Dog doesn't like us leaving the house.

[melissasmummy]

We have a Jack Russell pup who will be 1 at the end of April.

Just recently we have experienced problems when leaving the house. Whether it's us, or guests.

I am a SAHM so he is never really left for very long. When DH leaves for work in the morning, he will jump up & try & nip him, scramble about on the floor at his feet, literally preventing him from going out the door.

We have tried taking him into the garden, putting him in another room, putting his lead on and trying to restrain him, but as soon as he gets wind that we are leaving he will start the usual behaviour. He will also do it when I try to leave the house with the DD. It is becoming an arduous task to leave the house!

We need to be able to train him to stop. He picked up "sit, stay, down & no" with ease. We are working on leave & he seems to be picking it up as rapidly as he did the others. When we try to command him during this behaviour, he will not listen to us. We even tried to use rewards, but will ignore any attempt to distract him.

He is confined to one room when we are out, he has water, chew toys, radio is sometimes left on. He is fine when we get back and we know he doesn't spend the entire time barking as we have asked neighbours.

Please are you able to advise a solution? We need to stop this soon.

[Ellbell]

What do you do when you leave, MM? Do you make a fuss of him? Stroke him? Say stuff like 'Be a good boy now, we won't be long'? If so, you could be unwittingly 'training' him to be anxious about you going.

OTOH, he might just be getting excited because he associates people getting coats on and going through the door with going out for walks.

Whatever, and especially because he's trying to nip (which is never acceptable), I'd physically restrain him when he tries to do this (grab him by his collar, hold him down on the floor till he stops wriggling, then physically pick him up and put him on his bed, give him the command to stay and walk away from him. As soon as he goes to move, go back to him and put him back on the bed... repeat as often as necessary. If possible, I'd do all this without talking to him (yelling at him is only going to increase the excitement) but just with a simple 'no' if he tries to nip. You may need to leave extra time to get out of the house for a while, but if you're consistent he'll get used to it. If he stays on his bed and lets you get out of the door with no problems, then go out, close the door behind you (so he knows you've really gone) but go back in almost immediately (wait a minute at most, just to check he's still calm). If he's calm when you go in, reward him with a treat (or whatever he likes - but don't make a huge fuss of him and wind him up) and then repeat the whole business while you leave again. Very the amount of time you stay away at first so he's never sure when you'll be back with his treat. And only reward him when he's calm. Any excitement just gets 'no' and you ignore him.

Don't know if this will work (sorry - just realised that I wrote it quite authoritatively, but it's just a suggestion). Someone else might have other ideas.

[Ellbell]

Sorry... vary the time you stay out (not very)

[7up]

ive got a one year old jack who has a crate in the kitchen which is quite big that has food, water, chews, loads of blankies in and i leave the radio on for him. when i go out to work or wherever i leave him in the crate and hes got used to it now. put him in his room, shut the door, say goodbye and leave him, he'll get used to it when he knows your coming back. mine drives me mad when hes running round the house. he sleeps in my eldest boys room at night and whines from 2oc in the afternoon coz he knows my ds will be coming home from school and getting a walk. dogs aint daft are they

[melissasmummy]

Thank you ellbell & 7up. We have tried making a fuss/not making a fuss, so at the moment neither have worked.

The treat coming back in sounds like a good idea, as all we do at the moment is say hello to him & until we are out of our coats etc, he gets pretty much ignored. I have to go out today, so will try your sugestion, EB. I guess we haven't been consistent with this, using this method & that. So will see if it works.

Thank You.

[boo70]

Hi my sister has a jack russell and he is the same when you leave the house, he does go to bite people its got that bad! Vet suggested shooting him with a water pistol as he chases you out of the door, but try not to let him see where the water is comming from. She has tried this a couple of times now and seems to be working so far......(unless you have a mad dog like mine that loves the water)

[jamese]

We used to have the same problem with our 2 dogs (now 14 & 15 so quite a while ago). The vet suggested that we gave them a treat when we left. so we always give them a bonia (or half each). That way they don't get anxious about us leaving as they are more than happy to have their treat....

[Ellbell]

The water pistol thing is a good idea. You could also try those training discs (you throw them down on the floor and they make a noise and create a distraction). It takes a while to learn how to use them properly, though, so you might need to get someone (e.g. perhaps someone from your local dog training club) to help you.