As most of my regular readers know, we have a Labrador Retriever. She just turned two, two weeks ago, so she’s finally starting to calm down a bit, but not nearly enough for me!
She’s a pretty good dog, fairly obedient and definitely regards me as the Alpha in the house … except every once in a while she’ll try to pull one over on me.
Her quest for power usually takes place in the evening when I’m lying on the couch watching TV. She’ll jump up on the couch beside me and make her wookie (whooo whoo, grughhh) sounds to indicate that she wants to play and doesn’t want to take no for an answer. Then she’ll try to climb on top of me or over me to reach the top of the pillow that I’m usually lying on while on the the couch.
Once she’s perched near my head she’ll sit there contentedly, occasionally turning around to lick my face, ears and neck. Labs are kind of slobbery so I need to wipe my face after a lick attack!
The bruises I’m getting are from her walking over me when she’s instant on playing and getting really close to me so that she can give me a lick attack.
When she tries to do this I usually try to hold her back by putting my leg up to bar her from climbing over me but this past week she just keeps coming! She’ll even fake me out by looking like she’s just going to sit down beside me when I’ve said no and once I relax she just jumps on me! She’s a smart dog!
My husband thinks she just does this because she “loves” me … but I think it’s a little bit of doggy dominance coming out. As I said above she’s a fairly obedient (yet hyper and excitable) dog.
She weighs about 70lb and while my husband doesn’t seem to find her walking on him painful it really hurts me when she walks on my legs, stomach and even my chest. There’s been many a time when I’ve woken in the morning wondering why one of my boobs is sore and then I remember that my dog walked on it the night before! LOL
I also take medications for my Crohn’s disease that make my blood a little thinner so I’m more prone to bruising as it is, let alone having a large dog jumping all over me.
I have to find a way to stop her from jumping on me like this. When she does manage to walk all over me this is the only real time that she is being Alpha or has any kind of dominance over me.
Any suggestions from other dog owners out there?
