#5: Your dog has lost his trust in you
Your dog won’t let you pet him anymore because you’ve hurt him in some way. Either intentionally or not.
For instance, you accidentally stepped on his foot or tail. Or you may have hit him once because he’s being noisy when you’re talking on the phone.
This gave him the wrong impression, so he’s hesitant about how to act around you.
Some dogs are more sensitive than others. You can make it up to your furry friend by reinforcing the behavior you want.
In other words, if he behaves quiet or sits when you do something important, give him treats. But don’t hit your dog. As it may lead to aggression.
And if you have an aggressive pooch or one who has traumas, he may easily lose his trust.
Because dogs like him are easily threatened or triggered by these kinds of situations.
Classical Operant Conditioning in Dog Training
A negative reaction to being touched is usually a classically conditioned response. With classical conditioning, the environment acts on the dog. That is, the dog’s brain contains a pre-programmed message that says, “Touch is BAD!” – and when the dog feels your touch he reacts, without stopping to think. The negative message could be a result of harsh handling and punishment, pain from a prior injury, or simply a lack of adequate handling and socialization when he was a pup.
This is very different from operant conditioning, where the dog acts on the environment. For example, if you say, “Sit!” the dog thinks, “Ah, I know what that means – if I put my bottom on the ground I might get a cookie!” and so he chooses to sit in order to make a good thing happen. When your dog reacts to your touch with distaste, perhaps even aggression, he’s not choosing to react that way, it just happens, thanks to that pre-programmed message in his brain.
The most effective and successful way to change your dog’s response to your touch is through counter-conditioning, which reprograms the message at a low level of stimulus that he can at least tolerate – perhaps briefly and softly touching his head. Then we use desensitization to help him accept the touching at gradually increasing levels of intensity – touching more of his body, or touching with more pressure, or for longer periods of time.
It’s almost magical to watch an effective CC&D program in progress. Some behavior changes I’ve seen as a result of this kind of behavior modification have been nothing short of miraculous, such as one family’s Chow mix and newly adopted Chow who wanted to tear each other to shreds, but became fast friends within three weeks when the owners implemented a CC&D program.
Perhaps your dog will tolerate a light touch on the top of his head, and a gentle scratch under his chin, but he becomes very tense if you do more than that, and any efforts to touch his legs and feet or his hindquarters and tail elicit serious warnings about forthcoming aggression. You believe him, and wisely don’t press the issue, but that means even simple but necessary procedures such as nail trimmings and baths are stressful and potentially dangerous.
The first step in your program is to have a complete and thorough veterinary exam, and an adjunct visit to a chiropractor if indicated. Pain is a huge contributor to aggression – if he’s hurting, all the CC&D in the world won’t change his opinion of being touched – it hurts!
Of course, if the whole point is that your dog doesn’t tolerate being touched, how do make him submit to a vet exam before you work on the problem?
Unfortuntely, it’s a necessary evil, so spend a week (or a few weeks) acclimating your dog to a comfortable cloth muzzle. Lend muzzle-wearing a very positive association by pairing its presence and application with wonderful treats. Then muzzle him before the vet or vet tech begins to examine him, in order to keep everyone safe.
Ask your whether using a sedative would help make the experience less traumatic. You might also consider products such as herbal calming agents, Rescue Remedy, and DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheremones, sold as “Comfort Zone“).
With a clean bill of health, you’re ready to begin. You’ll need a large supply of absolutely scrumptious treats – canned chicken, rinsed and drained, is my favorite for CC&D purposes; most dogs totally love it. Pick a comfortable spot on a bed that your dog loves, or lay down a cushion or a soft thick blanket for the two of you to sit on. Attach a leash to your dog’s collar so you don’t have to grab to keep him with you.
The sequence of the next part is very important. You will touch your dog’s head first, very briefly – say for one second – then feed him a tiny bit of chicken. The touch must come first because you want him to understand that the touch makes the chicken happen. If you feed chicken first, then touch, he won’t make that connection.
Keep repeating this step until your touch causes him to look at you with a smiling face as if he’s saying, “Alright – you touched me. Yay! Where’s My Chicken?” You want the “Where’s My Chicken?” (WMC?) response to happen reliably several times in a row before you proceed to the next step.
Good job! You’ve accomplished the first tiny step on a long road; he thinks being touched softly and briefly on the head is a wonderful thing. Now you must decide whether to stop the session – ending on a high note – or continue on because you both are having a wonderful time and don’t want the session to end. If you’re unsure how much longer he will work with you, it’s better to stop sooner, while you’re ahead, than to push it too far and suffer a setback.
If you proceed, the next step might be to touch him on the head, still very gently, but for two seconds. You may lose the WMC? response at first as he adjusts to the increased time, but it will probably return quickly. Continue to increase the time, very gradually, so you don’t lose the progress you’ve made. As your touches get longer, feed him several treats in rapid succession while you are touching. Remember to stop the treats when the touch stops.
Be sure to end the session before one or both of you gets bored, tired, stressed, or frustrated. You can always do another session later that day or the next. If you sense that he’s getting restless, stop the session, feed him a few extra tidbits for being a wonderful boy, and release him with an “All done!” cue. Next time, stop a little sooner – you don’t even want him to think about getting restless.
#7: He prefers playtime over petting
“Why won’t my puppy let me pet him without him biting me?”
Puppies can be really stubborn sometimes. You just want to pet them, while they want to snack on your finger or hand instead.
Don’t worry, it’s natural for puppies to behave this way.
Try to put yourself in your dog’s shoes.
He just came into this big world. And every single day, people keep on carrying him around and cuddling him because he’s so darn cute.
But he just wants to play and explore everything.
So to stop people from man-handling him, he’ll try to nip or bite as if to say: “Stop carrying me around, hoomans!”
Aside from that, your puppy isn’t enjoying pets yet.
The wonders of petting would dawn on him later on, so let him enjoy playing and discovering things for now. It’s all about priorities.
My Dog Won’t Let Me Touch His Paws(Counter Conditioning)
If your dog won’t let you touch it, you might be wondering why and what you can do about it. This post will show you a number of possible causes and what you can do to get it to let you touch it.
So, why won’t my dog let me touch it? Common reasons why your dog won’t let you touch it are injury, intimidation, bad previous experiences, or learning that it gets rewarded when it doesn’t let you touch it.
There are actually multiple possible reasons why your dog might not be letting you touch it and it might be due to a combination of them. However, there are some things you can consider when figuring out the main reason and there are a number of things you can do about it.