Oh dear....

[flick]

The day that she arrived, shortly before I went to bed I put Jodie on her bed in one of the store rooms, locked the door between there and the kitchen, and off we both went to sleep: not a peep out of her until she heard Mike moving around the next morning, although she'd obviously had a little bit of a scrabble at the outside door.

Last night, on the other hand....

I put her on her bed, and she followed me back to the kitchen. I put her back on her bed with a chew, and she followed me back a bit before stopping to have a drink. I went upstairs and was just getting undressed when the thudding noises started, as she threw herself against the door. They stopped after a couple of minutes, just about for long enough for her to check out all the space she had access to for alternate escape routes, then she started scratching. Then thudding. Then scratching....

I didn't want to come downstairs and let her out again, even to tell her off, because it seems like that gives her the attention she's after (even if it's negative attention). She didn't sleep in her bed at all last night, presumably she stayed in front of the door.

While we could move her bed to the spot she likes to lie in in the kitchen, it'll be far more visible if she also trashes the door between the kitchen and the rest of the house.

(Neither of us wants her sleeping in our bedroom at night, and we're trying -- with quite a bit of success -- to teach her that she's not allowed upstairs at all. I can't imagine that working once we're asleep and she can plonk herself down where she likes.)

Help! Do we just keep putting her in the same place and ignoring her, or do we give up? I am genuinely a little concerned about how long the door will hold up if she goes at it as much as she went at the frame last night.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Keep doing exactly what you're doing, for the next three days.

It's actually very likely that she'll learn this new habit, and be fine with it. And if she doesn't then you can try something else.

But dogs, like kids, learn new patterns relatively quickly, provided you're firm with them. The last thing you want to do is try one thing, and then change, and then change again.

[flick]

I know this in my head. Just not when I'm trying to sleep and she's banging her head against the door trying to get through it....

I've been leaving her in there on her own throughout the day, though, and she's maybe a bit better. Goes nuts when you let her out, though: I have to take her straight outside to run around!

[andrewducker]

"I know this in my head. Just not when I'm trying to sleep and she's banging her head against the door trying to get through it...."

This is how my brother ended up with his kid sleeping in his bed most nights until the kid was seven. Because when the kid climbed in at 3am it was easier to put up with it than live with the crying fit. But if he'd actually put a stop to it it would have lasted three days of rubbish sleep, andoverall the cost would be lower.

I'm not convinced that you need to keep her in solitary confinement during the day - dogs can differentiate "daytime behaviour" from "sleeping behaviour". So long as she knows that that's where she sleeps you'll be fine, it'll just take a couple of days to get her used to that.

[flick]

Fingers thoroughly crossed. We are doing all we can, etc!

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Two options, 1: Get her a crate as a safe place to sleep in and encourage her to go into it whenever she needs time alone (Bren still goes into his crate when he understands that he's been naughty). Keep it in the store room, with the crate door open during the day and make it clear to her that it's Her Space (if you're very lucky she may already have been crate trained as a puppy and understand this.)

2: Put her in the spare room on her own during the day for increasingly longer periods (starting with two minutes), close the door and leave. She should eventually get the message that you've not Gone For Ever.

We have a spare crate that I think would fit her, if you need.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I was going to say.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I don't think she gets the idea of time alone, and safe places are where the humans are....

I've been trying out option two today, though. We seem to be getting a wait of a few minutes, then a little scratch, then silence when I say 'NO' through the door. When she comes out, she is the Happiest Dog Ever, which is very sweet.

(I thought we'd try throwing a stick in the garden, earlier. It was desperately exciting, but she doesn't seem to have the whole 'stop running at the stick' part down, much less the 'then bring it back again' bit.)

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

And, thank you! I was hoping you'd have some suggestions!

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Also, put a child gate on the stairs - that'll keep her on the ground floor!

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

The success of that might depend on how big the dog actually is -- if she's big enough to cause damage to a door by throwing herself against it, she may be big enough to jump it.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

She's probably too heavy to jump that high; some big dogs jump well (deerhounds, for instance) but not big heavy carting dogs (like her) or mastiffs.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I suspect you're right, but I think she'd probably smash through where the gate attached to the bannisters.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I don't think she could jump it, having heaved her over a stile the other day, but I'm pretty sure she could smash it down and splinter the banisters!

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

Find her a home where she can be happier?

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, super idea: I'll take her back to the rescue, where she can go back to spending 23 hours a day in a cage failing to be adopted because she has a breathing problem, is enormous and strong, and needs to be somewhere with lots of land. Because that would obviously be a better solution than being aware of the fact that her owner just died and trying to work with her to get over her abandonment fears while also letting her spend most of her waking hours yomping around in our fields, getting fussed over and being in company with humans.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

You know, Ina and I were just saying how wonderful it was that you and Mike never for a moment considered taking her back. Damn it, all dogs are problems at some stage. Draco was crated for eighteen months, then decided that he was NOT STANDING FOR IT and barked and scrabbled so much Ina allowed him to sleep with her. Bren, on the other hand, sleeps in the sitting room but demands to be let out about 5 o'clock and wants to be fed. Then he either jumps on my bed and sleeps with me and the cats, or sleeps on the sofa. No problem.

Currently, because they bark and we have neighbours, we are experimenting with a noise-making aerosol and reward when stops training, and it seems to be working...

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

She is, fingers crossed, not a barker. We've had a couple of woof out of her, once when the fence guys came to collect the wire they're selling for scrap and a couple of times when she's got excited when playing.

We've got up to fifteen minutes shut away. She's an ecstatic ball of fluff when she comes out. In fact (sigh) I suppose it's time to pop her back in for a bit longer. Poor thing.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Dogs sleep in their beds in our room. We rather failed at this bit.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

We're both fairly keen not to end up with that, but she's obviously been used to it. We'll see how we do!

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Well, Tyson came expecting that to be the case and Maryse decided that puppy would be allowed. Puppy now thinks she can sneak onto our bed in the middle of the night, which was fine when she was a puppy but she's a tad big now even for a king bed.

Still, they like being with the pack and when I'm away on business trips Maryse likes the security.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Who is bemused_leftist? (I as as you're on his FL...)

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Er... not 100% sure... friend of Andrew Druckers I think. We met that way.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Ina suggests you might try leaving a portable radio (voices, not music, so 5!Live or Radio4/World Service) on very low at night to keep her company.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

I had wondered about that: I usually have R4 on during the day, and she seems quite happy with it, so I'll give it a try (assuming I can find a spot with some signal out there: this house is a bit dubious for it!).

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

A crate is a good idea. Something else you could try is some sort of comforter - the blankets I have around the house look like they are for cat hair but they are actually things that smell like me,

Whatever you do, don't give in. That way lies vomit on the duvet.

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Obv that's all do as I say not as I do.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Before we got her, we took an old towel that we'd (aham) rubbed over our hot sweaty bodies, and we left it in her bed, on the grounds that then it would smell of us to get her used to the idea and then of her so that we could put it in her new bed and make it smell nice.

This afternoon, in an attempt to further encourage the whole staying-in-the-bed idea, I moved the cushion off the bed to favourite kitchen spot, after which she lay down on the floor next to it. I could try one of my blankets, on the bed, though: anything's worth a shot!

[con-girl.livejournal.com]

Didn't you say that she'd lived with another dog? Would a second dog help? Or maybe even a stuffed toy? Some dogs seem to find them very reassuring.

Is there a "job" she could have in the shed? My grandparents' dog was always on watch from "his" garage (they had a half gate made out of metal) and he watched the world go by. No barking unless someone entered the driveway. He also had lots of toys and it was a big space. Also, during the day people were in and out of the space a lot which might have helped create the notion that it was a good space. She might think she's being punished especially if there is a lot of sucking up afterwards. Maybe a special treat only given in the shed? Or a game you only play there? Something to make it an awesome space even without people present?

It's still early days yet.

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

Yes, she did have a friend but, unfortunately, the friend was easier to rehome and they weren't so inseparable that the rescue wouldn't split them. The only non-psycho dogs at the rescue presently are puppies, and trying to deal with a puppy as well....

Good point re: people going in her space. I think I'll take my book and go and sit in there for a bit, see what she does!