Why does my dog sit facing away from me?

If your dog has been sitting facing away from you a lot, you might be wondering why and what you can do about it. This post will show you a number of reasons why it might be doing it and what you can do about those reasons.

So, why does my dog sit facing away from me? Possible reasons why your dog sits facing away from you are that it is being protective, it finds a particular position comfortable, you might have inadvertently encouraged the behavior, it might not want to be bothered or it might feel safer.

Since there are a number of possible causes, it would help to consider what would make each of them more probable. Once you have a good idea of the most likely cause, it should become a lot easier to figure out what you should do about it.

Why your dog sits facing away from you

Below are a number of possible reasons why your dog does it and what would make each of them more likely.

It is being protective

It could be the case that it does it because it is being protective. This would be more likely if it sits or lays in a location that allows it to see entrances to the room and if it tends to get protective around the home.

It finds it more comfortable

It might be the case that there is a particular way that it likes to sit or lay down in a certain spot. This would be more likely if your dog does face you when you sit in a certain spot but less likely if it sleeps facing away from you even when you are in a different spot

Encouraging the behavior

It could be the case that you have encouraged it to do it by rewarding it when it sits facing away from you. For example, if you scratch its back, when it sits or lays facing away from you, it will likely do it more in order to get more rewards.

Instead, it would help to encourage it to sleep the way you want by rewarding it when it shows signs of sitting that way and ignoring it when it does not.

It doesn’t want to be bothered

The reason why it does it might be that it wants to avoid being bothered. This would be more likely if it does not always sit or lay facing away from you and if it does it more when it wants to sleep. In this case, it would help to make sure that it is able to sleep easily at night since it could be the case that it is trying to get extra sleep during the day due to issues sleeping at night.

It feels safer

It could also be the case that it does it because it makes it feel safer because you are behind it and it can see what is coming from the other direction.

Things to consider

Below are some things you can consider when figuring out the main reason why your dog has been doing it.

What else happened when your dog first started sitting facing away from you

If it did not always sit facing away from you, it would help to consider if anything else changed when it first started doing it. The causes could be that it realized that it gets rewards when it does it, you started sitting in a different spot or you might have started bothering it a lot when it wanted to sleep.

What is different when your dog does not sit facing away from you

It would also help to consider if there is anything different when it sits facing you. For example, if it does face you when you sit in a certain spot, it might be the case that it sometimes faces away from you because it is comfortable.

What you can do about your dog sitting facing away from you

Below are some things you can do about your dog sitting facing away from you.

Train it to sit where you want it to

One option would be to train your dog to sit on command with the use of positive reinforcement training, in the area that you would like it to sit, then you could tell it to sit there a couple of times per day and reward it for doing so. By repeating the process, it should learn that sitting in that new location results in it getting rewards.

Avoid encouraging it

As mentioned above, it might be the case that it has learned that it gets rewards for facing away from you. Instead, it would help to encourage it to sit facing you and to give it rewards when it does face you.

Give it a comfortable place to sit

It would also help to make the spot you want it to sit in comfortable in order to encourage it to sit or lay there.