Dogs on Laps, Sofa, beds?

3v3

gettingready wrote: »

Hope it is a small dog.. just trying to imagine Zara wanting to climb up on my laps

I used to have a doberman (F) who thought she was a lap dog; that alone was bad enough but she would try to sit on my lap in the "sit" position :doh: Silly girl. Took a while to convince her she wasn't, but she was never totally convinced that she didn't have a divine right to "sit" on my lap.

trolleyrun

My dog loves sitting close to me. I've not had her long (rescue), so I let her sit on my lap on a regular basis. She sleeps on my bed (shock horror ) and during the night she creeps closer and closer until she's wedged up against me. I think it's sweet, to be honest. She knows who the boss is, so what's the harm?

lostinrates

3v3 wrote: »

I used to have a doberman (F) who thought she was a lap dog; that alone was bad enough but she would try to sit on my lap in the "sit" position :doh: Silly girl. Took a while to convince her she wasn't, but she was never totally convinced that she didn't have a divine right to "sit" on my lap.

I have had plenty of giant dogs think they should sit on my lap. My very large greyhound does too. She was singing at the vets yesterday and only shut up when I scooped her on to my lap. It's not dignified, I have to have my knees far apart to suporter both ends and she too often sits up, so it's a skinny dog with my chubby legs people see.

Right now she is on the sofa next to me ( a special treat for an injured girl, she is usually allowed up only in the evenings and by invitation only.

She used to sleep with us, but we now have a steeper stair case, and downstairs is very suitable for her, so usually she stays down stairs now.

One of the perks of dog owning is a cuddle IMO.


Otoh, we are about to get our first small dog and I am keen he should not get that sense of entitlement many small dogs have, which I think might be hard with the other two being so large. We will see, but it will be hard not to scoop him up at every opportunity.

System

My dogs are lap dogs. They are licky dogs too which drives me mad at times but they are gentle, small and cute enough to get away with it.

I did ban them from upstairs but since my pc is upstairs i didnt think it was very fair leaving them dowstairs so now the only place they arent allowed is in our bedroom. They get yelled at if they go in there (they dont like being yelled at).

Person_one

lostinrates wrote: »

Otoh, we are about to get our first small dog and I am keen he should not get that sense of entitlement many small dogs have, which I think might be hard with the other two being so large. We will see, but it will be hard not to scoop him up at every opportunity.

I think you'll be fine, I have two toy dogs but I hardly ever actually pick them up and am never tempted to just for the sake of it. They are allowed on the settees and on the bed with permission, but they are still dogs, and they don't really enjoy being picked up and held 5 feet off the ground!

lostinrates

Person_one wrote: »

I think you'll be fine, I have two toy dogs but I hardly ever actually pick them up and am never tempted to just for the sake of it. They are allowed on the settees and on the bed with permission, but they are still dogs, and they don't really enjoy being picked up and held 5 feet off the ground!

I won't pick him up for the sake of it, but I think it might be tempting when he is small to hold him up away fom the big dogs' feet (especially the blunderbuss giant). I will resist when safe.

What I think might be harder is that he might feel more entitled to hop up to be higher with them for communication. It might be tough being littlest of three. Hopefully he will get on with the cats. But the cats are allowed up at will and he might think if they can and the dogs are already 'up' being several times his size, then he should get up too.

We will see how it goes. His breeder's dogs jump up. We'll see. I will certainly have to be open minded about how to handle a very different type of dog in many ways, but also to remember ultimately they are all 'dogs'.

Thanks for the vote of confidence though.

Person_one

Little dogs don't seem to realise they're little. If they're well socialised they don't react differently to bigger dogs, or feel the need to get to 'eye level' with them.

Mine regularly walk and play with dogs up to ten times their size and apart from being a bit more cautious about where the giant feet are landing (and they do that instinctively, they've never been stood on) they don't respond any differently than they do to other littleys.

I think the best way to train small dogs is to forget that they're small and just think of them as dogs!

What are you getting anyway?

moggymutt

Whenever my dogs get old and start to struggle with getting onto the bed, I put a ramp up for them. For one dog I even threw away the base of the bed and we just slept on the mattress on the ground, because I was worried he'd hurt himself jumping of the bed.

lostinrates

Person_one wrote: »

Little dogs don't seem to realise they're little. If they're well socialised they don't react differently to bigger dogs, or feel the need to get to 'eye level' with them.

Mine regularly walk and play with dogs up to ten times their size and apart from being a bit more cautious about where the giant feet are landing (and they do that instinctively, they've never been stood on) they don't respond any differently than they do to other littleys.

I think the best way to train small dogs is to forget that they're small and just think of them as dogs!

What are you getting anyway?

We'll see, I am thinking of the excitement when they have, for example, their 'bedtime biscuit) and the little dog thinks that he might come last because he is furthest away.

I think the shove around home might be different to walking etc, or has been in many homes I know with one little one and more than one other big ones. But who knows, I will be thinking positive!

zaksmum

moggymutt wrote: »

Whenever my dogs get old and start to struggle with getting onto the bed, I put a ramp up for them. For one dog I even threw away the base of the bed and we just slept on the mattress on the ground, because I was worried he'd hurt himself jumping of the bed.

That's true doggy love!