2yo Staffy And 6 Months Pregnant Wife

[Indy Girl]

Hi There

We have a 2 year old Staffy (Indy) that we've spent an enourmous amount of time training, socialising, setting boundries etc. She's rewarded us by becoming a beautiful, loving, fun and obediant girl. Her recall is great, she doesn't jump, is good in the park, etc.

Recently things have been changing. My wife is now 6 months pregnant and over the past month or so Indy is really starting to test us. On numerous occasions we've returned home and found that she's been sleeping on the sofa or our bed. She knows she's not allowed on either of these at any time and has never done this before. She's also become more demanding around meal time. She will often complain, grumble and sulk if we don't feed her immediately after we eat, and she's demanding much more attention than ever before.

We're not giving her any less attention than before and she still comes to work with myself or my wife everyday. We're just feeling frustrated and a bit helpless because we've worked so hard and she was so good but now she's gone backwards. I'm sure she is sensing a change and is trying to establish her position in the household, we really want to correct this behaviour before the baby comes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

[Tatelina]

That's very interesting...But I have no advice to give you. :rolleyes:

Good luck with everything!

[leopuppy04]

I think you are right about her sensing change :rolleyes:

Might I simply suggest - with her new 'demands' that you don't give in as this may not help when bubs comes along. Keep to your strict routine of what you usually do - let everything be on YOUR terms and be quite firm (but nicely) if she does push the boundaries. Make sure she understands what you want of her.

Employing techniques such as NILIF (Nothing in life is free) might also be worthwhile... therefore- she has to work for everything she 'wants' (dinner, couch time, walks etc).

Perhaps even upping the 'basic' training a bit may help