A Guide to Curbing Your Dog's Jealousy

My family and I have had our Maltese, Buddy, for almost ten years now. He really is a great dog, but sometimes he can get just a wee bit jealous. For instance, one of our family friends will come over with her baby and when I pay a lot of attention to the baby and not to Buddy, he will actually try to come in between me and the baby. He will go as far as to do cute little tricks just to get attention. Thankfully, he has never been the violent type. Now, there is nothing wrong with a little bit of jealousy; however, sometimes it can go a little too far. If a dog becomes somewhat violent, then some sort of intervention needs to take place.

As many of us can see, dogs are highly social creatures and experience many of the same emotions that humans do. They learn to love us when we love them, they get angry, they get hyper and yes they get jealous. Of course, we are not able to communicate with dogs by using words. We cannot tell them that what they are doing is not good. Even so, there are other ways we can communicate to them. We can simply communicate with them with our body language and tone of voice. There are ways to keep dogs from getting so jealous. Here are some ideas that are given by The Dog Daily:

1. Notice the Signs of Jealousy

Keep an eye on your dog. If you are paying more attention to a new member of the family (another dog or a child) and your dog sulks, growls, snarls, and even becomes violent, then your dog has a jealousy issue. Some dogs may even stop eating if they are jealous enough.

2. Keep Your Routine With Your Dog

After you have had your dog for a period of time, it gets used to the daily routine (eg. walking schedule, feeding time, playing time, etc). If someone else important comes into your life and you stray away from that routine, then your dog may start to experience jealousy. Essentially, your dog feels as if a wrench has been thrown into its time spent with you. Try your best to keep your daily routine with your dog.

3. Continue to Give A Lot of Attention

If you have gotten another pet or have had a baby, try to give your dog even more attention than ever. This will show your dog that it is still an important part of your life.

4. Have the Subject of Your Dog's Jealousy Interact With Your Dog

If the object of jealousy is present, consider having the subject of your dog's jealousy give a lot of attention to your dog. This will help your dog build a relationship with the subject.

5. Keep in mind that it is especially important to train your dog during its earliest years.

6. Always be sure to scold bad behavior. One way to scold your dog is by putting your dog in 'time out.' When our dog was a puppy, we would give him a time out by putting him in a crate for a period of time.

7. Be sure to reward good behavior when your dog deserves it. A way to reward good behavior is by giving them a pat on the head or a treat.

8. Hire A Trainer

If your dog's behavior gets to the point where it is out of your control, then consider hiring a trainer or take your dog to obedience classes. A resource for finding trainers is given at the end of this article.

9. Have Your Dog Interact With Other Dogs or Children From a Young Age

By having your dogs interact with other dogs at a young age, your dog may interact with other dogs better in the future. Unfortunately, we did not do this with our dog.

10. If you have two or more dogs, be sure to give all of them the same amount of attention. If you pay to much attention to one, then the others will probably be jealous.

How I Rate My Family's Handling of Our Dog Buddy

I believe we have done a pretty good job of raising our dog. Even though he gets minor bouts of jealousy, he seems to handle other people pretty well. We do not have to worry about other dogs because he is the only dog we have had and no other dogs ever come to our home. If someone else does come over to visit, I am sure to pay a lot of attention to Buddy and he seems to deal with things pretty well.

Follow the steps given in this article and you should see some improvement in your dog's behavior.

Source:

Scott Rose, "Dogs and Jealousy." The Dog Daily.