Bad doggie!
Emily Nelson, who goes by @u/emily_nelson on Reddit, confessed that her needy 14-month-old pooch has been pup-blocking her sex life together with her fiancé.
“If I close him out of our bedroom so I can have some private time with my fiancé … he cries and cries and cries on the opposite side of the door, which is clearly killing our mood,” Nelson said of her Havanese mix pooch in a Reddit post on Dec. 4.
“If we even kiss or hug one another in front of him, he’ll run over from wherever he’s napping and begin to leap around at our feet, wanting to be a part of the love,” she added about her predicament.
Brett Bailey, an NYC canine behavioral expert, revealed ways to stop your pup from interfering along with your love life.
“The dog needs the power to emotionally regulate. Without emotionally regulating, you will have nothing,” Bailey told The Post concerning the importance of instilling self-discipline in a single’s furry friend.
Although the Florida couple knew adopting the breed could be a handful, they didn’t expect him to be so needy.
“He’s super sweet but super shy and clingy to me and my fiancé,” she wrote. “He follows me around like my shadow, and if he can’t see me, he starts to cry.”
Nelson doesn’t mind his clingy behavior and truly finds it cute — but it surely’s ruff when she’s attempting to get romantic together with her fiancé.
Desperate to seek out an answer, the couple sought advice from other Reddit pet owners.
“My only concept that I haven’t tried yet is possibly putting him in his crate on our balcony when we would like to have alone time. We live in Florida and the weather at night is gorgeous, so he could be fantastic for like half-hour. [I don’t know] … has anyone handled this? What was your solution?” she asked.
Many dog owners suggested that Nelson crate her hound when the couple tries to get it on.
“Practice crating him more often when you’re home,” commented one person.
“I crated my boy since he was 3 months old and now he knows to not disturb,” added a Reddit user.
“[Try] giving him a chew or a high-value treat in a Kong to distract him,” added one other.
Meanwhile, Bailey, 46, shared that the very best method to stop the mood kill is for the dog to be emotionally regulated: he encourages owners to get their furry friend to an “excited state” and play intense games with them — after which switch to a calmer activity.
The Recent York native and owner of Who’s a Good Boy Industries also believes in teaching your pooch the advantages of its owners showing affection to one another to avoid constructing clingy behavior on the pup’s part.
“The dog has to learn its advantages when people come close,” Bailey added, suggesting a treat for the pup. “So each time the couple gets close together, the animal advantages by having a bone, bone marrow [or] licky mat.”
Regardless that Nelson prefers to maintain her romance behind closed doors and away from her crying pup, Bailey disagrees with the shut-door technique since it restricts the dog’s access to the owner — and that may make it frustrated attempting to get to you.
“It’s essential to know that restriction across all species doesn’t all the time make things higher. It changes the behavior but not how the dog feels,” the pet skilled added.
Overall, Bailey observed the Havanese mix was either attempting to guard his owner, de-escalate a stimulus he didn’t like, or get entangled within the playful scenario between his owners.
