Dog Community

New and annoying behavior

Posted : 1/25/2013 4:04:01 PM

I would like to present a problem to the community to seek advice. We have two dogs, a Beagle named Homer and a Dalmatian/hound mix named Purdy (She's really cool, she has the hound's black saddleback coloring and Dalmatian spots on white fur everywhere else.) Homer is 7 years old, Purdy is 10. Both are typically mellow, very laid back dogs. I'm the Alpha of the family for them. Last year we started kenneling them to sleep at night since one of them--I was never sure who-- kept getting into the kitchen trash as we slept at night. They took to the kennels with little fuss (Homer was resistant the first couple nights but now is no problem about it). They have been calm and quiet throughout the night in their kennels until about a month ago. Purdy began barking, whining and beating her kennel door with her paw in the middle of the night trying to get it open, waking my entire family (the kennels are in a loft area of our home near our bedrooms). This has been consistent just about every night. We do put them outside to pee/poop before bringing them to the kennels for the night. We'll let them out again when Purdy's woken us up to put them outside but more often than not she doesn't eliminate. It's clear that she simply wants out of the kennel. For our peace at night we've started letting Homer stay in our room and Purdy stays in our daughter's room. It isn't an ideal scenario for us as my husband doesn't like having a dog in bed with us and Purdy is a big girl (she's about the size of a German Shepard) that hogs most of the bed with our daughter. Homer is a bit of a spazz when he's in his kennel without Purdy in hers next to him, so the default solution is to keep him in my bedroom where he's calm with me nearby. I don't know what could have changed lately to cause Purdy to bring about this behavior. Can anyone provide some insight about what I can do for Purdy to keep her in her kennel at night but cease this annoying behavior of waking everyone in the house?

JackieG

Posted : 1/25/2013 9:11:57 PM

The first thing I'd suggest is a visit to the vet to rule out any sort of medical problem. Have a senior blood panel done. Mention the new behavior to your vet. If all checks out ok, I'd kennel her at night and ignore her when she wants out in the middle of the night. When she asks to get out and you comply she's learned that making noise gets her out of the crate, if only temporarily.

Sometimes there is no way to know why a dog's behavior changes and you simply deal with the new behavior. Dogs aren't any different than people and they change with age.

If you've noticed any other behavior changes you might want to discuss cognitive dysfunction syndrome with your vet. http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/cognitive-dysfunction-syndrome-dogs

I had a Lab who decided at age 11 she was terrified of her crate after a lifetime of being crated. Luckily it wasn't a problem for us to allow her to remain loose at night and when we weren't home. I never figured out why she developed such a strong aversion to the crate and gave up trying to figure it out. I had to assume she'd made some sort of negative association with the crate. It wasn't worth it to me to force her in her crate.

You could also go back to leaving them both loose, as you used to, and simply make the kitchen trash unavailable to them.

Jewlieee

Posted : 1/25/2013 10:21:58 PM

Can't you make it so they can't get to the trash? Dogs are dogs after all. They will take opportunities that are open to them. My trash is always kept behind a closed door so there's no way the dogs can get to it.

There are ways to create a more positive association with a crate such as playing crate games, feeding all meals, treats, bones, kongs, etc in the crate but sometimes dogs just hate them. Also some dogs prefer certain crate types over others. For instance, 2 of my aussies like hard sided crates, they like that denning feeling I guess, my 3rd aussie hates hard sided crates and is only comfortable in wire crates. With that 3rd aussie, i had to work pretty hard to get her to like her crate at all. She loves her car crate because it is all positive association, the car means we are going somewhere cool, etc. But the crate in the house, she still doesn't like much, she just tolerates it.

griffinej5

Posted : 1/26/2013 8:27:42 AM

First, everything everyone else said. Do all of that.

By taking them out of the crates when Purdy started to go crazy, you taught her that if she wants to get out of her crate, this is what she should do. Is there a particular time that she starts to do this? If she does, you could get her out a few minutes before the time she typically starts, although you said she doesn't need to go out when she does this. I'd recommend that more for if she actually had to go. How long does she last in the crate before she starts to have a problem? It doesn't sound like an issue of not liking the crate. My dog, Callie, gets up ridiculously early at times. If she was out at 11, there is no reason she should be getting up at 4-5 AM. I'll deal with 6:00, but Luke easily makes it from 9-10 PM until 7-8 in the morning. I just ignore the stuff she does, and she will jump all over and put her face in my face, and then tell her to go back to bed. If she doesn't actually need to go out, she will stop this and lay down again for a while. If she does need to go, she won't lay down for long. However, I always wait till a brief stop in her pestering to get up and take her out. Always wait for a brief pause in the behavior you don't want to let her out. In Callie's case, the pauses are extremely brief if she needs to get out.

If you don't want the dogs in bed with you, you could try putting the crates in the bedrooms, and having them sleep in them that way. You could also train them to sleep on beds in your bedrooms.

That_Zoe_Lady

Posted : 1/27/2013 8:00:03 PM

We tried crating Purdy again last night, after a few nights of having her in my daughter's room. Around 1:30 am she started the barking and banging on the door again. I went out there, tried covering the crate with a blanket and turning off the light (the lamp in the loft is usually always on so my kids can see to get to the bathroom). She was panting as if scared or nervous. I then opened the crate door for her but ordered her to stay, which she did. She seemed fine as long as she could see me. After a while of being next to her crate I closed it back up and went to bed. Again she started in barking, which woke my (very irritated) husband. I tried explaining to him that I can't give in to her and let her out, that it just reinforces the behavior that barking will get her what she wants. Hubby won't abide by it, and I can't blame him. Purdy will bark until someone is next to the crate. In the middle of the night, that just isn't an option, we need to sleep too. Especially our middle school aged son. There have been school nights where she's woken him with the barking. We're just very perplexed by this. I will do as suggested and take her to her vet, as she's due to see him for shots anyway. I trained both dogs to be in their crates willingly by tossing in chew bones when I first bought the crates. I'll try that again with her, just get an extra large chew bone for her since she goes through them pretty quickly! I wish it were warmer so that I could walk her at night before bedtime, I think if she were tired out that might help as well. As an aside question, is there any sort of homeopathic relaxant approved for dogs that I might be able to give to her prior to crating her? Something to calm her down? I'm not a proponent of medicating a behavior, but if there is something I can give her short term to alter the behavior I'd be willing to try it.

RawFedDogs

Posted : 2/1/2013 1:21:12 PM

The easiest way to cure your problem is put the kitchen garbage can where the dogs can't get to it. We have a can with a lid that you have to press a foot thingie to open it. It keeps the dogs out. Haven't even had a dog try to get into it for the 9 years we've had it. But .. to word it another way, you have a garbage can problem, not a dog problem.

If you must crate your dogs,put their crates in your bedroom. I think that will cure the barking problem.

You should take your dogs out (or let them out if you have a fenced yard) to give them the opportunity to relieve themselves before bed.

denise m

Posted : 2/1/2013 5:11:04 PM

I was going to say the same thing. Removing the garbage is probably the easiest and best thing to do.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 2/4/2013 12:01:30 AM

denise m

I was going to say the same thing. Removing the garbage is probably the easiest and best thing to do.

I second this advice. The dog I had before Max made it his life's goal to get into the garbage any chance he got. It got really old trying to keep rubber bands over the cabinet knobs or keeping the trash can up on the counter so I ordered a trash can out of a catalog that looks like a piece of wood furniture with a pull down door that the trash can fits into. It has held up really well (must be close to 20 years) and there's no way Max could open it unless he grows opposable thumbs. It was a little pricey, but very much well worth it.

Joyce