How to Stop a Dog From Getting Jelous When his Owners Hug or Kiss

By: David Codr

Published Date: January 27, 2023

stop a dog from getting jealous

For this Santa Monica dog training session we worked with 1 year-old Pomeranian Knut, sharing tips to stop a dog from getting jealous when his owners hug or kiss.

I started this dog behavior session by taking Knut out for a walk. He didnt want to actually walk so I carried him out of the house and down the street. There was a repair man in the house that Knut wasnt happy about so going for a short walk helped him decompress and get to know me. Once we got a few blocks away, I put him down and after a few gentle asks, had Knut walking on the lead on the way back to his home.

When we sat down with his guardians I went over a number of fandamentals; how to load and use a marker word, the importance of celebrating desired behaviors, how to teach him manners, how to interrupt unwanted behaviors without making the activity a reward, creative forms of exercise like cookie in the corner and dog consent / body language.

Knut was raised in an isolated environment around female humans and as a result, he isnt a natural fan of human men. I shared a few exercises to help his male guardian interact with Knut better. Although it was only a few moments, I think those lessons may have the most impact on all the things we cobvered in this in home Santa Monica dog behavor training session. The man was accidentally doing some things that may have had the opposite impact on Knut. As Santa Monica’s resident dog behavior expert, I love seeing dogs transform before my eyes and I was able to see some of that take place with Knut and his male guardian.

Towards the end of the session, we addressed one of the main dog behavior isses they wanted to work on; the dog barking and nipping when the husband touched, kissed or hugged his wife around Knut.

How to Stop a Dog From Getting Jealous When his Owners Hug or Kiss

I have worked with several dogs who were possessive, protective or jealous of other people or attention they may be missing out on. I think Knut was acting aggressive when his owner’s kiss, hug or touch as he feels more relaxed around his female guardian due to limited or insifficient positive exposure to human men during his Critical Socialization Period.

I have found that a great way to stop a dog from acting jealous is to make the interaction into a positive for the dog. I like to use desensitization and counterconditioning to stop dogs from being possessive or jealous. If you have a dog who gets upset when it sees you touch, hug or kiss – you should check out the free positive dog training video below.

By going slow and stopping before the dog got upset, the humans were able to touch, hug and kiss right next to Knut without any protesting on the dog’s part. The key to this trick to stop dog jealousy is to go slow so they dog doesnt get upset. Because the action was only a portion and each interaction ended with the dog getting a treat, this secret to stopping possessive dog behavior worked brilliantly.

Since Knut has only been in his new home for a week, he is still adjusting to his new environment. I let his guardians know they may see other new behaviors develop as he gets more comfortable. The dog behavior exercises we introduced should help tremendiously, but I told the guardians to reach out if anything happened that they werent able to handle.

To help the guardians remember all the dog behavior advice I shared in this session, we filmed a roadmap to success summary video that you can watch below.

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This post was written by: David Codr