Leema

Assuming the dog is healthy (i.e. no medical reason for not eating), I'd suggest this: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Writing/TeachEat.html

I tried moving her to a different area of the yard. She is better here - she scratches at the gate to that yard but also barks a little which is not good at night. I will try with the crate because she does seem to like it (she often goes in of her own will).

She will never be let inside for scratching at the door. The problem is, this behaviour has got worse, and seems to be getting worse. When she arrived here she did not scratch at door. She has never been let in as a result of scratching at the door (or given any attention) yet this behaviour continues and has got worse. I feel that something I have done has elicited the scratching behaviour in her, and this is not a behaviour she already knew.

When you take your pup out from inside, take them out to toilet on the grass. Make sure you scoop/hose off any toiletting on the patio. Feed the dogs on the patio! They won't want to toilet on the area where they eat. That being said, one of my dog won't walk on the grass when it's wet, so chooses our paved area. Regardless of doing these things. Hopefully those few tricks help you.

I have the whole day today, so I'm going to do some training with the crate and with outside. I'll let you know how we go. In regard to her nails - they are very short. I have not had to cut them since I got her desexed, because scratching at the doors has filed them down.

Bump...

We give her no attention at all while she's scratching. We lay in bed and wait for her to stop. She normally stops after an hour or so (I fall to sleep easily, my OH is awake waiting for her to stop to sleep) and doesn't resume again (so when we let her in in the morning, she isn't scratching then). This behaviour has gotten worse. In the last two days she has started biting the door as well as scratching it... Previously it was just scratching it. She has gotten more persistent with it and is scratching for longer periods of time. I guess it was about a week before she started scratching at the door. I theorise that she has gotten attached to me but I ignore her except on my terms... Insist on sits for pats, cancel pats on my terms or when she misbehaves, etc. I have pretty clear guidelines for contact between us. Ultimately, I would like her to go to a home when she's inside 24/7 or with other dog company. But considering I have close to no interest over 6 weeks, I can hardly be choosey. For those that insist she comes inside, tell me how I can do it without her scratching at the door to the bedroom or scratching at the door of the crate. No, she is not going to sleep on our bed. It is crowded enough with 4 of us. As Midol said, it's problematic regardless of whether she is inside at night or not.

I would rehome to a home that allows her inside, but I don't have a problem with a dog sleeping outside if they have inside time. Dorrie is inside all day that we are home, but outside when we're not home, and outside when we go to bed. Tony, Dorrie does not do any other anxiety behaviours as far as I can tell. She whines a little, but does not bark... She doesn't really do anything except sleep... except when WE want to sleep! (She's a pretty boring dog.) If she did sleep inside, she would scratch at the door to get into our bedroom. If she did sleep in our bedroom in a crate, she'd scratch at the crate door.

Our foster dog has been here approximately 6 weeks, now. She digs at our back door at night and has recently started chewing on it, as well. She actually moves between the two back doors - scratching and biting at one, then moving and scratching and biting at the other. One night she did this the entire night, from 9:30pm to 6am. I want her to be used to sleeping outside/the laundry (as now) in case her new home wants these sleeping arrangements. We have a very set routine. I take dogs out for a wee, everyone comes back inside, Dorrie (foster dog) is taken outside with a biscuit. She is then not allowed back inside until morning. It has been this way since day dot. We have never responded to her scratching or whining at the door (so she has never been rewarded for it). My guess is that Dorrie doesn't want to be separated from everyone. She does not seem to do the scratching/biting at the door during the day, when she is outside with the other dogs. (Judging from the damage on the door.) Not only is the damage to the door a problem, but she is obviously stressed to be performing this neurotic behaviour, and we don't want her to do this in a new home. And it is loud and prevents us from sleeping. The solutions, as I see them, are: 1) Move her to a different area to hopefully break the habit (we do have an area that is appropriate) 2) Accliamtisie her to a crate (she seems to like it until she is locked in, and then she scratches at the crate door obsessively and I worry about her damaging her nails) 3) Make her like company less!! Which would be the best option, but I don't know how to go about it. What are your suggestions?

I am posting this on behalf of a friend whose account needs to be approved. :p

Canned food, any other type of mince that isn't purely bone.

They already know the palm trees make her bark. They also drop their leaves/branches into our yard and Clover barks as she attacks them. :p The trees are pretty massive and do look nice, it's just their rubbish that is inconvenient. They're only about 30cm from the fence, so even trimming wouldn't be helpful, I don't think. With that part of the yard fenced off, I'm not worried about Clover finding more of them, it's just finding all the ones she has brought inside over time! I'm sure she's stashed them all somewhere (she really does like them). I will mention it to them that we have had vet expenses, but only as a passing comment. I'm not going to pursue them about their trees. They've been so good about my dogs barking and working with me and I'm not going to bother them about the trees. Sometimes things happen and it's no one's fault, just shit happens.

The trees are actually quite nice. I'll mention it to them as we are having ongoing communications about my dogs barking. Hopefully, with it fenced off, we won't have further incidents. Clover has been playing with them for 11 months and we just had this one unfortunate incident, not that I want to take chances again. I'm so glad we didn't have to have surgery. I would've been a wreck. The price wasn't really important, but a $180 poo is a good conversation starter. I ended up going to bed and waking up early to do uni work... I was buggered!

Yes, I trained my dog Mac to bow by capturing his stretching... It was long winded but was the only way I could do it as he does not like to follow lures. Jedi should pick it up sooner if he already knows the behaviour. With Clover, I taught her with a hand lure. I used a very different hand signal to do this (gun like shape while I use open hands and fists otherwise). I think by having such a different hand signal she was able to pick this up sooner - that is, it became a hand signal instead of a lure. :rolleyes:

We actually partitioned off that part of the yard for different reasons yesterday. :rolleyes: About 36 hours too late. Clover likes to play with them - she throws them around and chases them, but occasionally swallows them. It's unfortunate because she has such a great time with them, but they will be confiscated when I find her with them now. The palm trees are not ours (neighbours yard) so cannot be removed.

Clover started stretching unusually and repetitively on Saturday night and, after 40 minutes, we took her to the vet. I was concerned she may have a genetic cramping syndrome seen in Border Terriers. When we got to the vet (this was at 9pm, so we had to go to an emergency vet) the vet suggested abdominal pain as a cause of stretching as I described. The vet could feel something in her digestive tract and my OH and I thought it might be one of the nuts from a palm tree out the back. Clover had x-rays (and because she was so subdued from the pain did not need sedation) and there was nothing conclusive or concerning from the x-rays. Clover got a shot for the pain and we got sent home $280 poorer. We were to monitor the poo department. This morning she still wasn't herself. She would sit, trembling and whining. We were pooless. So we went back to the vet and underwent another xray. Again, nothing too concerning but we could see 'something' at the beginning of her colon. The vet gave her a 'chemical enema' and she pooed! And out popped a nut from the palm tree. Another xray showed that she was now empty and the gas previously seen had subsided. Even though today was a Sunday, we attended the clinic in their opening hours so the poo only cost us $180. Mike and I had to go out for lunch, so we crated her as we didn't want to have her outside. We came home to a different dog - "HI I LOVE YOU THROW MY BALL NOW" So Clover has made a full recovery but I'm so tired from worry and now I'm going to stay up all night organising uni work for tomorrow. :rolleyes: But Clover is fine, and that's great. I don't know how people go through this for anything more serious!

You need to fade your hand lure. :rolleyes: Have you down any shaping/capturing with a clicker with Jedi?

I would click and trick the putting on lead process. So rewarding perhaps the lead coming out... The lead moving towards dog... lead moving over dogs head... Lead moving over dogs head but "closer" to dog's head... ETC

Just to make clear, the other two dogs here (a dog and a bitch) are both desexed. Clover is being supervised and separated in case some rogue dog jumps the fence and also because the desexed dogs hump her constantly. It may be a silent season. If this is the case, is she likely to have silent seasons in the future? Also, seeing this is her first season, she is probably just doing unusual things... I hope.

Yes it is safe. And apparently it is also safe to wait 45 days inbetween treatment when temp is higher, instead of 30-31 days.

I didn't post this in the breeders section because it's not only breeders who have dogs in heat. It annoys me that I can't respond in the breeders section to 'general knowledge' kind of questions (like this!) which don't actually pertain to breeding as such... But it seems that has failed. Thanks for the additional responses.

My neighbours have recently complained about my dogs barking. I am taking steps now that have seemed to have worked, but the neighbours did comment that the dogs bark when they go outside. My strategy was going to be to work with my neighbours (get them to come out of their house) and click&treat behaviour that was not barking. my dogs have 'been good' apparently, but if it happens that they still bark at neighbour noises, I would try this strategy as my neighbours are quite cooperative.

You could freeshape... Paw lifts from any foot (back legs are particularly impressive) Lip licking Ear movement Tail wags Paw crossing Backward walking A snarl Picking things up Was trying to think of things that would not put too much strain on stitches.

Perhaps if I post that I plan to knock her up (on her first season, to a malteseX down the street) and want to know the best time I might get more responses? :D I'll try to get a hold of her breeder or my other Mac's breeder to ask.

No red discharge.