Dog retraining question.

[TNDemo]

We adopted a beagle/basset rescue about five months ago. she is five years old. She is very sweet, housetrained and has no real bad habits except for her wanting to stick her nose in our face. She is welcome on the bed or couch with us but she is not content to lie beside us. It is almost like she is uncomfortable in her own skin. She very gingerly creeps up and puts her paws on our chest and basically puts her nose to our nose or cheek and just stays there. It is like this geek I went to college with who had no concept of personal space. We have tried pushing her away, trying to show her how to lie beside us or in our lap and either end up putting our leg over her and forcing her to stop climbing up us or putting her on the floor. She just cannot seem to learn to not get in our faces. Any ideas on how to retrain this weird dog??

[Maiden England]

1. it just takes time

we had a similar issue with a border collie we rescued. It was like licking our face was her 'job'. It took about a year to get it to a manageable level. You just have to be firm, when undesirable behavior starts, use a firm no, and give the dog no attention, but when they are being good, sitting at your feet, heap praise, stroke the dog, keep some liver treats handy and give her a treat. She just wants to show doggy respect to her new owners. Its how they would do that in a dog pack. Think of it like this, she loves you so much, she desperately wants to make sure you don't kick her out like her last home.

[Karmadillo]

2. Are you training her?

I have a recently adopted stray with a number of annoying habits who has responded fairly well to clicker training. Here's a link to the book I'm using (Pat Miller's The Power of Positive Dog Training). Good luck.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764536095/qid=1099146950/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-0994465-5568913?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Product Description:
The Power of Positive Dog Training is the best book yet on explaining how and why purely positive training works. Inside, you'll find easy to read discussion of the philosophy of positive training followed by training tips and exercises. This book is geared toward the dog owner who wants to develop a relationship with their dog based on friendship and positive reinforcement, not fear and punishment. You get 30 chapters with instructive illustrations, including an easy-to-follow, step-by-step, six-week basic training program (with diary) for any dog.

[China_cat]

3. Clicker training is good.

And you can also redirect her by giving her a plush toy that you've slept with or otherwise gotten your scent onto. Move her off you, give her the substitute and praise and treat when she stays with it.

Try to remember that rehomed dogs tend to be 'velcro' until they really get it that they aren't going away again. This can take anywhere from several months to a year. Be patient with her.

We adopted an 8 year old in August. Until the last couple weeks, she had to be right on top of me, especially at night. One night she decided to get down and sleep on her elephant pillow and hasn't been back on the bed since.