The topic today is how to become your dog’s favorite person. So I get the privilege of meeting at least three families a week, and they get to introduce me to their dogs. So that way I can share an evaluation with them. As I’m sharing these evaluations with people, I get many different questions. Like what is the best way to train my dog? How long should my training sessions be? But today, I got an exciting question: how do I get my dog to like me over the other people in my household?
So I’m going to share some things that you can do if you’re in a multi-person household and you’re really trying to make sure that you become the dog’s favorite person.
Train The Dog
Okay, tip number one. Very general, but it’s specific. Train the dog. That’s the first thing you can do is start training your dog. And what I mean by training them is not entitling your dog to the hilt, but actually using the things that your dog loves the most to show them how to do the things that will be the most useful for you. That’s really going to be the first thing. Now, obviously, if you have other people in the family asking the dog to do things as well, it will become important for them to train, too. So everybody should a train. But if you want to be your dog’s favorite person, you need to be training.
Play Relationship
Okay, the second thing that I want you to do, and this one’s pretty important. Some of you guys may have heard me say before that I don’t allow my dogs to continue to play with the other dogs after a certain period of time. This is something that I do to make sure that they’re keying in on me. I do my best to make sure that I have the best play relationship with every dog.
The reason for that is that I want to take that play away, not because I don’t want the dog to play. I absolutely want the dog to play, but I want a period of time where I am not competing with the other dogs. I can show the dog how much fun it is to play with me.
I’ve been watching Jericho, Alpha, and Gabby play together, and it’s tough for me to match how well they play together. So by taking it away for some time and then developing some games with the dog is a fantastic way to show the dog that I can be fun.
Let me point this out real quick too. As I’m working with the dogs, their play is better than what I can do initially. But as the dogs get better and better trained, the games that I play with my dogs become better than what natural play among the dogs would be. I hope that makes sense.
So really, just cultivating that relationship while the dog is playing with you daily. And maybe it’ll you take a month, four months, six months, two years to be able to do that. You’re going to see a phenomenal difference in how your dog will choose you more and more often.
Create Respect For Yourself
So, the third thing that you have to do is create some respect for yourself and advocate for your dog. This one’s a little tricky to navigate. The way that you can create some respect for yourself is that whenever you set a role. Like you’re going to stay in the sit that you use your leash in a way to demand that your dog actually do what you’re telling them to do. Not in a cruel way, but in a way that your dog understands that if the leash is relaxed, the world starts getting good, but that they must do that sit.
Sit, among other things, not just to sit but leash walking, coming when called, and staying on a bed. Those kinds of things are important for the dog to see that you’re also going to ask for respect. And then also, if you have a dog that’s maybe a little bit nervous that you’re also advocating for that dog.
So as things that the dog is worried about coming into the environment, that you calm your dog down, get them to stop barking, and that you also don’t let the things that they’re afraid of really start interacting with them until they actually calm down and they can see that. You’re the one that’s going to protect them from those things.
I hope those tips are beneficial for you. I feel that if you begin to put those into place, you’ll see how your dog is going to begin to select you more. Moreover other distractions and other family members.
I hope this was helpful. Remember, you can always go to my YouTube Channel for more tips like this or find them right here on my website www.longoriahausdogtraining.com.
Happy Training!
