hi, my 7month lurcher girl has always been a very loving girl, loves cuddles and kind of wishes he was a little lap dog :) I am always giving her attention, playing with her and cuddling her having her sleep on me, and sh is always getting new things and nice treats all the time. But just lately, past couple of weeks when i am not putting all my attention on her she just lies down and stares at me :/ Its not a ten min thing or a half hour thing its hours at a time untill she gets to cum and have a cuddle. All day she sits on the sofa with me, unless im doing housework and then she follows me about wining or if im at the comp she sits and stares at me, and then during the night she sleeps on my bed with me (literally ontop of me). I dont mind but she is getting so big and heavy and she dont just curl up on her own bit she has to squash me, im constantly squashed atm lol. But on an evening from about 9.00pm when me bf comes over untill about 12.00 when he goes home, she is not allowed on the sofa becasue it is just to squashed with 3 of us. And so the hole 3hrs she just lies with in view and stares at me. Constantly. She does not look away. And then when me bf goes and i let him out i walk back in and she is fast asleep on my seat on my sofa and with her head on my pillow. I no it sounds weird but the staring at me all day and night gets to me?? Its really annoying. Am i being stupid and is it a thing that dogs do ??? Or should i try and stop it from carrying on ?? its not like i look over now and again and now again she has a look at me, it is a constant stare :/ Does any1 else have a dog that does this ??

You are setting this dog up for separation anxiety and resource ( you) guarding.
Every dog should be able to exist without its owner so never training her that you and her need to be apart when YOU chose to...is setting up a problem scenario IMO.
Your life circumstances may change, need a holiday, need to spend time away from her some times and she will not cope as well as others who have been trained for this.

Glaring and demanding may escalate to a point you may not find funny.

My two SBT's do it to an extent, they will do it if they want some close contact but for what ever reason can't, but they are also able to go and happily lie on another sofa or in their own bed. I'm afraid the only cause for the behaviour is you've allowed her to have just about unlimited access to you, which she finds very comforting, safe and secure, I'd guess she's not that confident ?.
Daisy is the worst for it, if she decides she needs cuddling, she's relentless, but even she is able to lie on her own. You might try giving her a stuffed kong when she's lying on her own so she starts to think lying by herself isn't such a bad thing, I also have a giant igloo bed, they do like the feeling of being enclosed and safe.

she has a hole sofa to herself, which is exact same as the one i use, she has a big comfy bed but only seems into that when the cats go to lie in it, and he can go and lie on the beds if she wishes. So apart from giving her a treat when she is lay on her own, becasue at the moment there is no oppurtunity to do that and she isnt into her treats anyway, how else do i teach her to be her own dog abit more ?? Out on walks she is the complete opposite, she runs miles to other people and dogs and dont listen to me and even if there are no disstractions she acts like she dont want to come home with me ??? So im at a loss as to think if it is becasue she is dependent on me. Could it be i dont give her enough?? When i do my housework im in diff rooms and so letting her no im to busy to cuddle her but she just follows me around the whole time whinning ???

even at this second that i am sat writing on here she is lay on the floor staring at me :/ even tho my 5year old is running riot around the house which she would of before found really fun and would join in :/

I would give her a big tasty- slow to chew- treat, like a lamb rib and put her somewhere secure. Listen out for when shes finished and then YOU chose to take her out for a game.
Getting used to spending a little bit of time alone each day is an essential skill for a dog to learn.

I made a rod for my own back with a tiny prem puppy which I hand reared, fell in love with ( and he with me) and let him stick to me like glue.
It was his extreme distress when I left him that made me turn this problem around. :-(
Its so seductive to let a dog be obsessed with you but it just causes unhappiness for them later on I feel.

Might be a sighthound thing,my salukis stare at me constantly,but that is what they are known for, the saluki stare,if im watching tv my boy is either next to me or on the other sofa just watching me,If im in the kitchen where pegs bed is im watched by her.
Sometimes I am 'checked on' around the house if im upstairs usually one will join me but I have to say im not harrassed,sometimes more clingy days but i just carry on as normal.

I have a whippet bitch, who given the chance would have me wrapped around her little paw! As for staring, goodness she is the champion of staring! She also meows like a cat if she wants a cuddle.  I can only tell you what works for me. Like you, while i'm flying all around the house doing stuff if i didn't close the door behind me she would follow. So every now and then i close the door to the living room behind me. when i do re-enter 9 times out of 10 she is fast asleep. I would suggest building up the time spent away from the room from a few seconds to eventually minutes to an hour or so. I apply the same rules to the sofa. Otherwise, with my lot i would be sitting on the floor while they languished in sheer comfort snoozing on the sofa. I often have group hugs with them all on the sofa but they need reminding that it's my sofa and if i tell them to get down for whatever reason then they should do as they are told. There are three dog beds in the living room and various faux fur blankets for there comfort so it's not like they have nowhere else to go.
Is it worth letting her snuggle up to a worn, old t shirt of yours while your busy if she becomes too clingy?

> Might be a sighthound thing,my salukis stare at me constantly,but that is what they are known for, the saluki stare,

Aha, my girl is a greyhound saluki :) think i just got my answer to the staring. Now i no its a breed instinct i wont be bothered so much by it now :) Today when she has been following i told her to go lie down and although she hesitated she did do it, on my sofa and not her bed but hey I didnt mind :)

My Mum's old toy poodle used to do this, made her uneasy as she always thought the dog knew when something was wrong with her!!  She spent years staring at her, Mum never had much wrong with her, but the dog was 100% totally in love with her and devoted to her.

ok so now i no it is not a behavour thing and other dogs do the same then maybe i was just being silly, and actually have no problem :) my goodness i get carried away with my worrying :) She does follow me crying at me and even while going to the loo she sits there crying, but if told to go lie down she will :) as apposed to my sofa she dont just always lie on there she lies in the space I ALWAYS sit, with her head on my cushion, maybe becasue of the warmth and smell of me, and if i move her and sit down she will still try and get as close to that space as she poss can, same with my side of the bed. I like her coming for cuddles ALOT, but yes is nice to have my own sitting space now and again and i do tell her down and to go lie on the other sofa or her dog bed, that is when she stares at me. I suppose in time she will realise that my sofa isnt hers. I have recently got a crate (2days ago) and when i tell her off my sofa instead of sending her to her sofa i now send her to her 'Box', she will go in and lie down (but wont sleep) for about 20mins then move onto the other sofa, i think that is really good for early days as she has never had a crate before. I shut her in it today for the first time while i went and did my kitchen for about half hour, gave her a treat kept cuming back into her and praising her becasue she wasnt crying or anything (and she is a champ at crying to), and then let her out, again i think that is great as its early days. And i think now im in the house it is a good idea to remove myself from the room a bit more often and shut the doors behind me, go and relax in the bath or me bedroom without her just to get her used to having time away from me while im in the house. But yesterday i took me boy to school and decided to record the dog, was only gone half hour and had a half hour vid of her howling, constantly wthout stopping for breath :( my poor neighbours. Hopefully the work i do in the house (the crate and shutting yself off) will help with this separation anxiety when im out. Or could it be something a pup will grow out and learn to accept eventually????

I would be wary of being too 'harsh' on her -

I fully agree she needs to learn to cope with out you - it does sound as if her bond with you is a little needy and unhealthy and that needs to be changed BUT - if you attempt this by 'force', ie, closing doors, shutting her in a crate, you  may actually make the problem worse.

Asking her to stay in her crate and gradually building up that period of time, with lots of rewards is fine, stick with that.

With the following you about though I find it is better to have THEM choose not to follow you, rather than you physically prevent it.

How you do it is a bit long winded to explain but makes sense when you get it. You play a game of Simon Says - basically. Sometimes you invite her to come with you, and when you do y ou acknowledge that she is there, fuss, talk to her, odd little rewards. But sometimes you DONT invite her to follow you, and if she does anyway, you ignore her totally. No fuss, no rewards, no talking to her, do not acknowledge that she is there at all.

Be consistent with this, do it ALWAYS but also set up training sessions where for five or ten minutes a couple of times a day, you will purposely NOT invite her, and then flit from room to room - make sure that just as she settles to watch you, you move on again so that in effect it is REALLY irritating for her to keep following, settling to watch you,then getting up to follow again, for absolutely no reward whatsoever.

When you start to get the feeling shes realising this is REALLY annoying,  then introduce some motivation to NOT follow you. With most dogs this has to be a VERY high value long lasting reward that she cannot pick up and cart around after you. I usually recommend a large raw meaty bone that is too big to carry around, you could also try an oversized kong, perhaps run a cord through it and tie it into her crate so she cant drag it around.

Then you repeat the training sessions, flitting from room to room, start out by leaving the room for a few seconds, returning and sitting for a minute or two to her room, then off again, and gradually build it up so you are out of the room for the same amount of time you are in it, then out of the room longer than you are in it.

Hopefully then, she will CHOOSE not to follow you, because shes learned if you didn't ask her to come with, its boring, AND she has something better to do anyway.

As for getting on sofas - if you LIKE having a cuddle with your dog, as long as she is happy to get off when you ask her, I don't see a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is you purposely making her stay off when actually you AND she would like a cuddle - to me that sounds like neither of you is particularly happy and you do risk her becoming depressed and confused by it.

Don't get me wrong, if you ask her to get off and stay off, she should, thats sensible. And she should be able to cope with being asked to wait before she gets up because you are busy, again thats sensible. But owning a dog and sharing your life with one should be fun, and from this an dyour other post in many ways it sounds like neither of you is having fun!

Sounds a bit like my daughter´s whippet when I visit - only I know he´s just waiting to get on the sofa as soon as I move from it.

I know he´s just waiting to get on the sofa as soon as I move from it.
Sadly my lot aren't that polite! They burrow their heads behind my back while i am sat on the sofa and then before i know it, like a fool i'm perched on the edge.