How to Get Your Dog to Stay Calm When You Kiss Your Spouse

Your dog may react badly when you show affection to your spouse, especially if your spouse is new to your dog's life. If your dog barks, growls, or otherwise acts inappropriately when you kiss your spouse, it is demonstrating signs of jealousy. Make your dog feel included in your relationship with your spouse by including it in fun activities like walks and encourage your spouse to spend time with the dog. Stop unwanted reactions by training your dog to stay calm.

Things You'll Need

  • Clicker training device
  • Dog treats
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Instructions

    • 1

      Throw treats to your dog each time you kiss your spouse to keep it quiet before continuing with further training. This causes the dog to associate the kissing with something pleasant, which should start to improve the behavior by counterconditioning the dog to this trigger.

    • 2

      Teach the dog to associate the sound of the clicker training device with something good by clicking the device and then giving the dog a treat. Continue this process for 15 minutes each day for a few days.

    • 3

      Train your dog to sit with the clicker. Say "sit" and then hold a treat up and over your dog's head to make it to sit down. When the dog sits, click and then give the dog a treat. Repeat this exercise for 15 minutes each day until your dog reacts to the sit command consistently.

    • 4

      Train the dog to react to the quiet command. Say "quiet" and then feed the dog a series of treats for longer and longer periods of time. Kiss your spouse to trigger any barking behavior for your dog, say "quiet," and click and give the dog a series of treats if it does not bark or pauses in its barking. Continue to train your dog using a barking trigger, such as kissing your spouse, until the dog reacts to the quiet command without barking.

    • 5

      Command the dog to sit and stay quiet with the commands you have taught it. Kiss your spouse. Give the dog a click and a treat if it sits calmly and does not bark. Repeat this daily until your dog no longer reacts when you kiss your spouse.