Why Dogs Follow You From Room to Room: What It Means
Your dog may have a perfectly good bed, a patch of sunlight, and an entire couch available to him. None of that matters once you stand up. You walk from the office to the kitchen.…
Bonding & Social Behavior
Why Dogs Sit on Your Stuff: Claiming or Comfort?
There can be an entire stretch of empty carpet available, and your dog still chooses the backpack. Or the jacket you dropped beside the couch. Or the folded laundry you meant to put away twenty minutes ago.…
Why Dogs Rest Their Head on You: Comfort or Connection?
There is something unusually quiet about a dog placing his head on you. He walks over while you are sitting on the couch, lowers his chin across your thigh, and stops.…
Why Dogs Sit Close to You: Affection or Security?
A dog doesn’t have to touch you to choose you. He can settle on the floor beside your chair, leave several inches between his body and your feet, and stay there while better-padded beds sit unused across the room.…
Why Dogs Sit in Your Spot When You Get Up: Claiming or Comfort?
Some dogs can identify the best seat in the house in the fifteen seconds it takes you to get a glass of water. Conveniently, it’s the one you just left.…
Why Dogs Sit on Your Lap: Comfort or Claiming?
A dog sitting on your lap isn’t claiming ownership of you. The position can look possessive because the dog is literally occupying your body, but location alone doesn’t tell you whether she’s trying to control anything.…
Why Dogs Guard You: Loyalty or Habit?
You’re sitting on the couch when another dog starts walking toward you. Yours has been lying quietly at your side, but something changes as the distance closes. She lifts her head, gets up, and steps into the narrow space between you and the approaching dog.…
Why Dogs Follow You Into the Bathroom: What’s Going On?
He isn’t following you into the bathroom because he has no respect for your privacy. Respecting bathroom privacy would first require him to understand that bathrooms are supposed to be private.…
Why Dogs Lean on You: The Meaning Behind the Pressure
You feel it before you really notice what your dog is doing. She walks over while you’re standing in the kitchen or talking with a visitor, turns sideways, and lets part of her body settle against your leg.…
Why Dogs Sit on Your Feet: The Meaning Behind the Behavior
There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles in when your dog walks across the room, circles once, and sits down right on top of your feet. No fanfare, no asking.…