Behavioral Problems
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"DownTime" DownT...@noSPAMplease.com
Our 1.5 year old female, who came via rescue, is creating serious issues in the household. We got her at about 6 months of age and for the most part, she is better than when we first got her. Lately, she has reverted back to chewing carpets and her bedding, in particular a new area rug my wife just purchased. For a while she only chewed her toys, and occasionally her bed.
She has plenty of toys to play with during the day..
We have purchased an adequate size crate, slowly eased her in, without punishment, to help let her know that this her 'safe' place. The first afternoon we tried, she barked, and was quite excited when we got back, but no real major problems. The next full day, she appeared to have coped without any significant problems, except for a red area on her nose from apparent rubbing on the inside of the crate. Today, she rubbed herself(face) raw, defecated in the kennel, barked incessantly, and destroyed her bed, and tipped over the water bowl.
My wife is just about of the point of giving up on her. I am torn between giving up and being more diligent in correcting the unacceptable behaviors.
I travel regularly for work and the behavior is worst when I am not home.
When I am home, she is one of the most lovable dogs you will ever know.
Is it reasonable to consider some sort of drug therapy while she is crated to reduce the stress and anxiety? What is the best, most humane method for correcting these type of behaviors?
Thanx to all.
"Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei" shenpei_kenn...@hotmail.com
My advice would be to get another dog for her to play with. It seems like she is bored and she suffers from separation anxiety.
Also how long is she in the crate for???? Personally I wouldn't leave mine in a crate for more than a couple of hours, being cooped up in a small space where she can not move, play would certainly tick her off.
As for drugging her just because she is bored and seems like she needs stimulating, I don't feel is appropriate, unless she has a medical problem, but I don't think that is the case.
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"DownTime" DownT...@noSPAMplease.com
Chris & Robyn, I did not include this other detail, but we also have 9 yr old male shar pei. They play great with other, although he is not as willing to play as often as she is. We have had him since he was a pup and never had a problem such as this with him.
My goal is to not medicate her indefinitely, but something to maybe help get us over the hump here, as the damage is mounting, as well as our frustration.
The create is 42 inches long, and 22 wide, certainly not cramped, but definitely not the run of the house. The problem is than one day she is an angel, the next she is a terror. If the behavior was more consistent, it might be easier to deal with.
What type of testing is necessary to determine if maybe it truly is a medical condition? It is easily diagnosed?
"Chris & Robyn, Shenpei Sharpei" <shenpei_kenn...@hotmail.com> wrote in message ...
"Vox Humana" vhum...@hotmail.com
I think it is highly unlikely that your dog has a medical problem. I would recommend that you get a consultation with a behavioral specialist. Your vet should be able to give you a referral. It sounds like a case of separation anxiety. It could be something else. We had a female that was the perfect dog for years. She never destroyed anything. We moved to a house in the country and she began to tear thing apart. One day I came home to find that several wooden shutters were torn to shreds. We discovered that she was trying to get to some wildlife outside the house. In our suburban apartment where she grew up there was no wildlife to be seen. The solution was to close all the shutters so she couldn't see outside. Later we moved to another house. One day I came home to find some door casings scratched and gnawed. I couldn't believe that she would do that. Later I found a mouse drowned in the toilet. Apparently she went after the mouse and when it went into areas with closed doors she tried to claw and chew her way through the door frame.
I rescued a male from the roadside. He had many medical and behavioral problem. One of the most disturbing problems was that he would urinate in his crate. We had him checked for kidney problems but didn't find anything.
Finally the vet asked about the size of the crate. I ***ured her that it was quite large. She told me to get a smaller one or partition off most of the crate. The dog only needs enough room to turn around and be comfortable. It isn't a place for her to get exercise. If your dog has had the opportunity to void her bowels and bladder prior to being put in the crate she should be able to go for 6 - 8 hours without needing to be relieved. It is unlikely that she would defecate or urinate in a crate and then lay in her own excrement. My male only wet in the cage once after I blocked most of it off and when I came home he was nearly standing on his tip-toes to avoid contact with the urine. After several weeks of being dry I slowly expanded the size of the crate. I would recommend that you get a smaller crate or reduce the size of the crate you have. You can get a water bottle that hangs from the outside wall of the crate. That will eliminate the spilling of the water bowl. Your dog may have simply tipped the bowl in her frenzy or she may have done it intentionally.
Everything that I have read indicates that dogs do all their destruction in the first 20 minutes after you leave. You might try to condition her to your leaving by going about your normal routine and leaving for a few moments. You can repeat this many times, lengthening the time you are a way from a few seconds to an hour. Eventually your leaving will be so expected and your return so predictable that she will stop her destructive behavior.
In the short run I would get some of the bitter apple spray sold in pet stores and apply it to things you don't want chewed. You can also use the crate in conjunction with the above conditioning exercise. That is, put the dog in the crate and leave for 90 seconds. Come home, let the dog out and give her a treat. Repeat this many times over a few weeks until you are gone for an hour or two. I would try to limit the total time in the crate to no more than 8 hours. If you are gone longer that that I would consider making arrangements for someone to let her out.
As far as medication goes, I would try to avoid it. I think that medication is good for sporadic control of behavior such as when traveling or if your dog has trouble coping with holiday fireworks. For situations that are predictable and ongoing, dealing with the behavior is better although more challenging. I think that adding medication to the mix while trying to extinguish the destructive behavior may prolong the problem and make learning more difficult. You are trying to teach the dog to comfort herself, gain confidence, and learn that your coming and going is predictable and benign. The dog isn't any more likely to learn well while sedated than you would be able to learn while you were sedated.
Good luck with your training. Don't give up on your dog. I was at whit's end with the problems I had with my rescue dog. I got to the point where I was trying to find him a new home. With some small changes ( like reducing the size of the crate) I was able to overcome the problems. Now I can't imagine what I would do without this dog. He is the most loyal companion dog I have ever had.
"Vox Humana" vhum...@hotmail.com
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We crate trained our first bitch, the one that tore up the shutters after we moved. After she was about 6 months old we gradually started to leave her out of the crate when we weren't home and with the exception of incidents I mentioned there was no problem. When she tore up the house we tried to put her back in the crate. She wore the skin off her nose trying to get out.
There was a bloody mess on the floor from her wounds. Peis can be so determined!!! We couldn't leave the male out of the crate because he also would pee on the floor if we didn't let him outside about once an hour.
Also, the female was very alpha and there were continual episodes where she would try to put him in his place and then he would bite her. We would let her have the run of the house and he stayed in the crate. After she died, we were able to leave him out of his crate. We solved his wetting problem by installing a dog door. It was just a matter of him not being able to tell us when he needed to go outside. After the door was installed he never peed in the house again. Now THAT was a major frustration for us. He not only peed, but he would pee while walking in circles around the house.
There would be concentric trails of pee in every room! Since we got the female when we lived in a third floor apartment, we trained her to ring sleigh bells that were attached to the door frame when she needed to go outside. It only took a few days to teach her to nose the bells. We tried that with the male but he was frightened of the noise.
I understand what you are saying about your pei escaping the crate. After we installed the dog door which led out to our deck and attached dog run, the dogs had the ability to go outside at will. Since the male needed to go outside frequently we couldn't lock the door and leave him out of the crate even if he was the only dog at home. The first time we left the bitch alone for a few hours she found an escape route via a lose board in the fence. We fixed that. Then she applied her training used to teach her how to open the dog door to open the gate on the deck. We couldn't figure out how she was escaping, so I pretended to leave and then snuck around to the back yard and watched her go to the gate and pull on it until it opened. We had to get a new latch. We got a new female last year. She has not only learned how to open the gate on the deck, but she also learned how to open the gate on the front porch. We had to buy a different latch for that gate recently. Now if someone comes to the house we have to make sure that the gate is latched because she lays in wait to open the gate. Peis are so smart that it scares me sometimes.
"DownTime" DownT...@noSPAMplease.com
Our older male and the female who p***ed away last year were an absolute breeze to train. We got him at 4 months of age and has been housebroken ever since. With the exception of a few illness related accidents, he is by far the easiest dod to take care of that I know. He rarely ever barks, and on one occ***ions in particular, when we had to go away overnite, he was stuck in the house for over 24 hours without a single accident. We had arranged for our neighbors(friends) to come by and let him out, but he would not let them in.
Funny now, but I can only imagine how hard he worked to hold it. Another time he got out thru a board in the back fence, and actually stayed on the front porch till we got home.
The one who p***ed last year, which we adopted at 10 weeks, simply followed her big brother around and learned from him. I guess we were spoiled by basically not having to train or correct any undesireable behaviours.
I can relate to the 'peis are so determined' comment. The female has damaged her face trying to get out. I fail to understand how she can be so distraught. We have an appointment on Saturday to talk with a behaviorist.
"Vox Humana" vhum...@hotmail.com
I hope the behaviorist can help. Sometimes it just takes someone with a little experience and an objective oiewpoint to turn things around. Let us know how things progress.
angelwings14 ...@aol.comnospam (Angel Wings14416)
If I may add something to this discussion, I have a Pei that my son rescued from the street; she had been abused so badly, in bad health, etc. And so, we got her fixed up medically, etc., but still she is my son's dog. We think that maybe it was a female who abused her, as she doesn't trust me one whit. It has now been two years that I've had her here; no unacceptable behaviors, but she is really a "loner" dog. As time goes by, she is getting closer to me and would protect me, but she still prefers my son. She has a strange personality, is very clean in the house, but obviously was terribly abused. I hope that you just give her a chance, as Peis are really good dogs. Punishment and crates don't work with this one; they only make things worse. Good luck to you, and don't give up !!
Jessica
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