Work at home/ bad while on phone

[jgbluesky]

My young mini schnauzer is almost 4 months old. I am a TV producer and while not in production, I work at home a lot and try to spend time with her everyday playing and training. She's smart but definitely stubborn and challenging me a couple times a day.

She really PUSHES me sometimes when I am on the phone trying to talk business. She starts to bark loudly at me at even nips. I try to ignore by leaving the room but sometimes I need to be by my computer or I give the sit hand signal but I'm not firm like I would be if I could give her my full attention.

I guess I have ended up just trying to push her away but she is getting bigger and she actually nipped my soft underarm while I was walking away and it drew blood and left a bruised cut. Not acceptable!

Well, I "popped" her on the nose with about a 5 page document and said No and Quiet. It doesn't hurt her but it seems to help so I've done it a few more times when she's fussing at me, but I don't want to cause later problems.

Opinions? A girl's gotta make a living...

 

[Dreeza]

anywhere you can put her when you know you need to be on the phone? that would be the best bet i think?

If she wont behave, then give her a time out...

hopefully she will learn that if she behaves, she gets to stay with you, if she doesnt, she gets to be seperated from you...


im trying to do that with my dog now too...so i am no expert on it

 

[bridey_01]

Hmm, sounds likes she's really bugging you for attention! She needs to learn that YOU decide when she gets attention and when she doesnt. You musn't react AT ALL to this behaviour. The nose popping is actually giving her what she wants (attention). To nearly all dogs even negative attention is better than none at all. It would be best if you could put her in another room whilst you talk on the phone, but i understand that might not always be possible. I would leave a bowl of treats by the phone and get a friend to call. As you are on the phone you can ignore her completely (wear tough pants so there can be no nipping) and wait for a calm behaviour such as a sit or down or just being quiet. You can immediatly reinforce this. You will probably need to practice this quite alot. You might also want to stop giving her attention when she comes and bugs you for it throughout the day, and pet and fuss over her when she is displaying behaviours you like instead of being pushy.