Worsening behaviour?

To me, consistency with a dog *like this* is no access to raised areas/human sitty downy places ever. Letting them up sometimes but not other times is inconsistency/unfair.

A dog's head will not fall off if it isn't allowed on the sofa ever again. I promise. That's us attaching human emotion to something. You can still have interaction with a dog that isn't allowed on the sofa.

To me it is more unfair to allow a dog to feel unstable/confused/insecure (a growling dog is not a happy one in that moment) because I applied human thinking/emotion to a piece of furniture. With the result that someone may get bitten.
 
twiggy2 said:
No responsible trainer or behaviour consultant with recommend anything that is likely to increase conflict.
I am both and would recommend the person the dog is sitting with gets up and removes themselves so there is nothing left to growl about.
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I am truly intrigued - so if a dog growls at you you leave the room so it needn't feel encroached? I don't see how that helps? The dog gets to sit on the sofa and you get the kitchen floor? How do you move forward from that? (I do understand it isn't about the sofa, it is about the person, but I don't see why I go away so the dog can feel unpressured). What do you do, go away until it stops growling and then try returning and see if it lets you?
 
As above ... surely you are then rewarding the behavior & enforcing the fact that if the dog growls, it gets its own way, & moves you on? I agree to avoid creating a conflict in the first place, but personally i'd just keep the boundaries clear by not allowing the dog on the sofa/bed in the first place, & doing other more subtle things to keep his dominance in check (eg. walking through doors before him etc). I think the fact the other dog isn't allowed in the furniture probably makes matters worse as this will only raise the terriers position of social standing within the "pack".
 
I think you'll find that twiggy2 recommended that the person the dog is sitting next to, not the one it growls at, leaves.

That would have a similar effect to sending the dog out in terms of it not getting to remain with them I guess?
 
I think you've answered your own question; yes, he definitely should have restricted access. He's probably been pushing his luck/flexing his muscles in lots of ways that have gone unnoticed (you do seem to have a lot on your plate) so now he's going a stage further. I wouldn't let him have free run of the house and I certainly wouldn't let him look at anyone the way he's looking at the person with the camera. I just wouldn't wait for that to escalate, he would be off that sofa in a nanosecond. But posters here are right you can't train from a book, you have to read the situation/dog and get the timing and amount of pressure exactly right.
 
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