Clingy?

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Clingy?

Posted : 10/26/2006 1:58:23 PM

You might have read my post about the small 6month old we adopted from the shelter yesterday. I've had several dogs in my life but never one quite like this. I've had new dogs that follow me around in the beginning, but this one just has to be right with you all the time. If I sit on the couch, he curls in to a ball in my lap. If I lay on the bed to take a nap, he curls up right near your face and he'll lay there for hours without a movement or sound. I don't even think he's asleep the whole time.

We were unsure whether we wanted to leave him loose at night because I was worried he'd be up and chewing things while we slept. However, he wedged himself right between my fiancee and I on the bed and slept there the entire night. He's small(and clean since I gave him a bath) so it worked out ok. When I got up in the morning, he followed me around while I did my morning stuff then I put him in the bedroom with my fiancee when I went to work and he just balled up on the bed with him again. Oh and the foot of the bed is unacceptable, he wants to be right near your face.

It's funny because he wasn't friendly at all until after we got him home. He wouldn't even lick you. He wasn't unfriendly though. When we saw him in the shelter he was balled up in the back and wouldn't even come to the gate. He looked terrified and was visibley shaking. Now he's the opposite. Does this clingy behavior diminish with time as he gets more comfortable in our house? Oh, I shound mention he won't even eat unless you're in the room with his food. If you leave the room with the bowl, he'll run off with you and leave the food.

houndlove

Posted : 10/26/2006 2:07:16 PM

I have a furry shadow, too. [

]

However, I'd be (and was when I noticed that Marlowe was just up my rear all the time) worried about the possibility of seperation anxiety developing. Shelter dogs often do develop the disorder, and overly clingy behavior is an early-warning sign. It doesn't mean they will manifest SA inevitably (Marlowe does not), but it is something to watch out for. I tried to encourage him to be more independent and less clingy. At first it was sort of a tightrope because, as a new addition to the house, he had to be supervised at all times. Supervising a dog without actually encouraging the dog to follow you around and be right next to you all the time is difficult!

It's a hard thing to do. You want to bond with your new baby and it's adorable when they want to be with you all the time, and it's a shelter pup so you feel sorry for him and glad that he's finally come out of his shell. But I'm sure you know from the other dogs you've had that after a few weeks, this gets really tiresome. So, try and stop it now before it becomes a habit. Put a comfy dog bed on the floor and insist he sleep there instead. Dogs in bed with you is fine, but if they won't ever leave, that begins to seriously hamper the romance after a while! Crate-train so that he does have his own space that you can't be a part of, and encourage him to hang out there, by himself for short periods.

Hope that helped!

wendyl2

Posted : 10/26/2006 2:37:14 PM

We are working on the crate training actually. We picked one up from PetsMart on the way home from the shelter. It's a necessity since all of our furniture is new and he's already shown his love of chewing things he shouldn't. We tried it out a few times yesterday by putting him in it and giving him a treat while we stay close. I know you're suppose to ignore the barking and whining or they'll think that's the answer to you letting them out. Then we actually did leave after awhile for about an hour and he was barking like mad, but silent(from what we could hear from the hallway) when we returned. We did more practice last night, but he refuses to enter it when he doesn't have too; like if you throw the ball in there or a treat. Today is the first day he'll be in there for real though as my fiancee put him in the crate with a treat when he left for work at noon, so I'll see how he did when I get home since I'm at work still right now. The barking isn't a big deal during the day as I believe most of the others in our condo building are away during the day.

My mother's puppy took to the crate after a few days of repetition(she's now 6 years old), so we're hoping this won't be so bad.