Rhi*Jak*Ed

Hi everyone, Last Sunday I had to go interstate for work and have only just gotten back tonight. Rather than putting Jak in a kennel, I had arranged for a friend of mine to stay at my house to look after her. Well, come Monday afternoon my friend had had enough and apparently Jak was so aggressive with her, biting and snarling constantly, that my friend was in tears when she called me. It stressed me out big time because I was thousands of kilometres away from home and felt so helpless. Jak had obviously had major issues with someone else coming in to the house and was dominating my friend in every way imaginable. That and quite possibly some pretty serious separation anxiety going on there... So my mum arranged for her to go to a kennel for the remainder of the time. Of course then she was fine. At one stage I believe that my friend even went and bought a muzzle because the biting and aggressive snarling had gotten so bad :-( Well I've finally arrived home (what a week!) and of course she was big time excited to see me, which was just wonderful! I even cried because I felt so bad about everything that had happened. I moved my suitcase into my room and she started biting on it and as I moved her away from it she snarled at me! ARGH!!!! First time ever... And I can't say that I'm happy about it either. If this is what she was doing with my friend then any wonder she wasn't coping. I'm a bit at a loss now though as to where to go from here... Was she just displaying some big time dominant behaviour with my friend and this will now settle down once I'm home, or are there bigger problems there that need addressing? Thanks guys, Rhi & Jak

Oh dear...that is very funny. I must have got lucky - my lad's a sleeper. If you keep him awake for more than 2 hours, he starts to whine and frown and carry on. I only have to say "time for bye byes" and he runs with glee to his crate, waiting for his Kong and a snooze. Such a baby :D The resident feline princesses are grateful at least Wow - yes you are lucky! haha. I wouldn't know how many naps Jak has during the day time, there's a big 10 hour period there where I'm not home so for all I know she could actually be sleeping all day, which would explain the nuts behaviour of a night time! Tonight I have continued on with what I did last night, and we didn't start playing until 8.30. She's now quite tired :-) I won't put her to bed just yet though, will wait until she starts to doze off instead I think. I haven't seen her do that in a while! haha.

I wouldn't cope with that at all haha.

He is 18 week kelpie..........we call him crazy, feral or schizo.....his real name is Anzac as I got him ANZAC day. MMMMM maybe my idea to wear him out now so I can sleep later....isn't the best idea. It seems to have worked with Jak so I might give the dining room table a go tonight too! Yeah, I think I might have been wearing Jak out a tad too early. She is very well behaved when I first get home from work, so switching our play time to her witching hour seemed like a good idea, and so far so good. I am actually away all next week with work and I have a friend coming to housesit whilst I'm away - I'm hoping her time isn't too traumatic and that Jak doesn't run her completely ragged, she's certainly a handful! haha. I find that if I'm higher than Jak - like at the dining room table - she can't jump up all over me and therefore I immediately have the leadership. It's when I'm down at her level that we both need to work on. One thing at a time though :-)

Well tonight I decided to mix things up a bit and try something different. Between 8 and 8.15 I sat at the dining table and completely ignored her. She was happy to do her own thing. At 8.15 I initiated a major game of chasey, which she just loves, and come 8.30 she was tired enough to just lay down on the couch. This lasted 15 minutes when she was up again. So I put her on the lead - she at one end of the couch, me at the other. She soon realised that she couldn't come to the other end and so gave up and laid down again. She's now in bed. A good night you might say! Much better than yesterday :-)

Jak only seems to have eyes for me after 8pm - toys or bones etc just don't cut it. She wants my blood ;-) She can now jump up onto the couch too, so I can't even sit there or she's jumping up all over me and just biting me wherever. ARGH!

Oh my god ShellyBeggs that is just spooky haha. How old is your pup and what sort? Jak is driving me crazy with it, not sure what to do.

This might seem like a strange question, but do pup's have a "witching" hour? The reason I ask is that lately come 8pm Jak goes NUTS. Biting, jumping all over me, biting. Did I mention the biting? She is home alone from 8am til 6pm during the week, and when I get home at 6 she is very excited to see me (which is understandable). She sits down and waits for her good 5 minute scratch and we tell each other about our days (haha). Then we play chasey or fetch or hide and seek until 7 which is when I start to prepare dinner. She eats hers whilst I get mine organised. She then tends to play by herself until about 8. But once 8pm arrives the devil in her seems to come out. Is she just telling me that it's time for more play? Should I play with her for yet another hour before she is likely to settle down? I must admit I'm confused and not much enjoying her behaviour after this time. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Rhi

I've tried that before but she would wake up, go to the end of the bed, pee, then come and crawl back next to me. Sadly that didn't work for us... She is now sleeping for about 4 hours, waking up to pee so I take her out, and then she sleeps through until about 6 which is pretty good. I think we've got it down pat now :-)

Well done!!! I bet that sleep was wonderful. It was. However, it now appears that she is "sleeping" through because it's possibly she's just peeing in there. Hmm. Her blanket reaks of urine. I may now have to look at reducing the area inside the crate. Gee if it's not one thing... haha.

I'm not sure which person you're offering advice to... Jak gets fed in her crate, she goes in there when she's tired during the day to lay down, but it is also used of a night time for her to sleep in and also as a time out venue. She comes out again once she's calmed down and at no time has acted so distressed that I've felt she is scared of her crate or that she absolutely hates being in there. I'm pretty sure my last post mentioned that she slept through from 9pm until 5am. Which toilet stop should I be writing down? The one at 5am when she wakes up? She has her pigs' ear with her when she first goes in to bed, but she doesn't really pay it any attention considering we've actually just played a half an hour game of fetch before she goes to bed. She's pretty tired then from running up and down the hallway 50 odd times... Since I've put the blanket over her crate she's slept in there quite well (again as mentioned in my last post). I can assure you that I don't just put Jak in her crate and hope for the best. If I did, I doubt that I would have requested advice in the first place because the care factor would be pretty low then, wouldn't it?

OMG you poor thing... I'm in a rental too, and Jak used to scratch underneath the doors (mainly when she was in the bathroom overnight). Actually that was one of the reasons I bought her a crate, she can scratch that all she likes otherwise damage to the actual house can wind up being very expensive!! Maybe you could try spraying the surfaces with Aerogard as Gretel has suggested, or there are other products you can purchase at pet stores etc. Not sure what they're like on paintwork though. I sympathise :-(

Jak slept last night from 9pm til 5am this morning. WOOHOO! Mind you, I'm still having the lattes, I think I've gotten used to them haha. Now I just need to work on her other behaviours ;-) Hmm.

haha will do. Obviously by keeping her crate dark she realised it was still time to keep quiet. This forum has been a god send, don't know where I would be without it :-)

Morning everyone, Well guess what? I got some sleep! YAY for Rhi! haha. Jak slept through until 4.30 whereupon I took her to toilet, she did and I put her back in her crate. She then awoke at 6.00 and same thing again, except she didn't need to pee but I put her back in her crate anyway because I didn't want to get up until 6.30!. Well we're up now and I feel that I can just grab a normal latte this morning, not double shot ;-) Thanks heaps to everyone - I will keep you updated because I'm pretty sure tonight just may well be different. At least today I won't be falling asleep in my office. Rhi

I know, it all gets a bit too much sometimes ;) Just try the different suggestions and see what works for you. Every dog is different, cheers and good luck :D Thanks BC Lover... She is in her crate now, blanket over it and not a peep out of her. This is not unusual though so I'm not getting my hopes up.... yet! I'll let you know tomorrow how things go overnight. Fingers crossed I get some sleep, I so desperately need it!

Maybe she wont settle in the crate if you are using it for time outs. I would try another spot for time outs as you are wanting her to associate the crate with something good (eg, giving her treats and wanting her to go to bed etc) but I am assuming you use time outs if she is being too silly or naughty ?? This is IMO but she may settle in the crate either way. I've read such differing opinions on this actually. Some say don't use it, others say do use it. It all gets quite confusing haha. She doesn't seem to have trouble settling down in the crate, it's just staying settled of a night time that she seems to have an issue with. I will be putting a blanket over it tonight and using the trusty ear plugs for sure! Thanks :-)

Thanks Akitaowner... I haven't tried covering her crate with a blanket so I will definitely do that tonight. She usually has a couple of things in her crate with her should she wake up, her favourite teddy, usually her pigs' ear and a chew toy. I feed her in the crate and also utilise it for time outs. I was using the toilet (I have a very small house) but she would just scratch the crap out of the door and when you're renting as I am, this can be disastrous. Now I find that she calms down fairly well in her crate and I only let her out once she has done so. If she continues the same behaviour then she goes straight back in there until she's fully "over it". I'm just going to have to start again I think. I feel sorry for the neighbours already.

I sympathise with you too Falling_dawn! It's not easy... What I'm now annoyed about is that we were in a good rythm and I obviously upset it by moving her into my bedroom in the crate. I don't feed Jak until about 7, reason being that I don't get home until 6 and as soon as I walk through the door she's very excited and on for a play. So we play for a good hour then she's worked up an appetite and I feed her her dinner. I don't talk to her when I take her to toilet either, just tell her to hurry up then praise her and put her back in her crate. I need to get this sorted ASAP though... I'm coming into my busiest time at work and I have uni exams coming up too. The lattes are only going so far at the moment. ARGH hahaha. Rhi

Hi there, Rest assured that Jak does not have access to the stairs - I too believe that it is an accident waiting to happen so I have very diligentky kept her away from them. If she's inside the door is shut so she can't get to the stairs, and if she is outside the stairs are completely blocked off at the bottom so she cannot climb up them. It is because of this that I'm prepared to put in the hard yards, and if I have to toilet train her twice then so be it, at least she will still be alive at the end of it. Thanks :-)

Thanks Kharn - sadly I think I'm going to have to change my routine in order to stick to one (if that makes sense!). The sleeping in the crate in tbe bedroom is obviously not working, so it's back to the bathroom we go I think... Two or three times a night would be heaven! haha.

Yes I think so too (unintentionally created unwanted behaviour). And to think I used to hate being woken at 5am! What did I know? haha. My house set up makes things a bit awkward, lots of stairs to encounter in order to get outside and I have not yet trusted her fully on the stairs because one slip and she can fall through and encounter one incredibly long fall. Not sure she would survive it. That's the reason I put her in the bathroom. I think in order to get sleep I need to put her back in there and just be prepared to mop the floor every morning again haha. That's the lesser of the evils I think, and that way she has her own area overnight. This weekend I will finally be able to take her out walking (last vaccination out of the way!), so I think the early rise will be good, we can go for a nice long walk before I have to get ready for work. I'm certainly not afraid to upset her, so back to the bathroom she goes. Thanks for your advice :-)

In her crate she has a blanket, her favourite teddy, a chew toy and a plastic squeeky bone, which are the 3 things that she loves to play with and be around. She doesn't have anything that smells of me, I might try that. Jak was at the stage that she also recognised that when the lights were off it was quiet time, but that seems to have gone out the window now. The first week with her in the crate were fine, but then it went drastically down hill. She can see me from her crate, perhaps I should move it to the end of the bed so that she can't see me? I don't know, I feel like she's the one calling all the shots at the moment and it's quite frustrating.

Aeroguard.....OMG that stuff is toxic!! Do NOT use Aeroguard to stop your puppy from nipping. You're better off with a spray of water from a water bottle or other techniques/methods as pointed out by Cosmolo. The Aeroguard only worked twice and she was just biting through it. Now I am just saying a loud no and ah-ah and she seems to respond. Not always, in which case I ignore her and go outside. It's slow, but we'll get there.

Hi all, Well my situation has gotten frustrating enough to seek some advice. I have had Jak now for just over 6 weeks and the first 3 weeks I would put her in the bathroom overnight. She had access to newspaper, water, toys and of course her bedding. She would be quiet from around 9.30/10.00pm when I would put her to bed and then would wake around 5am. I then purchased a crate for her, and moved her into the bedroom with me (on the floor). Since then, she wakes every hour to 2 hours, EVERY NIGHT. As my topic title states, I can't survive on no sleep and double shot lattes every morning haha. Only 2 of those times that she wakes me she actually needs to go to the toilet, the rest I think is her seeking some form of companionship, whether it be a cuddle or a play. If she doesn't go to the toilet I put her back in her crate, but an hour later she's barking and crying again. I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do now. Should I revert back to putting her in the bathroom overnight? I don't want to ignore her barking and crying when she's in the crate because she seems to make the same sounds each time (whether she needs to pee or not). I'd hate for her to get so desperate that she goes in her crate. Any suggestions?? Thanks heaps. Rhi