# New Habit: Sneaking under legs



## Mcunnin4 (Jan 15, 2013)

Bentley is doing amazing learning all the new "mannerisms" I have been wanting him to catch onto. He is much more tolerable now!

His latest habit involves sneaking under peoples legs (whether it be a visitor or me and my boyfriend). Say we are sitting on the couch or outside on the bench...There is plenty of room between the coffee table and the chair for him to sneak by. What does he do? If I am sitting and my legs are at a 90 degree angle sitting, he will under my legs to get to where he is going.

WHY!? I have no idea! Anyone have an idea of how to curb this? Its very rude when my visitors are over and we are ready to go out and they are in nicer clothes and he is sliding under their black pants leaving orange hair everywhere.

Thanks!


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## KB87 (Jan 30, 2012)

Vs love to rub up against you and lean into you so I think his behavior is normal and just part of him wanting to be close to you. Our boy does it as well but I chalk it up to it just being another one of his cat like tendencies. He outgrew/was shown not to go under legs, but he still insists on walking between our legs when he's excited.

Have you tried pulling you legs back to there is no room for him to go between the couch and your legs? If he gets caught there a few times I think he'll likely get sick of it and stop. Don't do it aggressively or hard enough to hurt him, but pull your feet/legs back so he doesn't have the room to go behind them and is blocked from being able to do so. When he goes to do it, pull your legs back, tell him "no" in a calm but firm tone and then direct him the way that he is supposed to go. If this doesn't work you could try spraying him with water when he goes to do it, but I think that would cause him to not want to go in that area more so than just not go behind your legs.


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## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

I've always considered that behavior part of their velcro-ness, just like leaning. The first Vs I ever met, the ones I watched a few weekends while my advisor was gone, used to lay down on the floor or couch next to me. If they couldn't be in my lap, they found some way to be touching me. My feet as a headrest, a paw on my leg, etc. etc., even though they'd only known me for about an hour. So I think the things like going through legs, going under legs, leaning, and paws on you, are all an exhibition of how much they want to be touching you. It's also definitely an attention-grabbing move, since it's pretty hard to ignore a dog going under your legs!

I'll admit to not preventing it with Jasper, so I have no advice on how to stop it. Sorry, but hopefully the others have great advice!


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

If you brush Bentley's coat with a rubber curry brush on a regular basis, you will be amazed at how much it helps with the shedding issue. It's going to be hard to change that behavior, but you can reduce the amount of his "orange hair" offerings quite easily. Give it a try...


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