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4 High 11-30-2007 11:13 AM

Dog Advice Needed
 
Ok, so i have a year and a half old Bepherd (Half Beagle Half German Shepherd Dog). Overall she is well behaved. She is very affectionate towards me, my wife and our friends. She sleeps a decent ammount, plays with her toys etc. She is fully house trained. When we leave her alone in the house while we go to work or school she is perfect and when we come home she is very happy to see us and the house is in perfect order. However there are two problems i would like to try and correct, but i am unsure how to.

Problem 1 is that my wife usually leaves home at 6am as she teaches. I usually do not get up until 8am. In that 2 hours every morning my dog attempts to destroy the house. She gets into paperwork eats it up, eats DVD cases, PSP cases just generally destroys our personal stuff. It might help to say we do live in an Appartment, but we also do walk her a lot so she gets out of it a ton. But during this two hour time period she goes on a rampage i guess. By the time i wake up, the floor is covered with torn up items. I would prefer not to wake up at 6am as i know that would fix it as she never does this in front of us, but i am wondering if there is any other solution. We have tried that Bitter Apple, but it hardly deters her. Any advice here?

The other is the typical she gets way too excited on walks when she sees other people/dogs. Not in an attacking way, just overly excited. Whats the course of action here.

Any questions let me know, and feel free to add your own Dog questions as well.

XXXNoahXXX 11-30-2007 11:18 AM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
Has she been spayed?

scorcher863 11-30-2007 11:25 AM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
Idk how you feel about sticking her in one of those dog cages for two hours until you wake up, but that would take care of your problem. If you would feel guily, you could try it for just a week, who knows maybe she'll get the idea. I've heard bepherds are smart. No, that last part is a lie. I just like the word, bepherd. lol

CrazyEyez 11-30-2007 11:32 AM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
Sheagle

BretWeir 11-30-2007 11:34 AM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
Does your wife take her for a walk before she leaves the house? How late is her last walk the night before? If she needs to go outside to take care of business, that might be what's causing the early-morning stress.

Also, crating could be a solution here. We have two small dogs who are out during the day but sleep in dog crates. I thought it was kind of strange at first, but my wife, who's a dog guru (she's done literally hundreds of hours of training, etc. with the dogs) talked me into it. It's actually not cruel at all -- the dogs like having a safe space all their own to go to, and they'll literally run into their crates when it's bedtime.

As for the walking issues, we had the same problem with one of our dogs. Our solution has been to carry a pocketful of dogs treats and as soon as we see another dog approaching, get our dog's attention with the treats and keep rewarding until the other dog has passed. After a while, the dog starts mentally connecting "another dog" with "I'm gonna get food," and looking to you as soon as another dog show up. Because they're anticipating/concentrating on the food, they forget about the other dog. When this starts happening regularly, you can taper off treats a bit, and just reward intermittently to reinforce the behavior.

If you're interested in at-home training stuff generally, Google "clicker training." It sounds goofy when you first read it, but it's really easy and has worked wonders with our dogs.

Elevens 11-30-2007 11:41 AM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
Can you confine her to the kitchen with baby gates?

Also, try getting a Kong and fill it with frozen pumpkin pie filling. It's good for her, and she'll spend a long time trying to get it out.

unfrgvn 11-30-2007 12:04 PM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
For problem 1, my guess is the dog is just full of energy after sleeping all night and is trying to release it. I'm guessing your wife isn't taking the dog for a walk before leaving the apartment at 6:00 AM?

For item 2, you should watch the Dog Whisperer. It is on the National Geographic channel.
link to show

I've used a log of his techniques on my dog and they work great.

4 High 11-30-2007 12:04 PM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
We do have a crate and we have tried it. She sleeps at night in the crate and during the day on the couch. When we tried crating her in the am the second my wife leaves at 6am she would go crazy and would bark and scratch until i let her out. She usually goes number 1 at about 10pm-11pm before i go to sleep, then at 6am right before my wife leaves. Is it possible shes tearing things up to go number 2? Usually she goes around 8am and 6pm for number 2.

Yes she has been spayed.

As for the treats while walking, great idea, i will certainly try that out.

TomCollins 11-30-2007 12:13 PM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
[ QUOTE ]
We do have a crate and we have tried it. She sleeps at night in the crate and during the day on the couch. When we tried crating her in the am the second my wife leaves at 6am she would go crazy and would bark and scratch until i let her out. She usually goes number 1 at about 10pm-11pm before i go to sleep, then at 6am right before my wife leaves. Is it possible shes tearing things up to go number 2? Usually she goes around 8am and 6pm for number 2.

Yes she has been spayed.

As for the treats while walking, great idea, i will certainly try that out.

[/ QUOTE ]

How long did you try crating? They are stubborn as hell at first, until they realize they can't get their way. I have a new puppy, she was miserable in the crate for a bit, but eventually has settled down some.

4 High 11-30-2007 12:14 PM

Re: Dog Advice Needed
 
I guess not for too long, her crate is near our bed as our APPT. is small and she would wake me up instantly with all the noise. So after a week or so we stopped.


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