Yahooanswers sucks, so... velcro dog?

[Sena Hansler]

Oh yeah, we were talking about that. Once we can nueter him it should help with marking - therefore the peeing!!!

I've been making him sit and leave out the door after I do, not first. And sitting before he eats, and only eats when I say so. He hasn't gotten people food however he has gotten raw meat mixed with his food as it is good for them

The stress has been better in the household, mainly because for me it's money worries. Since I make....always under 700 (usually 600-650) which is barely scraping by, and my bf makes a lot more - even his mother has pointed out we can't do the "50/50" for this situation So some things are changing.

He hasn't peed in the house, but I hate the paranoia. I will get a baby gate for the stairs though, so it's less of a worry to always watch him!! He's done less pacing, and I usually only have to make a sound when he starts pacing and he stops immediately.

I am also getting a REAL leash, not the retractable, to help with teaching to STAY, HEEL, and obviously not run away. He isn't bad. Other than the running away part For dogs that can't be off leash, I keep a leash on them and sometimes get to a point they can wander with the leash on without me holding it =D

[Gen2387]

I'm a veterinary nurse so I can probably help you a little.

Potty training is very important. When you catch him in the act (of pooping or peeing inside) you have to tell him NO and put him outside. Don't reprimend him if you haven't seen him in the act because the dog won't make the connection in his head even if you put him in front of the feces or pee.
He obviously suffers from separation anxiety. I have a dog who had anxiety problems when there was storms and I bought her a Thundershirt ( http://www.thundershirt.com/ ) . It works fantastically. I would also seriously recommend seeing a dog specialist to help with the training. If you bring back a balance in his life by making him learn basic commands and training and that he learns you are ''the leader'' it always helps with behavior problems.

The important thing is to not coddle him when he has an anxiety phase (pacing, shaking, crying) because if you do, it only reinforces the behavior. It's like you're telling him that ''it's okay to be anxious and scared''.

Hope I helped a little.
Sorry for my english. Lol! I'm french so I hope everything made sense.

[Sena Hansler]

Yes it made sense lol.

I never "cuddle" or baby him when he does such things, nor use the "shove the dog's head into the poo/pee" methods, because they don't work He's gotten better, I haven't found an "accident" anywhere, which is good.


I will definitely look into getting a thundershirt.

[Aus]

Sena, one day you'll look back on this and laugh..

I adopted an 9-month kelpie who'd been raised in a tiny flat.. he was never walked or played with, didn't know what a ball was. Wouldn't go outside by himself, even though we left the door open all day and encouraged him, put his food outside.. Daughter and I had to coax him out to play - then teach him how to play. He had severe separation anxiety due to being left in the flat all day alone and ruined four or five pairs of curtains (the windows were his focus, which was a worry) and couldn't leave him in the yard for even a moment without him vaulting our 6-foot fences. Once he was confident to go outside alone, he figured out how to work the door handles by himself and would sneak out to follow Daughter to school.. He tracked her right to her class one day and bounded in, sat at her side, then dropped and stayed, like a good dog! He was popular with the other kids, if not the teacher.. He also followed me to the supermarket a few times, trotting down the canned goods aisle all pleased with himself .. "there you are!"

I used to walk in and out of the house a lot... Kelpies are incredibly smart and quick to pick things up (and then innovate! on those things.. gotta watch that.. like the door handles.. ) so it didn't take him long to work out that he was no longer going to be left alone for 12 hrs a day.. we were always going to come home/come back to him. He had his own version of pacing which was this creepy fixation with staring out of the windows. He'd stand there all day if we let him.. shaking and whining. Breaking the fixation was the hardest thing.. until we figured out he liked the TV a lot, and would call him over to watch it with us every time we caught him staring.. then it was ball games. Anything to break that habit, which seemed some sort of 'key' to his anxiety habits - once we weaned him off that, suddenly there no more ruined curtains. Maybe the pooing/peeing and pacing are linked like that..stop the pacing, the pooing may follow!

Lots of his 'play' time with us was taken up by basic training (he didn't know anything at first) but Daughter taught him many tricks on top of that and he couldn't get enough of that kind of 'play' - it really was win/win. He had fun, we got a dog with good manners. We eventually replaced voice commands with hands signals so he'd pay closer attention to us and we weren't shouting across the yard - this worked wonderfully.

We worked so hard to undo all the damage - and then had to leave our house, had trouble finding a new place and in the end couldn't take him with us. He was rehomed with a deaf person who was eager for a companion dog. Being an intense working breed, he loved having little 'jobs' to do (he carried my peg basket while I did the laundry, lol!) so being retrained a 'hearing dog' was right up his alley.

To this day we miss him horribly.. all those months and months of problems seem like nothing compared to what he gave us, all that love and eagerness to work us out, as we tried to work him out.. and all the ruined curtains were worth it.

Sorry for the ramble, but we had such great success with our dog, I felt I had to share.

Good luck with this little guy. I'll be reading his progress..

[Sena Hansler]

Thanks :p

Well I figured out how to get him to eat... and why he WON'T eat. He is AFRAID to eat! Can you believe it?? A natural thing to do, that is survival, and he is afraid?? I have to pet him and praise him when he eats or merely sniffs something edible.

He finally ate a treat yesterday... I got him a rawhide jerky strip thing... He sniffed it, I patted his back and head, he licked it, I did it again, he took it, I praised him as well. He finished it.

I did order the Thundershirt, he cost me 40.00 x.x darn small x-small size D: LOL.

Also I need to get him to gain weight. His hips are so bloody bony. I think he would do good being fatter xD Just... getting him to eat...

Also I intend to tie a toy onto his collar (or halter if I get one) and take them on walks with us with the squeaker in it.

[Laki]

lol Aus! Your dog sounded amazing!! I trained my dog hand signals too but for the purpose ahead of time for when he lost his hearing I didn't want him to feel (the dog equivilant of) disappointed that he couldn't hear commands. My dog also loved to please. I know you miss your kelpie but think that you guys set him up to be a great service dog which gave him a job and helped out his new owner and that's one od the greatest things you can do :)
Sena, to fatten him up would it be proper to mix puppy food in with his adult food? Unfortunately, you might be encouraging the anxiety of being afraid of food by hand feeding him. [I had a period with my dog where he wouldn't eat out of his bowl unless each individual piece was thrown down the hall] Maybe add some gravy - careful of sodium! - or tuna juice to his food so he will eat more.
I think his "fear" of eating might come from environmental factors. Maybe put him in the bathroom with the door closed and (if he needs someone with him) sit with him on the toilet but do not ackowledge he's there. Just read a book or do something and ignore him until he eats. After he's done eating praise him! he'll soon learn that eating = good attention.
Some additives for food; apple cider vinegar (with "mother"), plain yogurt, brown rice (though I never had a problem with white- it's just unnecessary starch and carbs), dog gravy or diluted low sodium reg gravy, garlic powder, low sodium diluted chicken/beef broth, wet canned food. . Those are the only ones I can think of right now.

[Sena Hansler]

I got him to hand feed at first, then put my hand to the bowl and commanded "go ahead" and he eats out of his bowl now :3

Thanks for the additive ideas!!! I did get im some doggy mush... xD It's fish with ground bone, that has other "good stuff" in it, which is supposed to be good for dogs. He refused it obviously so I mixed it between his food, and now he eats it. For 9 dollars I got like... a month's worth of fish mush for the dog :p