Callum McFarlane Posted February 23, 2004 Report Share Posted February 23, 2004 my female BC will look me in the face and has no problem, but my male BC, when called, will sit at my feet and look at the ground, he refuses to look anywhere near my face. i try to get him to look but he will pull his head down. he looks os pathetci sitting there. he acts as if hes waiting for me to beat him, when i have only hit him when he has barked at anotyher dog, my partner is in charge of obediance train and deals out the punishments an he loves her to bits. I hate feeling like he thinks i beat him or something. i hate the fact he wont look at me. is this a sign of respect of rank or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomersMom Posted February 24, 2004 Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 I hope you get a reply on this issue as my BC does the same thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby-at-home Posted February 24, 2004 Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 does your dog look you in the face at other times? like if you are lying on the floor playing? sounds like when he is coming to you he is being very submissive and acknowledging you as his pack leader. As far as I know from reading, direct eye contact is a sign of challenge in the dog world. My old BC walked around like we beat him, and we had never ever hit him, or even corrected him harshly. He looked so depressed all the time, except when he was "working" then he was a different dog. BC's can be pretty odd... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
concrete Posted February 24, 2004 Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 Making Eye contact is a very agressive thing for a dogs. I would think this dog is just being submissive. I have a 3 year old male who slinks around here like he's always expecting a beating. The fact is he's such a submissive dog he's never had a correction harsher than a deep throated "hey" , a hard look or a step or two in his direction. You could try always pettiing this dog under his throat so you are lifting his face toward yours at the same time you are giving him a reward. Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted February 24, 2004 Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 I have always heard the thing about making eye contact being a sign of aggression in dogs, but I am sure that it is not *only* that. Jes makes the most strong eye contact with me of all the dogs I have ever had. When he comes on a recall he will sit and look me right in the eye. His expression looks to me as though he is watching to see if he did it right, and what I want next. (I do not *think* I am anthropomorphising here). He will sit at my feet and gaze into my eyes at times; at times lying on his bed next to mine he will look up at me and hold my eyes for several seconds. It never appears to be an aggressive thing, and Jes has only once ever displayed an aggression toward me (a play session that went wrong -- early on in our relationship--corrected, and never repeated). I love his direct eye contact with me, and find it endearing. He never, ever challenges my authority, so I think it is just his way of a)watching me to see what will be next, and b)sometimes communicating with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McFarlane Posted February 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 Originally posted by libby-at-home: does your dog look you in the face at other times? like if you are lying on the floor playing? nope. i;ll catch him looking me for food sometimes and he looks so incredibly sad. i hate seeing him so miserable, even if it is being submissive. hes a year old and just pods around like hes elderly and mistreated. i know hes not that miserable because when we play withhim hes fullof energy for a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou Posted February 24, 2004 Report Share Posted February 24, 2004 The suggestion I received while Freckles was in obedience training was to insist she look me in the eye when I said her name and reward her when she did. If it meant that I needed to physically take her face in my hands and force her to look me in the eye, so be it. I can always tell when she has been into mischief, because that is when she will duck her head and not look me in the eye. But, she is so expectant of a favorable reaction from me when I say her name, she is eager to look me in the eye now. But, it did take capturing the behavior and rewarding, or insisting on the behavior and rewarding. I have literally told her, "you look at me when I talk to you." (Parents of humans...does that not ring a bell?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northof49 Posted February 25, 2004 Report Share Posted February 25, 2004 he looks os pathetci sitting there. he acts as if hes waiting for me to beat him, when i have only hit him when he has barked at anotyher dog, my partner is in charge of obediance train and deals out the punishments an he loves her to bits.What does this dog get punished for, what type of training does the dog receive. What does the dog get rewarded for? Perhaps you need to expand on this and that will give us more clues. What kinds of games do you both play with this dog? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McFarlane Posted February 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2004 Originally posted by Northof49:What does this dog get punished for, what type of training does the dog receive. What does the dog get rewarded for? Perhaps you need to expand on this and that will give us more clues. What kinds of games do you both play with this dog? i throw the ball for him to retrieve, and we go swimming, we do walking, and running together and he also likes chasing the water coming out of the hose. Leo gets punished for walking onthe carpet, something he knows is wrong and very rarely does it, not coming when called and the usual things like that. Hes an extremely well behaved dog so its extremely rare that we have to punish him for anything. he gets rewarded for when he comes when his called and sitting and everything like that. i think something must have happened when he was a puppy before we got him because hes very timid and anxious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lou Posted February 25, 2004 Report Share Posted February 25, 2004 When you say punish...in what way? Reward for the right behavior gets far better results than punishment for poor behavior. Diverting their attention away from the unacceptable behavior to an acceptable behavior and rewarding them for the acceptable got a lot better results with Freckles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callum McFarlane Posted February 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 When he runs away we call him and whenhe does come back we heap praise onhim but when we actually catch him doing something wrong we smack him lightly on the bum (which is enough) and say no. he knows what is wrong and what is right, you can see it. he just chooses to sometimes be diobiediant. As for Stella, well shes; just in credibly naughty to get attention, so we ignore her when she does naughty stuff. which makes her do it even more! haha. she tried ot be good, but well... Originally posted by Lou:When you say punish...in what way? Reward for the right behavior gets far better results than punishment for poor behavior. Diverting their attention away from the unacceptable behavior to an acceptable behavior and rewarding them for the acceptable got a lot better results with Freckles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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