ugh! I think my dog is stressing me out!!

HaleyMonstah · November 2014

She is only 11 months, but has never acted up like this! Friends on Facebook are saying it's because of the baby, I don't know what to do to make her more comfortable with the whole situation. This is the second time this week and I actually took a picture. I spend at least an hour with her everyday playing and/or cuddling with her. I'm very affectionate and attentive, yet she pulls this crap..

This is what I came home to...anyone else have or had this issue with their pets acting up?

bhjones1980 · November 2014

Your constant creating of new threads is stressing me out....

HaleyMonstah · November 2014

I have many questions. I like different opinions.

Sorry for the stress

jaztastic · November 2014

Is this really your dog? She is so cute and looks so innocent in this picture. All I could do is laugh. My beloved late dog would do stuff like this. It was the separation anxiety that made her act up when I would leave. Crating her if I would be gone more than 2 hours became the solution for me.

HaleyMonstah · November 2014

jaztastic said:

Is this really your dog? She is so cute and looks so innocent in this picture. All I could do is laugh. My beloved late dog would do stuff like this. It was the separation anxiety that made her act up when I would leave. Crating her if I would be gone more than 2 hours became the solution for me.

Yes, this is really her

We did crate her until she was about 9 months and she was fine just up until this week.

So weird. Might have to pull the crate back out

I figured it was all the excitement around the baby, but you are probably right about me just being gone for so long...

dontgiveupnomatterwhat · November 2014

bhjones1980 said:
Your constant creating of new threads is stressing me out....

@HaleyMonstah‌ I think @bhjones1980‌ is making a playful jab because of the past couple threads where you two have buttheads.

nbad311 · November 2014

I would try the crate again. I crate trained mine and never stopped. They're old now but it's just more comforting for me to know they are contained when they are not supervised, which is whenever we are not home. Good luck.

kefttsc · November 2014

Your dog should be crated when you are gone and she needs more than a single hour of attention each day.....

aggiebug · November 2014

Crate while gone and exercise exercise exercise.

This behavior is usually either separation anxiety or boredom. Probably boredom given her age.

HaleyMonstah · November 2014

kefttsc said:

Your dog should be crated when you are gone and she needs more than a single hour of attention each day.....

We both work and I don't want to leave her in her crate all day. She's housebroken and has free roam of the entire house, so its never been an issue until now

I wish it was humane to leave her in it for the day, but I don't have the heart to.

I don't just give her an hour a day, I make it a point to spend at least that much with her. Sorry, should have been more clear. She really is a good dog, but I'm dreading her all of the sudden getting destructive.

I was just talking to my SO about this and he said we should put her in daycare right away. He thinks more attention and exercise while we are working is the way to go!

HaleyMonstah · November 2014

nbad311 said:

I would try the crate again. I crate trained mine and never stopped. They're old now but it's just more comforting for me to know they are contained when they are not supervised, which is whenever we are not home. Good luck.

How long are they in the crate during the day?

I just feel so guilty leaving her in there all day

reneamac313 · November 2014

My dog (who is 9 months) has pretty bad separation anxiety that got much worse once I became pregnant. Her anxiety became worse but she also became a million times more protective of me. She would drag my blanket out into the living room (along with any clothes that may happen to be around) to lay on and destroy multiple things. We started crating her and it has made a world of difference. I would suggest continuing to do that for your dog.

kefttsc · November 2014

HaleyMonstah said:

kefttsc said:

Your dog should be crated when you are gone and she needs more than a single hour of attention each day.....

We both work and I don't want to leave her in her crate all day. She's housebroken and has free roam of the entire house, so its never been an issue until now

I wish it was humane to leave her in it for the day, but I don't have the heart to.

I don't just give her an hour a day, I make it a point to spend at least that much with her. Sorry, should have been more clear. She really is a good dog, but I'm dreading her all of the sudden getting destructive.

I was just talking to my SO about this and he said we should put her in daycare right away. He thinks more attention and exercise while we are working is the way to go!

Daycare is a good idea. Another idea is paying someone to come and let her out and play with her at least once while you are at work.

This destructive behavior is not just annoying to clean up, it could easily lead to her eating things -> surgery to remove foreign body. I just had a fb removed and it was approximately $2k, so having someone walk her during the day or paying for daycare is a small expense, I promist.

aetg · November 2014

Was going to bitch about the fifty dollar new boots my dog ate, but at least it didn't end up as a crazy vet bill.

Hernsy · November 2014

That is the cutest face of "yeah, I did it".

I have had to crate my great dane. He is the first one I have had to do that with. He could never settle down from both boredom and separation anxiety. Tearing up clothes, toilet paper (he loves toilet paper and learned how to open bathroom doors to get to it) scratching at doors. Then one night when he was about 8 months old, we went out for about two hours to get something to eat and he knocked a wine rack off of a piece of furniture. There was three bottles worth of wine bottle glass smashed everywhere and not a drop of wine. He was stumbling around and we rushed him to the doggy ER. Thankfully the 1/2 a loaf of bread I fed him on the way helped with the alcohol and glass. The glass was small and they didn't feel surgery was necessary, but if it had been it would have cost upwards of $2,000. Not to mention future health issues.

All that to say that I had to get over my aversion to crating him. I love him too much not to crate him. I bet day care or someone coming by to walk him would really help in your situation if you can swing it.

Alygohome · November 2014

Crate train the dog. I had to crate mine from 8 months to 2 years while I wasn't home. Now at 7 she knows better and doesn't get into things.

lorifromwi · November 2014

My dogs get put in our laundry room while I'm at work. They can have 10-12 hour days alone while we are at work and I agree that I didn't want to crate them for that long. They do wonderfully, no accidents and are happy to go in their room when I'm leaving in the morning. If left out, although fully housebroken, they will have accidents. They get too excited from a squirrel or a passing walker with a dog and it just all goes to shit (literally sometimes).

junebugjam · November 2014

I don't believe in crating a dog. When ours was a puppy we set up baby gates so she had the hallway and kitchen areas. We left her bed and toys in with her. As she got older we expanded to the bedroom/hallway/kitchen and then finally the whole upstairs. She is 3 now and only recently was given access to the whole house.

11 months is still young. Give her some freedom, but not the whole house.

aggiebug · November 2014

If you exercise your dog when you are home it is perfectly fine and humane to put your dog in a crate all day. It is better than then emergency surgery to remove a foreign body.

sweetdreamz6700 · November 2014

Pull the crate back out or try doggie daycare.

Alygohome · November 2014

aggiebug said:

If you exercise your dog when you are home it is perfectly fine and humane to put your dog in a crate all day. It is better than then emergency surgery to remove a foreign body.

YES!

or in my case having her admitted to emerg vet because she jumped on the couch, from the couch to the island, from the island to the counter, walked around the entire counter and ate a whole tray of paint used to refinish old bathtubs.

Or chewed a cord and almost burned our house down. OR chewed a whole in our mattress WHILE I was in the shower.

I took my dog to work with me for the first few years, I walked her there and back (one hour each way) and anytime I left the room or the house for TWO MINUTES I could come back to disaster. If I didn't crate train my dog I guarantee she would be dead by now.

nbad311 · November 2014

HaleyMonstah said:

nbad311 said:

I would try the crate again. I crate trained mine and never stopped. They're old now but it's just more comforting for me to know they are contained when they are not supervised, which is whenever we are not home. Good luck.

How long are they in the crate during the day?

I just feel so guilty leaving her in there all day

9 hours or so. You know what they do all day in there? Sleep!
If I ever felt guilt, it ended years ago. I'm dealing with seniors though and you still have a baby, so daily routines might be a little different. We go for a walk in the morning, and when I come home from work... and they get an additional potty break before bed. They sit on the couch with us when we're lounging at home, have their own non-negotiable permanent place in the budget for vet visits (regular and sick)/ medications/monthly preventatives/supplements/vet-recommended premium food, receive bark box, sleep in the human's bed, are taken on all road trips, and have strict pet-sitter rules & regulations. So, long story short, yes they are unfortunately crated weekdays while we're at work, but my pugs really live the life during non-business hours. I love them very very much..... not in a crazy way, in a good doggy mom responsible way! (DH will argue against this when I buy every pug item I see, however)

As @kefttsc said, I've also dealt with my naughtier pug (sling pug!) getting into things - namely other people's purses, in the earlier years, and GOSH HAVE I LEARNED. It sent us to the vet more than once or thrice and it's cost me a LOT of money. She will never stop searching for edibles, poisonous or not, so her roaming the house/yard/other unattended is us asking for trouble. Your gal may not eat bad things, but the destruction isn't good either!

Doggy daycare might be a good option since your pup is so young! Or, can you get a dog walker to come during the day and give her an extra long, tiring walk?

kefttsc · November 2014

junebugjam said:

I don't believe in crating a dog. When ours was a puppy we set up baby gates so she had the hallway and kitchen areas. We left her bed and toys in with her. As she got older we expanded to the bedroom/hallway/kitchen and then finally the whole upstairs. She is 3 now and only recently was given access to the whole house. 11 months is still young. Give her some freedom, but not the whole house.

You don't believe in crating dogs? Explain.

Mine adore their crates. They have to earn freedom.

Ducktale · November 2014

We worked with a behavior therapist on my dog. Crating is NOT in humane. It's not the same as if a person had to stay in a crate all day. My dog has separation anxiety and he does a thousand times better when crated. It is more familiar/comforting. He doesn't ENJOY his crate, but we would record him while gone, and you could visibly see his anxiety was worse when he had space to roam. In the crate he just laid down quietly.

I was hesitant about crating all day too, but there was an obvious difference in his stress and the professional confirmed.

Smyers2girls · November 2014

My dog actually likes her crate as well. She feels safe in it and there are times even when I am home she wants in it and will paw the door of it until I open it and go in it to sleep. She has her nice doggie bed in it, it becomes a place of comfort to them.

nbad311 · November 2014

Every once in a while the pugs will voluntarily go lay down and hang out in their crates, even when we are home, crate door wide open. Which to me, signals they don't totally hate their crates.
I put forth the effort to make their crates comfortable and homey with a plush blanket, stuffed animal to snuggle with (they totally do), and often one of my t-shirts from the laundry basket "because it smells like mom" *

* don't judge

Alygohome · November 2014

My dogs crates are their bedrooms. They are the safe, quiet, non threatening place they can go and be left alone. If my husband and I argue, our dogs will usually go to their crates if it is stressing them out. If I give them a bone/toy and they don't want to share, they put it in their crate, if I have people over and we are up late and my dogs are tired or overwhelmed they will go into their crate. The crate is their safe place and if I removed them from my house I can guarantee they would be very lost and unhappy without their bedrooms.

reneamac313 · November 2014

My dog loves her crate. She will follow me into the room it is in and sit in front of it wanting to get in it. At first I wasn't keen on the idea but I didn't want her to get into something that would hurt her. It actually seems like she is also much more relaxed when we leave.

mrsclark731 · November 2014

I do believe in crating, and have successfully crated and trained 3 dogs.

My 4th dog, however, is an exception to the rule of crating. He was dumped at the SPCA for 'severe seperation anxiety.' He had a horrific association with the crate. No matter how persistant I tried to be. No matter where I placed the crate, or what I put in it. He would physically hurt himself to try to get out. Even if he was in there for 10 minutes and I was in the next room.

So, there are exceptions to the crating rule.

mle106 · November 2014

We take our dog to daycare once a week- it's great exercise and socialization for him, and it gives us a break where we don't need to walk him. That made more sense for us than a daily dog walker.

We also got a baby gate a few months ago so he can get used to it and being in a certain part of the house if we need him to. We also try to keep our bedroom doors closed when we're gone all day, stuff off the counter and table, etc. Maybe try only letting him have free reign over certain rooms?