ok to sit in lap?

Posted by brynag2003
Feb 28, 2008
I think I read somewhere that letting the dog in your lap is not a good idea. My dog is only supposed to reach 20 lbs., so I'm not worried about having a huge adult dog wanting lap time in the future. Is there anything else to be concerned about here?
Posted by MaxHollyNoah
Mar 1, 2008
Hi there!

I personally don't see any problem at all but in this forum a lot of people seem to believe that letting your dog on the furniture such as a couch or bed will raise your dog's position in the pack and will cause dominant behaviors.

However, in my opinion, dogs dominance is more like "resource guarding" and has nothing to do with the status raising. If you think your dog is obedient to you, the owner, and to other people, I would welcome a lap dog provided that the dog doesn't see your lap as his/her resource that he/she needs to guard from other dogs or people.

In order to prevent this, you can practice, "get down" from time to time.

By the way, my 68 lbs dog used to be my lap dog but one lap was not enough for him so I called him 2 laps dog