Maybe this is a silly question, but do you think you can desensitize a dog to being stepped on? I am sporting a nice bruise on my leg from Tucker biting me this morning after I dropped my feet on him. Since the summer began my dad has been bit at least four times, I've gotten it twice and my mom has been bit twice as well. He doesn't break the skin but he still bites hard, it hurts pretty bad. He always immediately "apologizes" with appeasement signals and whatnot, he's not just being a grumpy jerk, he is having a knee jerk reaction.
With the warm weather Tucker likes laying on the wood floor instead of the carpet or couch. In our living room we have a sectional couch and a large area rug in front of it with a coffee table on the rug. Between the rug and couch is a strip of the wood floor and this is where Tucker chooses to lay most of the time. When we are on the couch we generally have our feet on the coffee table and when we go to get up we drop our feet down and they land right on that area of wood...and often the dog who we don't see there. We try to remember to check but sometimes you just forget. I'm not talking about painful stuff here, I don't expect a dog to ignore pain. Me and my mom are always barefoot and we're not actually standing up on him, our feet just land on him. I think we startle him more than anything. He has been stepped on hard in the past by my dad while he's wearing boots where he's actually been standing on his tail or leg and not been aware of it (can't feel it through the boots) until Tucker's yelping and biting him. So I think he's developed a fear and is anticipating that it's going to be a lot worse than it actually is. We've stepped on his trailing tail fur a lot so I trimmed down his tail so it doesn't drag, but that doesn't solve the more common issue of dropping our feet on him.
We had people over for the 4th, they were all people Tucker knew so he was able to be loose. He was sitting on everyone's laps and being a very good boy, it was so nice to see him being a normal, friendly little dog instead of trying to attack people. Despite this I was a nervous wreck the whole time, constantly watching where people were walking because god forbid they bump into him while he was lying down. On the one hand it was so nice that we could have people over and have him lay around like a normal dog, on the other hand I feel like I should have put him away because if someone's foot touches him he might bite them.
So I'd like to work on it if it's even possible. Anyone ever tried changing something like this or think it can be done?
With the warm weather Tucker likes laying on the wood floor instead of the carpet or couch. In our living room we have a sectional couch and a large area rug in front of it with a coffee table on the rug. Between the rug and couch is a strip of the wood floor and this is where Tucker chooses to lay most of the time. When we are on the couch we generally have our feet on the coffee table and when we go to get up we drop our feet down and they land right on that area of wood...and often the dog who we don't see there. We try to remember to check but sometimes you just forget. I'm not talking about painful stuff here, I don't expect a dog to ignore pain. Me and my mom are always barefoot and we're not actually standing up on him, our feet just land on him. I think we startle him more than anything. He has been stepped on hard in the past by my dad while he's wearing boots where he's actually been standing on his tail or leg and not been aware of it (can't feel it through the boots) until Tucker's yelping and biting him. So I think he's developed a fear and is anticipating that it's going to be a lot worse than it actually is. We've stepped on his trailing tail fur a lot so I trimmed down his tail so it doesn't drag, but that doesn't solve the more common issue of dropping our feet on him.
We had people over for the 4th, they were all people Tucker knew so he was able to be loose. He was sitting on everyone's laps and being a very good boy, it was so nice to see him being a normal, friendly little dog instead of trying to attack people. Despite this I was a nervous wreck the whole time, constantly watching where people were walking because god forbid they bump into him while he was lying down. On the one hand it was so nice that we could have people over and have him lay around like a normal dog, on the other hand I feel like I should have put him away because if someone's foot touches him he might bite them.
So I'd like to work on it if it's even possible. Anyone ever tried changing something like this or think it can be done?