charliehotel

Thanks for the responses. Our foster group does have a great trainer and we will be seeing them about this but due to circumstances beyond everyone's control it's not going to happen for another week, so I thought it would be worth doing some research in the meantime. It's a long time since I've posted on DOL but it's always been a great source of information for me.

Hi there, I recently (as in two weeks ago) became a foster carer to a 6-8 month old blue heeler rescue dog that we have called Jimmy. We have no idea about his background, but he has some significant anxiety issues with people and the world in general, which we have been working on slowly and gently. When Jimmy arrived at our house we had to carry him out of the car and into the house because he was too afraid to get out of his crate, and then he just shook on my lap for half an hour before I felt he was ok to meet my own dog. Luckily Jimmy and my girl have really bonded and he is much more confident if she is with him. He is now very comfortable around the home and yard with me and the female friends who I've had to visit (not so good with men, but we'll get there) and will happily play and seek attention from us. The problem is though, that as his confidence has increased, Jimmy has started to get overly mouthy, and will now try to grab at hands and clothes. At this stage it is only mouthing, getting up to light nipping, but he's very persistent with it and my concern is that if I don't manage it correctly now then it may well escalate into biting if he ends up in the wrong situation. He does it when he's excited (eg when I get home), when I pay attention to my own dog, or when I've been paying attention to him and then stop. So far when he does it I've been saying NO and turning away from him, and ignoring him till he settles down. But I'm not sure that this strategy is hitting the mark. He has started to sit when I say NO and turn away, (I've been teaching him to sit for attention, pats, treats etc) but then starts the nippy stuff again when I come back to him. He will eventually stop, but then it starts all over again the next time he wants attention. I've also tried to distract him with a toy to chew on instead when he aims for my hands, and this can work, but I'm concerned that I'm rewarding the nipping behaviour with the toy. If anyone has any advice on how to manage this issue without crushing his confidence I'd really appreciate it thanks.

Thanks everyone. He's a short haired dog (no idea what mix, as he's a rescue dog) with a short coat like a staffy or boxer. Even though his bed is warm, I think I'll get him a light coat for the really bad winter days that have no chance of sunshine. This past week in Melbourne has been a taste of the winter we are going to get, and some days it was bitterly cold and wet. I'd get home from work and he'd be in his bed shivering . I was worried about him wearing a coat all day and it getting caught on something, but from what people have posted, he should be okay. Thanks again for the advice!

I guess I should have provided more detail than saying that his bed is out of the wind and rain. His bed is in an area under the carport up against the side of the house, and has been fully draft proofed with walls on three sides (the fourth side is open so he can get in). The trampoline bed itself has a Snooza dog futon as a mattress, plus 3 pure wool blankets for him to nestle into. The whole bed area is on a piece of carpet so that it's not bare concrete.

I have an old boy who is starting to feel the cold. He's inside with us at night and the days when I'm at home, but 3 days a week I work so he has to be outside (I've tried leaving him inside all day when I'm at work and that was a disaster). We don't have a garage, and he hates kennels. When he has to be outside, he's got a comfy trampoline bed with multiple blankets under the carport that is safely out of the wind and rain, but I'm starting to think he might need some kind of a coat to wear while he's outside. Down here winter has come early and already been bitterly cold on some days. Is it safe to leave a coat on a dog all day while he's outside? If so, can anyone recommend a good one? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks everyone. Good point about getting the date corrected regardless - the last thing I want to do is pay twice!!!! I agree that being proactive with local rangers is a good idea, however it has not paid off for me in my current locality unfortunately. In my street there are people who consistently allow their dogs to roam free, to the point where they have nearly caused car accidents, but the rangers I've spoken to about it have not been interested in following up. One of the irresponsible owners has bragged about how he gets off with warnings........I guess that's what is so frustrating. I'm not denying my dog and I were in the wrong, but the one (and hopefully only) time in 7 years that he's ever got out we get pinged with a huge fine, yet others can get away with irresponsibility again and again. Oh well......as others have said, we'll just cop it on the chin.

Back in November my dog got out and was lost overnight. He was picked up by the council ranger and taken to the Lost Dogs Home as per the council procedures. I collected him the next day and paid a fee to them and thought no more of the matter until yesterday, when I got an infringement notice from the council for $239. I had no idea that infringement penalties were that high!!! This is the first time in my life I've ever had a dog get out and get picked up by the council. I'm not disputing the fact that Donnie got out and was at large - he was. But, when I looked closely at the notice, they have the wrong date on it. It's out by a month. I guess whoever did the ticket has made a typo.......so now I'm wondering if it's worth disputing the ticket on the grounds that my dog was not at large on the day specified on the ticket???? Or would the council just re-issue a ticket with the correct date on it???? $239 is a lot of money for us to find right now, so not having to pay it would be a blessing....... Any advice would be much appreciated.

K9 Angel, I do think that Minna's behaviour could be related to Donnie getting older. He's getting older and slowing down, and I think Minna might be trying to change her position in our pack. She's always been the lowest pack member, but is 7 years younger than Donnie so she's definitely still in her prime while he is moving towards old age. I've discussed this a lot with people who know much more about dogs than me, and one suggestion put to me was that by going under the house and not coming out for me, my partner, or for Donnie, Minna is trying to control the higher pack members. I don't think Donnie's trying to warn Minna off, more that he's just not as interested in playing all the time. Dogbessotted, she doesn't have a sensitivity to light, but thanks for the suggestion. Thanks everyone.....

Finally made it back again.........seems like I only get to use the computer on weekends these days!! Anyway, the behaviour started over the summer, so it's over 8 months now. It seemed to start not long after we got our house re-stumped. The dogs were kept in our neighbours yard while this was happening so they weren't actually there when the work was being done, and new plinth boards were put up all around the base of the house except around the small deck we have out the back. Both dogs used to go under the deck area in the summer as it's cool under there, and they liked to lie in the dirt. They weren't able to get any further under the house except under the deck area (hope I'm making sense here) and after the re-stumping was done they still weren't able to get further under the house, not until after Minna had started her campaign of doing whatever it took to get under. Minna going further than the deck area started gradually, and to be honest it was probably going on for a while before I realised that she was going further under the house than the deck. It was probably around April that I realised what was going on, because at that stage she started digging out under the front of the house and getting out of the yard altogether. She'd take herself off to the park, visit neighbours, and almost get hit by cars. Did my head in. I'm not entirely sure why she stopped digging right out, but I think it might be due to her getting stuck under the plinth boards one time and not being able to get herself out. She might have been stuck there for a while because it happened when I was out at work. Anyway, after that she stopped digging all the way out, and would just stay under the house. To get further under the house than the deck, she broke some of the plinth boards that were at the point where the deck is joined to the house (hard for me to find because it was under the deck, and bloody hard to fix because there's not much space under there) and after we fixed the boards, she just dug under them. So then we blocked in the deck so they couldn't get under at all, and after that Minna started digging anywhere along the house so that she could get under, and it all gradually got worse and worse until she would go under the house every day. We'd dog proof one spot, she'd either get through it or find another spot. She might stop doing it for a few days, then she'd start again. Even if I was out in the back yard playing with the dogs, or just hanging out with them, one minute she'd be fine, then the next she'd just be trying to get under the house. There's no particular trigger than I can pick - it doesn't matter if my daughter is in the yard or not, or whether I'm paying more attention to Donnie (my other dog) for a moment, or whether we've done some training exercises. Doesn't matter what the weather is like, it's not triggered by loud noises, or by anything that the neighbours do. Body language wise, in the yard, inside and anywhere else (eg the park) she looks happy, confident, alert, not stressed or fearful or aggressive. When she's under the house, she ignores everyone (including Donnie). She won't respond to calls or commands or food treats. She turns her head away if she's in a position where she can see me. She doesn't have just one special place that she goes under the house, there's several spots she likes and it doesn't seem to correspond with anything in particular. I thought she might be trying to be under the room where I am when I'm inside but I don't think it's that as I'm on the move all the time and Minna stays put once she's under the house. She doesn't prefer one bedroom over another - she has a spot under the main bedroom, one under my daughter's bedroom, one under the lounge, and one under the kitchen. There's no one spot that is especially warmer than anywhere else, except for when she rips open one of the heating ducts and lets the hot air out!!!!!! And even then she doesn't like close to the hot air, she's never been a dog to get close to heat (unlike Donnie who pretty much started going under the house to get inside the hot air ducts after Minna broke them - he would live inside a heater if he could and makes himself a very cosy nest inside the ducts, at least someone is getting the warm air I suppose). I've had Minna since she was 6 months old and she's now 4 1/2, so for a long time everything was okay in this regard. This all started after the re-stumping, so maybe it's stirred up something in her memory???? All I know from the shelter that I adopted her from is that she was an impulse buy from a pet shop and was pretty much left in a back yard and ignored until she was taken to the shelter. That's when I adopted her........and I now know I'll never ever get another rescue dog, after having rescue dogs all my life. This one has finished rescue dogs for me. This has turned into an epic post!!! Time for me to stop rambling. The idea of a den sounds like it's worth a try. I'll have saved enough dollars by the end of the month to pay for the electric fence kit, so maybe between those two things we might get somewhere. Thanks for the ideas and advice, it's much appreciated. And if any of this background sheds some light on anything, please let me know!!

Saxonpup, I'm not at all offended by the re-homing recommendation! To be completely honest, I've often thought that Minna would be better off in a different pack. I've never really 'bonded' with her like I have with other dogs that I've had, and 6 months of bashing my head against a wall with this behaviour certainly doesn't help our relationship. The sticking point is that no one (or at least, no one I've met lately) wants to take on a dog that has problems, and Minna has a problem that I can't deny to a future possible owner. If I ever met someone that liked Minna and could guarantee a safe, happy forever home for her, I'd let her go in a heart beat. Minna deserves love, and I'm all out of it for her. I really feel that I just go through the motions with her these days.......I mean, she gets well fed, well cared for, lots of exercise and attention, sleeps inside, etc etc, she's not physically neglected at all, she just doesn't get the love that she she might well get from someone else.........but I adopted her, she's my responsibility, so now we just have to make the best of it until she shuffles off to the rainbow bridge. Erny, Minna has got through every barrier we've tried. Wooden lattice got chewed through in an afternoon, wooden planks lasted 2 days, chicken wire 2 days (still not entirely sure how she got through it, I think it was a combination of digging and chewing because there was enough blood to need a trip to the vet to check cuts) and weld mesh lasted about 4 days before she dug her way around that too. She just digs until she gets where she wants to go. There's no rats, mice, lizards or other vermin under the house, she just goes under there, digs herself a spot and stays there. She doesn't want a kennel, she doesn't want to stay inside the house, she just wants to go under the house. And for some people this might not be a problem, but for our house we have ducted heating and phone cables under there and she causes on going damage to both of them. A dog run would work as long as it had a concrete floor, but pricewise, an electric barrier system is cheaper so that's what we've ordered. Time will tell if she can get around that......

Yes she is desexed. And Erny you actually do know us from a couple of years ago, you helped us with some one on one lessons and everything was going really well for a while........I always meant to get back to you to let you know how everything was going but I had a premature baby who had to have major surgery twice before she was a year old (I was pregnant when we had our lessons with you) and life has never been the same since!!!! I've always regularly used the exercises you taught us to keep the pack leader structure in place, and when she's not under the house everything is fine...........but she just keeps going under there. This issue has been discussed at length with many people who know more about dogs than I ever will, and it comes back to the fact that I will probably never know why she's doing it. For whatever reason it is, some need in her is fulfilled by going under the house. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she's responding to being the lowest pack member - there's me, my partner and our little girl, then our other dog Donnie, and then Minna at the bottom. Donnie is getting old now (around 11 or 12, former rescue dog so no way of knowing exactly how old he is) and slowing down a lot, so Minna might not be getting the same level of interaction with him that she used to get, and sometimes it looks like she's trying to push him around. By going under the house and not coming out, maybe she's trying to control the other pack members??? I don't know......... And in case anyone is wondering, no this behaviour did not start when my daughter was born. She's 2 now and this trouble with Minna started in January. We did a lot of work to make sure both dogs recognised our baby as a higher pack member and also make sure they associated her with positives (food, toys, walks, etc) and we've never had any issues in this regard. I think she just likes going under the house. So now it's either the electric fence or a dog run, unless anyone out there wants a large white digging dog.

Sorry to take so long to reply, I've been dog proofing all day (AGAIN.......or still??? anyway that's a whole different story). She came out this morning of her own accord, I looked over the fence first thing and there she was just like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. They are good neighbours, we know they don't have bait because we've often had our dogs over there to stay when they were still there (we have an open invitation to use their back yard, great neighbours or what!!). So no harm done except to where she dug in and I made it bigger. Thanks for your ideas and concern.........we are now back to having her on a long chain again as she has undone every kind of dog proofing we've tried over the last few months, but as I can't leave her on a chain all day and she goes under the house even if I'm there I've done my best to dog proof enough so that I can grab her if she tries again...........and now looking into electric fencing options as our last resort..........dunno why she started this behaviour, but it's a complete pain in the arse.

Our neighbours are away for quite a while and we are keeping an eye on their house for them. Lately I've been having a lot of trouble with one of my dogs digging under our house and she managed to cause major damage to our ducted heating. So while we were getting our heating fixed yesterday, we put the dogs into the neighbour's yard to keep them safe and out of the way. And you guessed it, my dog has dug under the neighbour's house and now won't come out. There's a lot less space under their house, I would really be struggling to get under there and I'm not that big. She's been under there all last night and all today, and she wouldn't come out again tonight so that's now two nights without food and most likely without water (unless there's water under there, which I doubt). I can't tell if she's stuck or not, she's still moving around under there......... So, please, does anyone have any advice on what I can/should do??? Will she come out when she's ready??? I've tried to tempt her out with food, toys, rattling the lead for a walk, I've made the hole she dug bigger to help her get out........... I just don't know what to do any more, if anyone can help I'd be very grateful........

Thanks everyone for the ideas.....chicken wire is going to be the way to go for us due to some tight budget constraints, but it should do the trick once we get it in. BTW she is desexed, and she's nearly 5 years old. We had some digging issues with her in the early days but not for years until now.

Over the last couple of months my lab X has been digging her way out of the yard by digging under the house and escaping out the front yard.. I can't figure out why.......she gets walked almost every day with lots of off lead time (including swimming in a creek), she's got my other dog there for company, they sleep inside with us at night, there's lots of different toys on rotation, there's comfy beds under shelter, she gets lots of attention........she used to dig out occasionally, I'd block up the hole and spray it with citronella to put her off, and things would be okay for a while, but over the last couple of weeks she's doing it every few days. I block up the holes, she just digs somewhere else Does anyone have some ideas for dog proofing around the base of a house? Like I said, I can't figure out why she's doing it, but I need to keep her in!!! any ideas are much appreciated.