Hi guys,

This is probably an odd question but I am having a problem with Orion that I honestly do not know what to do about. He is incredibly precious about his personal space and being a right douchebag about it in obedience training. We have started rally obedience and he is supposed to sit to my side touching my legs or sit to my front with his feet touching my feet. Instead of doing this he takes two steps sideways or backwards depending on where I am telling him to sit then he will sit. He absolutely will not sit or lie down tucked in nicely against me. I have tried keeping him on a short leash so he does not have the option of creating space between us - this just ends up with him fighting the leash. I have also tried keeping the treats in close to me so in order to eat them he has to come close but he just refuses the treats! I have tried sausage, cheese, ham, jerky even raw chicken nothing works!
The thing that really gets me is that in any other situation he is a real smoocher and will invade my space as often as he possibly can but as soon as I give him a sit or down command he must be 2 feet away  

Anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions on how to fix it?

Damn teenage huskies....

I'm guessing it was inadvertently trained in as part of sit, meaning he thinks sit means, 'take two steps then put my butt on the ground.' I would just start working on shaping it, start with him at the length he usually likes to sit away from you, sounds like about 2 feet, and see if he sits without taking the steps. If he does, just start working on that and slowly decrease the distance as he gets better at sitting without stepping. Start marking and rewarding only the sits he does without stepping, no matter what the situation. If it is a space thing, then have him sit, and then tell him stay, and go stand next to him, so that he starts to feel comfortable with you standing next to him in that situation. He might just feel like work time, is not cuddle time.

That is interesting... Have you tried standing next to him once he sits? Let him sit 2 feet away, then walk to him and stand there. Then perhaps reward him for sitting there and staying (if he does). Or will this defeat the whole purpose?

I sometimes feel like Juneau has a personal bubble. When she's laying on the floor and I want to hug her, she'll stretch out her front paws in my face/chest so I can't get near her. lol. She's been getting better about it though.

Nikolai does this too, but its more like he sits away so he can look at you to make sure he is doing what we asked. Does Orion look at you while you do this? Or is he just being stubborn and doesn't know to be next to you, and maintains no eye contact?

Jackie, Nikolai is like that too. If I want to cuddle and he doesn't, he has started this thing where he pushes you away with his front paws or smacks you in the face with them.

Shaqua is very independent and loves her space. She definitely has a bubble. She will come up and cuddle but only for a while, then it's back to the floor to lay down. Unless the couch is empty, if it is just her on the couch she will stay there all day...

So I did some tests tonight and if Orion is far enough away from me he will not move to sit however if he seems to think he needs more space the he will step away then sit. If I make him sit, then tell him to stay I can walk up to him not problem. He will let me position myself to his side so I am touching him, I can walk in a circle around him (I wanted to see if he would move once he could not see me) and I can position myself in front of him however he will not hold a sit and allow my feet to be touching his feet... so it seems he doesn't like people in his face.

Looks like I'm going to have to start carrying my clickers round again for some opportunist clicking lol

I just had a brain blast whilst training Bae tonight. Perhaps this might help you a bit. I was accidentally working against the wall in my house. And then I was doing it on purpose to tighten up his "around" command to get to "place". By working close to the wall, he had no other option than to sit real close to me. Click and treat!