inventory of every tree, human and dog by sniffing them. She sniffs
everything at nose level like our drinking glasses, crotches, butts, etc.
It's really embarrassing when we have guests and she walks up and buries
her nose into someone's crotch or rearend. Not a quick sniff either.
Yesterday she goosed a guest pretty good, made the lady jump. Even the
dogs at the dog park get irratated at her constant smelling and start
snapping at her.

OK, what do you do when your walking her on the leash and you pass
someone and she sticks her nose in their crotch? Nothing? Or when
she sticks her nose in a glass?

It can be harder to break them of this kind of behavior because a lot
of people will give positive reinforcement to the dog when the dog does
this. For example with Ruby, she rarely jumps up on me and when she
does I turn away from her. However, she will jump up on my wife and
my wife will bend down to her. As a result of this when my wife approaches
her, Ruby jumps up, when I approach her, Ruby doesen't jump up.

Ted

In article ,
Mac Cool wrote:
The easy solution to every problem, don't let them do that!

"Don't let them do that" tends to be pretty easy. It's
teaching them not to do it that can be trickier.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...

It can be harder to break them of this kind of behavior because a lot
of people will give positive reinforcement to the dog when the dog
does
this.

I don't think I have *ever* seen someone give positive reinforcement to
a dog sticking its nose in their crotch. Assuming that happens, that
kink is not okay.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

"Shelly" wrote in message
...
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...

It can be harder to break them of this kind of behavior because a lot
of people will give positive reinforcement to the dog when the dog does
this.

I don't think I have *ever* seen someone give positive reinforcement to a
dog sticking its nose in their crotch. Assuming that happens, that kink
is not okay.


I see it all the time - the usual scenario is the dog is -headed- for the
crotch
and the human sees them coming and reaches out to pet the dog. Most
non-dog people seem to assume a dog headed for them isn't aiming for the
privates.

In the few cases where the dog successfully navigates the hand obstruction
and makes
crotch contact, then a rapid reversal of the positive reinforcement is
usually the
norm.

I loved the scene with Tim Allen in "Santa Clause" in the elevator, though.

Ted

"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in
:

I see it all the time - the usual scenario is the dog is -headed- for
the crotch and the human sees them coming and reaches out to pet the
dog.

If the dog never reaches the crotch, how do you know it's headed there in
the first place?

Most non-dog people seem to assume a dog headed for them isn't
aiming for the privates.

Or they are actually "dog people" (whatever that's supposed to mean), and
they think that distracting the dog, then rewarding it for appropriate
behavior, is a good idea.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net

Shelly wrote:
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...

It can be harder to break them of this kind of behavior because a lot
of people will give positive reinforcement to the dog when the dog does
this.

I don't think I have *ever* seen someone give positive reinforcement to
a dog sticking its nose in their crotch. Assuming that happens, that
kink is not okay.


People give positive reinforcement for that
all the time.

They often don;t want to scream and make a
big deal out of it, but they're really
uncomfortable. So, they pet the dog's head
while pushing said head away from their crotch.

The welcome physical attention, coupled with
the whiffs the dog has already gotten is
reinforcement enough for many dogs.