Exercising Reactive Dogs Thread

[BC Crazy]

Thanks for the paws4dogs link Snook. I have bookmarked it to read when I get a spare minute. Looks very interesting... :)

[hankdog]

Thanks fir offering but I think I'll pass. I have so many gadgets and gear that it takes me 20 minutes to get ready to leave the house. Hope I don't find out later it's the magic one!

[BC Crazy]

Hi guys, I would just like a quiet little brag regarding Stella. Nothing flash like all you guys are up to but I have recently brought a treadmill which I we set up in the spare room to exercise my 2 on

as I will be 'out of action' for a couple of months due to health reasons( won't bore you all with the details). Anyway they both had their first goes on it on last Sunday & they have both blown me away as

they have taken to it like ducks to water :laugh: I just shaped the behaviour with yummy bait & then gradually increasing the duration. I am wrapped as since then we have been using it twice a day, approx 20mins with

incline activated.It is raining this morning so we just did 30 mins each

The funniest thing was on the 2nd night of them using it OH, Sonny & myself were all watching TV & Stella was 'missing' for a minute (very unusual) so I went to investigate, next thing I hear a little bark

coming from the spare room. There she was standing on the treadmill, ready to go in the dark, barking in frustration at it as it wont go. After turning the light on Stella then looks over her shoulder at me

in complete disgust & huffs out of the room :laugh:

Just goes to show you you should never underestimate your reactive dogs. Here I was all concerned that she may not even be able to cope with it. Now I can't keep her off it.....She's always amazing me,

my little smarty pants girl :D

Edited May 24, 2013 by BC Crazy

[Tassie]

Just goes to show you you should never underestimate your reactive dogs. Here I was all concerned that she may not even be able to cope with it. Now I can't keep her off it.....She's always amazing me,

my little smarty pants girl

That's so lovely! Great to hear that both have taken happily to the treadmill (though that you're 'out of action' for a little while.

[Pretty Miss Emma]

Hi guys, I would just like a quiet little brag regarding Stella. Nothing flash like all you guys are up to but I have recently brought a treadmill which I we set up in the spare room to exercise my 2 on

as I will be 'out of action' for 2 couple of months due to health reasons( won't bore you all with the details). Anyway they both had their first goes on it on last Sunday & they have both blown me away as

they have taken to it like ducks to water :laugh: I just shaped the behaviour with yummy bait & then gradually increasing the duration. I am wrapped as since then we have been using it twice a day, approx 20mins with

incline activated.It is raining this morning so we just did 30 mins each

The funniest thing was on the 2nd night of them using it OH, Sonny & myself were all watching TV & Stella was 'missing' for a minute (very unusual) so I went to investigate, next thing I hear a little bark

coming from the spare room. There she was standing on the treadmill, ready to go in the dark, barking in frustration at it as it wont go. After turning the light on Stella then looks over her shoulder at me

in complete disgust & huffs out of the room :laugh:

Just goes to show you you should never underestimate your reactive dogs. Here I was all concerned that she may not even be able to cope with it. Now I can't keep her off it.....She's always amazing me,

my little smarty pants girl :D

I needed a laugh/smile today and this gave it to me!!!

[Wobbly]

Great stuff BC crazy. I am so jealous, I want a treadmill for rainy days.

So today i am going to fry up a round steak i bought and go do some training practice in a bush track up the road from me. My plan is a bit of LAT, but mostly stuff I am working on now (have new tricks I've been teaching) because she loves swapping tricks for treats, I want her happy, anticipating "OMG yay treat swap for clicker trick time" happy automatically in that place. This, in preparation for when I borrow a fake cat my mother owns that I am going to requisition (unbeknowst to her atm). My mother is a catless cat person, so she has this fake cat, it's very realistic looking, we tease her and call it her road kill cat, it's realistic but it's immobility makes it far better for my purposes than the real thing. At the distances I will have to use in the beginning to stay sub threshhold, I think the illlusion of it looking real will hold for the dog.

Rather than the long wordy update I was planning, I'd like to just video this. In general, Jarrah's been good, her basic personality is pretty fearless, this reactivity is not a natural behaviour for her (it was induced by those idiots) so it seems to be fading of it's own accord (ofc I do my best to try to make her understand there is no cause for fear, using whatever environmental feature I can as an asset, or just my jovial "Hey, we're all good here, this stuff is no problem to me at all." demeanour if there's nothing I can use, and I think that helps too, for her personality type). I am hoping the sub threshold work with the fake cat will speed the process of the reactivity fading a lot. I'd just like her to start offering "trick" behaviours to get treats out of me when she sees the trigger.

Wish me luck, I am planning to video it so I can get feedback on the work, so hopefully I can work out how to set the camera up & upload. OK, off to cook that steak, I want to start conditioning in expectations of awesome reinforcements in this area I am planning to use first.

[BC Crazy]

PME, glad we made you laugh :laugh: Honestly Stella is just the funniest girl. She has got loads of personality. But to pop herself on the tread mill, right way around, ready to go was a real crack up.

She was looking up at the monitor screen. I think she thinks the cabanossi & chic roll baits come out of there :laugh: I brought a human tread mill making sure that it had the extra long running belt.

Also one with the quietest motor I could find so as not to freak her out as she is so noise sensitive. Works for us. It has given me peace of mind that at least I won't have to worry about as much about them

getting some exercise while I am recovering. My 2 are used to lots of it like 2 to 3 hours walk/play daily. I know it isn't going to be the same for them but it will be an outlet. OH will also walk them when he gets home from work as well.

Wobbley, it will be great with Winter almost upon us. On those really bleak days I won't have to go out if I really don't feel like it.

Tassie, thanks, yes I am thrilled that they both like it. And hospitals & having to rest for so long, not looking forward to it at all. I am going to be so bored. Oh the joys of getting old. My wheels are falling off :laugh:

Edited May 24, 2013 by BC Crazy

[hankdog]

Well done Justice, he has really absorbed his lessons so well. Clearly his training has really gone more than skin deep.

BC that's a really good idea to get a treadmill and I hope your leg issues are sorted. This getting older and broken is just annoying isn't it?

Two brags from us. Last week We were gardening g across the creek. Jake was tethered and we were about 15m away from him. My neighbours two dogs suddenly ran up to the fence going ballistic. Jake ran to the end of his tether and started barking. I ran toward him calling and he turned and came to a very surprised me. I whipped out the peanut butter and he calmly sat and licked it whilst looking at the still barking pair of dogs. When the owners came I got them to just quieten the dogs and we spent a bit of time letting everyone look at each other calmly before they took them away. About 15 minutes later one of the dogs came over the fence, he was running up the hill to a sleeping jake who I again called, he got up and came to me and my husband stepped in front of the other dog and calmly shooed him. I'm not sure at what point Jake became aware of him but he never barked or startled just calmly looked and ate his peanut butter.

This situation is, I suppose quite similar to how we run our training sessions, with a dog walking up to him and we do spend a lot of time watching this pair of dogs play but it's gratifying to know that the training has generalized.

Edited May 25, 2013 by hankdog

[Wobbly]

I love this thread. Years ago, I met a guy who had just been released from a psychiatric institution, and he told me one of the most meaningful things I ever heard: No matter what happens to you, no matter how bad, so long as there is someone who really loves you, you'll be OK in the end. Same is true for dogs too I think, all the dogs in here are so loved, with owners dedicated to making their life good. I love reading of everyone's patience, hope, compassion, all the progress is so inspiring. Even the despairing posts are still very strong expressions of care for the animals' welfare. It's always good to read about how much dedication, patience and love people put into helping their dogs, that's the stuff that's best about humanity.

My plan is going both good and not so good. Steak is not much of a competitor for the bush environment. I could always fast track this with tug as reward but I don't want to muddy my "All New Tug Game, Now Featuring an Out" with it, so I would prefer to use food. The bush environment is so distracting for her though, too many rabbity smells. In the past I have always let her snuffle these smells to her content, so I am working against some pretty reinforced behaviour. she loves sniffing in the bush. Right now, all I'm doing is the "give me a break game", trying to build focus in this environment. I do get some sort of sustained focus now we've done a few days, but she's still very much enjoying her release cue and subsequent snuffling of the environment too. We're a long way behind where I'd hoped to start. I will continue to work on it though.

I'm starting to look for other environmental assets to use instead. We go past a known cat home on the way up to the track, the house itself (or it's driveway, where the cat lurks) is a trigger. Today, she ignored the house on the way up, we were on the other side of the road. She had a bit of a hackle and growl at it as we passed on the way down. I think I can use that, I know the threshhold distance, and the street is way less distracting than the rabbitty smelling bush track. There are some environmental difficulties to consider though, I'm wanting to use the house (the driveway entrance) as the trigger, if the cat itself appears that will throw my threshhold distance out the window. I'll need to speak to the owner of the house and ask her to keep the cat indoors while I do it. I have met the lady from the house before (naturally I met her in the context of Jarrah spazzing at her cat, she was very nice & understanding about it). She is going to think I am nuts, well, she wouldn't be alone in thinking that I guess. xD

[corvus]

Wobbly, sounds like you could use the Give Me A Break game. This is how I got both my dogs to train in the bush. It was the last step, though. We started in much easier environments and worked up to the bush. Here's a little description of how to play it:http://reactivechampion.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/cu-seminar-give-me-break.html

I often think Staffyluv could use this as well.

[BC Crazy]

I'm another lover of this thread Wobbly. I have learnt so much from others. Also love the devotion we have to making our reactive guys the best they can be &

help them to have a calmer, more enjoyable life

As Stella is maturing I see her making huge improvements in temp from not so long ago. She is much more confident & social. We still have a ways to go yet but positive

progress is wonderful. I have given her 100% of me, everything I have & it's paying off. She is a LOT of dog. It makes me feel all warm hearted & emotional at times. Very proud :)

Example, yesterday we were out walking & 2 cats ran straight at us, chasing each other. Within 10 feet or so of us. One went down the drain by the side of the road, the other stood

it's ground & was hissing etc at us. Stella just looked at them but didn't react at all so we walked around them at a distance & kept walking. I was wrapped.

Corvus, I'm liking the look of that Give me a break. Am going to bookmark it to read when I get a moment. It may also suit us. Thanks for sharing :)

[Wobbly]

Wobbly, sounds like you could use the Give Me A Break game. This is how I got both my dogs to train in the bush. It was the last step, though. We started in much easier environments and worked up to the bush. Here's a little description of how to play it:http://reactivechampion.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/cu-seminar-give-me-break.html

I often think Staffyluv could use this as well.

Yep that's exactly what I am using, i got a copy of CU from another member here, and I am a total McDevitt obsessive now. I didn't really "get" LAT & Give Me a Break until I read the book. But it's quite amazing, and I think for me completely the answer. I know, laugh at me. I read about LAT here so often, but when I googled it I obviously didn't hit on a source that explained it properly. Highly, highly reccommend Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt to anyone reading this thread. All of the principles in it are marvelous, and for far more then just fear reactive dogs, it's perfect any sort of overstimulation or lack of focus. It completely changed the way I relate to my dog within about 15 pages. I have a ways to go with it yet, all this is pretty new to me. Definitely will check out the link, while it's new to me, it's worth rereading to eke out every nuance I can, so new link is appreciated.

Yeah I need to start in an easier area, I had thought the bush would be perfect since we spend so much time in a bush environment (like 2 hours everyday since I got her) I sort of thought she took that environment for granted and would be able to focus on steak. Erm apparently not. But still, I am seeing a huge daily improvement, I still have to call her back for steak though, she won't just come back to harrass me about it yet of her own accord, but fingers crossed she will soon.

I am coming from a background of walking with my dog, where I am sort of lost in space in my own thoughts, and Jarrah snuffles and runs and swims to her hearts content and the only behaviour that I have really, really drilled is recall in return for games of frisbee and tug. Even on leash, the only behaviour I've ever seriously drilled is loose leash. We got by in obedience classes (which I've been slack about and need to resume) on the fact all the stuff that's needed there are for her, default behaviours. So to say she is unfocussed on me on walks would be something of an understatement. So "give me a break game" is the order of the day right now, baby steps. Just cooked up a bunch of chuck steak for it.

I wonder too if it could help Ziggy attach some value to food? Certainly could be worth trying I reckon.

I'm another lover of this thread Wobbly. I have learnt so much from others. Also love the devotion we have to making our reactive guys the best they can be &

help them to have a calmer, more enjoyable life

As Stella is maturing I see her making huge improvements in temp from not so long ago. She is much more confident & social. We still have a ways to go yet but positive

progress is wonderful. I have given her 100% of me, everything I have & it's paying off. She is a LOT of dog. It makes me feel all warm hearted & emotional at times. Very proud :)

Example, yesterday we were out walking & 2 cats ran straight at us, chasing each other. Within 10 feet or so of us. One went down the drain by the side of the road, the other stood

it's ground & was hissing etc at us. Stella just looked at them but didn't react at all so we walked around them at a distance & kept walking. I was wrapped.

Corvus, I'm liking the look of that Give me a break. Am going to bookmark it to read when I get a moment. It may also suit us. Thanks for sharing :)

That's awesome news! I would be ecstatic if I could get that kind of chilled reaction to running cats.

I was prompted to write that first paragraph because I was picturing Stella trying to organise her own treadmill session, and I realised I've thought the same thing - that the care and dedication of people here is so inspiring, a lot of times in reading the thread, so I thought I'd write it down.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Wobbly

[Wobbly]

Wow, i am seeing some amazing progress. I haven't started on cats specifically yet, I'm sticking with ducks for a trigger right now, since if she goes over threshold about them she calms again really easily - she has no fear of them like she does cats.

What I am finding most amazing is the focus change. Today she actually did her heeling with full attention in an oval. With enthusiasm. For kibble!!!! It's a trick I have been teaching her in the house (I get great food drive in the house & yard, just not so much outside), but I have never been able to proof it outside, I never thought I'd succeed so I never tried. Today I thought I'd give it a go to see. She did it just as good as she does at home. Wow.

I'm not 100% sure of all whys and wherefores of these changes, I am simply following procedures laid out by McDevitt for various different games in CU. Sometimes I can take a bit of time to absorb and understand my experiences and reading, so I can't yet explain what I think is happening & why exactly. All I can say at the mmoment is I am seeing a phenomenal change from no focus outdoors (obviously if I have a tug toy I have her undivided focus, but when it's clear to her I am not in a playing mood, I get no focus at all, or at least I didn't used to get any) now she is refusing to take her break in the "Give me a break" game. This is in just a week or so or thereabouts of work, countering years and years of our "lost in space" (both of our attention on our own thing) walks.

I'm putting the cats thing on the back burner for a bit again, I was discussing it with my husband and his observation on her threshold was that there is no threshold distance, if a cat is in her line of sight she goes nuts. Distance isn't a factor. She has improved a lot since he last saw a reaction though, but still, she is pretty extreme about it, I am not sure if I am really ready yet, even with fake cat. I am using the cat home up the road though, but very conservatively, way under threshold, not risking a reaction. I am just working on attention right now, once I understand where I am going right and where I am not (and surely I am going wrong in parts, but I am too inexperienced to identify where) I will think again about fake cat LAT.

[hankdog]

Vicki and I discussed getting some soft toys and leaving them at her house for a week to get doggy smelling and then placing them around the house so Jake gets used to the smell, maybe it could help with her cat phobia Wobbly. I also have a copy of hotel for dogs that I put on for Jake to watch, is there a cat equivalent? Jake has no dog threshold and just thinking dog can set him off so its a good distraction to train with.

[Wobbly]

The cat smell idea is a great one, i will try this for sure.

I don't know Hank. It is so hard for me to understand what determines threshold distance. There are so many factors, I am still thinking a lot about it.

McDevitt got the idea for LAT from a lady who had turned her dog's resource guarding snarl into a trick snarl by rewarding it. The lady from reactivechampion blog, in missapplying LAT over threshold, similarly found rewarding her dog's aggression turned the aggressive lunge display into a trick behaviour cued by the appearance of her dog's trigger. In both cases the dog's emotional state changed due to pairing the trigger with the reward. But the aggression display did remain, although their dogs were ham actors and it was clear the snarl and lunge were trick behaviours, not genuine stress.

I have seen a reduction in intensity (not sure about threshold tbh) in Jarrah's reactions over time, and I have previously been giving her the frisbee when she's gone over threshold, and I wonder if that helped her in the same way? I suspect it may well have. That frisbee is no.1 to her. I have avoided cats enough that I haven't done it enough to be clear about it though.

Obviously LAT under threshold is far preferable, body language affects emotional state as well as vice versa, and I don't want to put my dog under the stress if I can ever help it. And about a million other reasons to keep it under threshold occur to me.

I wouldn't ever purposely put her over threshold, not even as part of a rehab plan. But it can happen accidently, so when it does I am going to continue to reward her as heavily as I can. I haven't been using frisbee or tug for the last few cat encounters, since I don't want to destroy it's awesomeness by associating it with cat fear anymore. Obviously she won't take food in that state, but I have bundled her into the car before (car is rewarding, it's associated with walks), running is extremely rewarding too. So I retain these options for accidental cat encounters. It's the same as it always was in practice, but my understanding of the situation has developed. An over-threshold reaction is not what I want to ever see, but accidents happen, and interrupting and rewarding as heavily as the situation can accommodate is absolutely the best response, since it will further my goal of pairing trigger with reward to get an emotional response change.

At the minimum, understanding this allows me to walk the suburb without being worried about cat encounters. Running is a high value reward (even more so since I do it so rarely), adding lots of voice encouragement can act as the interruptor. I am hestiant to give her a yes or click for an overthreshold reaction, I haven't ordered my thoughts enough yet to say why exactly, but although i want to give the reward, i don't feel I want to mark it with my usual reward markers. Non reward marker vocal encouragement will interrupt and also add to the reward, hopefully the happy tone will nullify any idea she might get that we are running because the cat's a threat, I am not sure if this is a factor, but to be safe I want her to be very clear that the reason we are running is purely because running is fun.

I remember you tried this Hank, and you weren't convinced the running was helping at all from memory? So this is something I do take into account, not every method is suitable for every dog, and I can't for sure ascribe Jarrah's reduction in reaction intensity to doing this previously. But perhaps running is not enough of a high value reward for Jake to help him pair trigger with reward?

Edited May 31, 2013 by Wobbly

[corvus]

I don't know Hank. It is so hard for me to understand what determines threshold distance. There are so many factors, I am still thinking a lot about it.

I think you just have to take it as it comes. If they are more aroused than usual assume the distance will be less than usual. Beware of trigger stacking, watch where your dog is looking, and look for the quiet, long look. If you see one you know you shouldn't go any closer without offering some support at least. Erik has been really unpredictable lately. His distances have gone way up for no apparent reason. Just gotta roll with it and pay attention to him and adjust my expectations.

Obviously LAT under threshold is far preferable, body language affects emotional state as well as vice versa, and I don't want to put my dog under the stress if I can ever help it. And about a million other reasons to keep it under threshold occur to me.

It's surprising what they can learn when over-aroused. Kivi's one major weakness is dogs barking aggressively from behind fences. He used to melt down and lunge and scream and generally be beside himself. He still finds it very upsetting on a basic emotional level. He does have a really fast recovery, though, and as soon as I could after walking past a mean dog, I would have him in a heel rewarding him with food. I couldn't do it while we were walking past because he was too far gone. However, over time, he started using the scary dogs as a cue to heel. Yesterday I walked him right past two fences where he knows scary dogs live and he heeled the whole way, nice and responsive. I've had him offer it from time to time when an off leash dog has frightened him. It's like a safety signal for him. If a dog is scaring him he knows he will be safe in heel with me, and when he does this he is calm and happy because he is always happy in heel. So we got there in the end despite him going over-threshold every time. Mind you, he is very focused on one thing at a time and had a massive reward history with heeling. This is harder to do with Erik because he splits his attention and cycles between stimuli so fast I never quite know what he's making associations with. It's more important with him to get that arousal down, or at least get appropriate outlets for it. My preference would usually be for low-key rewards where arousal is a problem. Sometimes it's not really possible, though, because Erik is too wound up for low-key rewards. Then I get him to take a breath on cue and do some calming exercises and then cue him to do something active to get rid of his excess energy. There are problems with Erik at least using exciting rewards. When he's excited he's way more likely to behave inappropriately and it's much easier for him to flip into aggression. Kivi has copped it a few times because he is too aroused and excited.

I'm really glad you're enjoying CU, Wobbly, and I'm sorry I suggested GMAB when you were already doing it! You should pop by the CU_Dogs Yahoo group. Every now and then Leslie herself comments.

[hankdog]

Well it's interesting that running is a reward. I experimented with run away for a while and Jake loved it and started doing it for fun. I stopped because I was advised it could lead to a heightening of fear.

So I don't like to discuss my present training too much but we work over threshold. This is not a pleasant way to train and is last gasp desperate type stuff. I wouldn't recommend trying unless you're with a professional who has very stable dogs to train with. However part of this is allowing Jake to take himself away and as it turns out he now regularly chooses to run away. He loves running, I've bought a pair of good shoes and out of our 90 minutes walk we probably run over half. He is way more confident running and will now run past known dog-harbouring houses to "check them out" and then once he's seen where the dogs are will often stop and go back to do some LAT and get some food.

I've done a lot of clicker training set ups that involve weighting different tricks and then letting him choose to either squeak the chicken for 5 treats or press the bell for 2 etc and I change it round to get him thinking about earning the most food rewards he can in a situation.

I guess I sort of realised he's not the kind of dog to unquestioningly do what you tell him. He needs to decide for himself how to cope and I just have to find ways to get him to make the decision I want.

Edited June 1, 2013 by hankdog

[Weasels]

I use running with me as a reward for Weez too :) The kelpies love any activity, so it works well!

I've inadvertantly been working with Snook's trainer to help Chess calm down around other dogs :laugh: I always think of her more as 'fun police' than reactive, but I think it's still good for her. Poor girl, I've focussed so much on Weez's problems I tend to just assume she's fine, so it's nice to spend time on helping her with her discomforts :)

[Staffyluv]

Hi guys and gals - I thought I would ask this in here instead of starting a new thread.

Zig ate something he shouldn't have (still don't know what it was) and it nearly cost him his life a week ago.

He stayed at the emergency vet and they treated him overnight and I got to go pick him up because of how distressed he was the next day.

He was initially anesthetized for treatment and when he woke up he got so upset that they sedated him. Then when he woke up again he was really distressed again, so they called me to come and get him as they thought he was out of danger and it would be better for him.

Since he came home, he is overly clingy. If I get up from the lounge, so does he. Even if I move to go to the bathroom he follows me.

He sits at the bathroom door until I have had my shower every night.

If I have to go out, he sits at the gate, rain, hail or shine, until I get back - my son tried to get him to come in the other day as it was raining and he wouldn't.

He doesn't make a fuss about it here at home but he is stuck to me. I don't really care, I love having him around and don't go out that much any way (unless he comes with) but if he ever needs to go to the vets overnight or god forbid a kennel - I am not sure how he or they will cope.

I think he feels safe here at home, so he isn't making the fuss he made at the vets. The vet said she sedated him because she was concerned that he was going to hurt himself in the crate.

He is crate trained here at home and is more than happy to go into his crate if I have it inside for whatever reason.

Any ideas on how to resolve this attachment thing he seems to have going on?

[corie]

Well, I've finally made it through this entire thread :laugh:

We recently rescued a cattle dog (he probably has a smidge of border collie in him) who I am now pretty sure is fear-aggressive towards other dogs due to two bad incidences with his previous adopter. It took me a couple of days to notice, but although he will pull towards a dog/a fenced dog, he will always speed up once we're past it, and only very recently I discovered he'll start to whine if he's sitting too long when he knows the other dog is still around. We've had a bad moment, an off lead dog rushing him during our walk, but I haven't seen him cross his threshold enough for him to lunge, or bark (although his recall's shot), his foster had him living with her four other dogs before he came to us, and if I've come away with anything from reading this thread it's that overcoming this will be completely 100% achievable.

The good thing is that he is a very typical cattle dog, eats like a vacuum, and so food can generally snap him out of anything. He'll also willingly sit pretty quickly during a walk when there's a fenced dog across the street and with some on lead dogs a fair distance away, but he doesn't relax. We usually walk early mornings so incidences are kept to a minimum, although I do let him have some off lead time at a fenced public oval near our house, and we can usually go there late on Sundays and it'll be completely empty of dogs. There'll be the stray sprinter who comes inside the oval but he's way too busy with his ball to notice them.

Otherwise, he's the smoochiest boy, respects the cats, and doesn't dig or chew anything we don't want him to dig or chew when we've gone out for the day. We're scheduled to see a behaviourist early July (it has to be on a Sunday, and my stress levels for most of June won't be the best for addressing his problem), something I'm really looking forward to, for both his alert-dominance and anxiety.

Staffyluv - how long has it been since he's gotten home? Have you tried making him stay in a room with someone else he knows, while you were elsewhere (out of his sight) in the house? Where does he sleep at night?