General Dog Chat Part II

[BiteyShark]

A place for nattering about our canine friends.

Old or new, feel free to come and chat any time

I know Bitey, I am doing my best by watching a program about Police dogs with lots of barking GSD, but he's just not having it. What can you do?

What do you do when your dog is really naughty?
Is there any point in doing anything?

Steppedog emptied the kitchen bins all over the floor last night, second time he has done this. Mess and smell are awful to come down to in the morning. Not only that, but I don't want him to do this at someone else's house if they are dog sitting.

Is there anything worth doing? As soon as he saw the mess and me this morning he slunk into his bed and looked sad. Stayed there while I was clearing up and making Not Happy noises and faces at him. The second I had finished he was out of his bed and wagging his tail, all forgotten.

Hmmm I don't think BiteyDog is naughty when we aren't around. He tends to save his naughtiness for when he has an audience and then we just remove him from whatever he is trying to do.

Can you get a lock on the bin? Or a different one he can't knock over. We have a massive metal one that I don't think even a big dog could push over. Then at least you know it won't start to become a habit.

he is only ever naughty when we aren't there.

I went out yesterday, dh was upstairs. The second the front door closed he had paws on the worksurface, and had snagged the tin with the cake in it, got the lid off and eaten half the cup cakes, before dh made it downstairs (he had heard the noise)

We know he is a terrible food thief, and we have just accepted that, it is part of his rescue heritage I think , he cannot leave food in case he is hungry

he has also chewed up the odd item when we are out, but usually he sticks to his own toys, he just occasionally gets it wrong and thinks something left lying around is free game (great lesson for dd2 who has become much better at tidying up her toys!)

and he takes things down the garden when he wants attention, especially shoes and socks, but doesn't chew them

all of those we can cope with, but the bin thing is a pain. We have a plastics bin next to the actual bin, and we have already replaced that, as it was an open topped one. Now it has a lid. Hestil sometimes takes things out of that when it is full, but they are cleaned washed out plastics, and he will take out one packet, or two.

The kitchen bin thing is new.
It would have to be a seriously heavy bin though to stop him. He knocked it over last night, and just pulled the bag out and scattered it all over the floor, and the dining room carpet

Lurker. Joining in here!
Our Labrador we had twenty years years ago used to empty the kitchen bin at night or if we went out
Only solution was to take bin out of kitchen every night and put it back in the morning
Bit of a pain but better than the mess she created otherwise !
I think once she was much older we didn’t have to do it any more.
You might find a few months of taking the bin out will break the habit

I am very much NOT a dog trainer, but I’m not sure that they can associate you being cross with something they have done in the past - so Steppedog can tell you’re not pleased with him, but I don’t know he can link that with him pulling the bin over, especially since I’m not sure they have a concept of ‘bad’ behaviour - only ‘I want this’ and then when you train them ‘I want this...but I want that treat/my ball/that praise more.’

All of which makes it very hard to manage their behaviour when you aren’t right there all the time. I am an exceptionally lazy dog owner, and have just removed as many temptations as possible - my bin is in a cupboard, my bookcases now have doors on them, and my shoes are not visible to inquisitive dogs unless they’re on my feet!

Yes we are the same with shoes, all shoes are behind closed doors and if one of us forgets and he wants 'attention' then I usually hear the clip clopping of his nails quickly down the corridor and see him exiting the house looking gleeful with a shoe in his mouth

I think you are right squirrel about bad behaviour.

On th eother hand, he came downstairs with me this morning, and as soon as we walked into the kitchen, he slunk over to his bed and hid. The floor being covered in rubbish at this point.

and there is stuff he doesn't do when we are there, so he knows he isn't allowed.

Hmm. I know what you mean, like SquirrelDog knows that if he wants to keep my pyjamas that he’s stolen he needs to run away, because Mum seeing pyjamas + SquirrelDog = the end of chewing fun.

I find all this so interesting, but it’s really hard to get your head round ‘thinking like a dog’!

BiteyDog is not feeling too good. Dog walker said he had several puddles of poo today on his walk and he isn't his usual waggy wiggly spaniel self

Hoping this is just a blip but he's fast asleep on my leg and I don't have the heart to move him but my leg is numb.

Yay - after a couple of days where he was feeling decidedly fed up with life (very unlike him), teatimetoller has decided that the puppy is actually quite good fun. He’s started responding to her play bows and today they were having a lovely wrestling game with teatimetoller being oh so gentle and letting her get on top of him, having time outs when it was getting a bit much and generally being an angel in canine form 😍

Aww that's so nice teatime

We have just been for our 6 monthly checkup. No issues other than a bit of tartar on his teeth despite us attempting to brush them every night .

Good news though as it looks like supply issues with nexgard spectra tablets have resolved so we got 6 months supply. Was fully expecting to have to swop so very pleased.

Re bins, I had the same problem as it was becoming a habit when I was out of the house and PestDog fancied a midmorning snack.

You can't train a dog when it's not with you (they simply can't connect what you're saying now with what they did five minutes ago, and nor can they feel guilt) so I opted for prevention. He's a small dog that needed to tip the bin over to get inside it, so I put a 10kg weightlifting weight in the bottom of it, which resolved the problem immediately. He doesn't attempt to do it when he's staying elsewhere either.

Putting the bin in a cupboard or utility room would also do the job, or having the dog sleep in another room.

Having a down day here. Thought we were getting somewhere with feet biting but today he's been worse than ever. Distractions not working, bitter apple not working, telling him to leave it not working. Have actual bruised feet.

Goood I know the whole distractions thing should work but honestly it never did with mine. I also know some people don't like the action of removing the dog when it should be be remove yourself instead. However, the quickest way I found to stop behaviour was removing BiteyDog from us. Whether that involved being put in another room or simply being shoved (I have hard floors so easy to slide him out ) behind a closed door it really did the trick as he so wants to be with us do to him it was the ultimate consequence.

I spent months putting toys in her mouth and extracting bits of me. I have one pair of trousers with a big hole on the arse. Yep. Puppy patina I've heard it called. Instant ageing. She's certainly aged me!
Re bins and things happening when you're not there: are you sure it isn't a bit of separation anxiety as opposed to badness? I have a whelping pen (huge as you can add panels.) she still goes in there when we are out (rarely and not for long!)
Also seen the suggestion of a crate over the bin!!!

Can you shut the dog in one particular room when you're going out?

That way they don't get a chance to destroy the bin

I have to shut madam in the living room on when I go out. I make sure anything chewable is put up high out of the way

I think he does have some separation anxiety.
He seems to do things as soon as we leave. The irony is, that often I leave but dh or ds is upstairs. I think I will get them to call him up before I go.
It also helps if we out him in his bed with a chew when we go. He seems to settle down and be fine once we are out. And he doesn't get left very often, maybe once or twice a week.

I mind that less as I understand it. It is usually small things.
But the bin thing is overnight (to be fair he has done it 3 times total) At night he sleeps in ds room, and although he gets sent out of our room, the door isn't shut, so he can push it open and come in. (eg the other night at 4:30 he came in, and nudged and nudged my arm until I couldn't ignore it, so I got up and he was desperate for a wee.)

So I don't think the bin is separation, I think it is boredom over night.
The weights would stop him pulling it over, but he is tall enough to stick his nose in and grab things and pull them out.
I think it is going to have to go behind the utility room door (sigh, pain the neck)

I think I may need to try a Kong again too, or some entertainment thing

Well so much for the vet emptying BiteyDogs anal glands yesterday. He was still scooting along the rug this morning

Oh BiteyDog!
D’you think it’s just become a habit?

He seems to be biting his bum/top of his tail so I think it is irritated . It's a good job the rugs are cheap

Cocodog did her first scoot this morning☹️ Took me back to old lab who went to stay for a couple of weeks with friends of ours whilst we were on holiday. Friends had two young boys who apparently thought the dog scooting was hilariously funny and made much of it. Cue, a bloody Labrador who used to scoot her entire way down our sloping garden to arrive triumphantly at the feet of any visitor. Trouble was I couldn’t always tell if it was her anal glands or not so she sometimes got hauled off to the vets for a totally unnecessary indignity.😬

BiteyDog never really scooted until he had his op to remove the rag he had eaten so I just put it down to him not pooing properly for a while but recently I have spotted him doing it most days. However, he does seem agitated and upset during the scooting so I think they do keep getting full. Vet said some dogs do suffer more when it's hot

“We know he is a terrible food thief, and we have just accepted that, it is part of his rescue heritage I think , he cannot leave food in case he is hungry”

My last dog was an ex-stray, 13 years we had him and the only way we really solved the bin raiding was to have it inaccessible to him.