Cerise, now the bossy and stubborn furchild!
 

My adorable and beeeaauuutiiful furchild Cerise is trying to boss me around. She fusses if I am reading a book, on my laptop, or watching TV (all 3 in the bed) at night :fallen: She has also become stubborn about eating and going to potty. She has become like a teenage daughter that wants to pick a fight all the time :rolleyes: and Mommy doesn't know whether to laugh or cry :confuse8: LOL!

Have any of you experienced this when your angelic babies passed the 1 to 1 1/2 year old mark?

Hahaha.... btw love the smilie with the angel wings falling off.... :D

Yeah Harley became a teenage brat a few months ago... that's when I decided to hire a trainer. He's a little over a year. He's come a long way with his manners since... I can now eat snacks with him in the livingroom and me on the couch, and he mostly wont bother me... if we're eating super on the couch though he still has to go to his room.

Harley has been rather pushy and in my face, I've been trying a combination of two things. keeping treats on me at all times, and rewarding laying quietly next to me while I'm on my computer or reading, and giving a gentle shove and ignoring when he is really bugging me. What really annoyed me was his constant jumping around our faces when we're laying in bed watching tv (Harley doesn't sleep with us for various reasons, this being one of them).

My trainer encourages the more positive method, but sometimes the shove and ignore is what works best for Harley, I find it makes him realize he did something wrong, and he usually promptly lays down beside me and smiles as if to say "sorry mom, see I'm a goooood boy".... it makes them realize that they don't get momma's attention when they are bad.

Also she said to remember that if a dog repeats a behavior they find a part of it rewarding... so maybe you're talking to them when they're bad and they see that contact as a reward. if you think about the way you act around your baby you may pick things up.

Hope that helps.

LOL! Sound just like Cerise!
The trainer idea is great. I'll look into that.

Wow - good timing on this question. Bailee turned one last week and he too has lost his angel wings. He has decided he doesn't want me to groom him and other issues. I just finished an application for an obedience class.

:)

You know what I did... I brought the trainer in for one one-on-one class first... then signed up for classes a month later. that way i could get a head start... we start classes next week.

DInky is 11 months on Wednesday, and he is beginning to exhibit some of the teenage attitude. To make matters worse, it's pretty cold here, so it's hard to walk him and work off energy. We took him out today and walked for about 30 minutes. He came home and crashed. :D
Obedience classes start in February.
Oh, and he still looks like an angel when he is asleep.