Getting my dog to let me pick her up. Help please!

[moggy91au]

Sophie is 11 months old and will come when I call her but only as far as giving my hand a lick or putting her nose on my hand. She then backs off. She jumps on my knee and gets patted, sleeps in her bed beside me when I am on the pc and I reach down and pat her, no worries. She sleeps in our bed and loves a cuddle. It is only when she comes up to us, she just backs off.
It makes it very hard if we need to pick her up for any reason. She keeps running away.
HELP!!!!
Moggy.

 

[Jean Cote]

I think that you need to reverse the way you are going about it. Instead of trying to train the dog to let you pick her up ... you should train her to come up to you and to get into your arms.

While kneeling down on the floor, lure your dog towards you with a treat and into your arms. You can then pick her up, give her a treat, and let her back down. Repeat many times each day.

TIP: Don't chase her. If she is running away from you, the last thing you want to do is to chase her around the house because it becomes a game for her. And you'll never be able to catch her anyways. So instead, walk in the opposite direction (and of course, give her a treat if she follows you). Then you can repeat the exercise described above.

 

[moggy91au]

Thanks for the advice Jean. I will get some treats tomorrow and try your method. It is just puzzling. When we arrive home she runs up to us all excited, but won't let us pat her. Just comes up to our hand with her nose or tongue. We don't chase her as we realise this would upset her.
Moggy.

 

[diezel5x]

I would, whenever she comes up on your knees or on your bed or any other thing of that matter, make sure you are inviting her and she is not telling you that it's time for you to pet her otherwise when she jumps on top of you she is showing dominance and so she is choosing when she gets pet. That may be why she moves away when you choose to pet her. She may be showing "no i dont feel like being touched" because she feels that she is running the show. If that makes sense haha.

 

[tx_cowgirl]

I'm with Jean. Right now she needs to realize that being in your arms is a wonderful place to be! Eventually, you may need to take into account what Diezel has mentioned. She doesn't need to always determine when petting time is, but right now she just needs to learn that it's okay to be petted. Once she gets that down and is comfortable with you picking her up and petting her, then start to incorporate inviting her more often, rather than just petting her when she jumps in your lap, which can easily become a nuisance.

 

[starkisser24]

I'm glad this was brought up! I've been having the same problem with my month old chiuahuah! I taught him "up", he will sit a certain way if he wants to be picked up, but if I need to pick him up, forget it! he does the same thing! he'll run to me all excited but will back away when I go to pet him! I can't stand it!!!!!

I have also taught him "collar" my made up thing, I give him a treat and latch my finger under his collar and I even try it without giving a treat, we are still workign on that and I don't plan to do anything negative with that, it's only if I need to latch him when someone is leaving the house until he's door trained. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but at least I know it will if I have treat!

I am going to try this and see what happens!!!