Thread: At wits end
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Old December 20th, 2009, 11:29 AM
twruble twruble is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Calgary Alberta
Posts: 35
Thank you cassiek and the gang.

Kirby does sleep in a kennel along with his housemate "Boobie". She is a one year old Japanese Chin (no behavioral issues). Both of them are crated when nobody is home and at night. They both enter this "den" freely as it is in the kitchen.

Kirby will pee in the crate; we quite often awake to finding a puddle outside of it which tells me he lifts his leg and lets 'er rip. He has also pooped in there and the Boobie will let us know quite vocally when he has done so.

It strikes me as she is quite often trying to reprimand him for bad behavior. He is excitable whenever I come home and will jump/bark/yelp/etc. I walk away and ignore him until he settles down, she will bite at the back of his legs and neck in an effort to do the same.

In the hierarchy of things Kirby has always been the low dog on the totem pole no matter what dog is around as he seems to exude low self confidence.
My first post mentioned that he is looking for constant reassurance and what I meant by that is that he will not let us interact with the Boobie without his face being right in there trying to get attention. He gets attention too but unfortunately much of this is negative attention because of his behavior.

To make him feel good I most often always greet him first, give him treats first, etc.

When I mentioned that I feel sorry for him its because he is such a head case. When he is calm and in a happy mood he is quite lovable however the neurotic spells are so commonplace that we will avoid him.

Cassiek, he is neutered.... the gang... what are belly bands?

Last night I ordered a product called DAP that is supposed to calm high strung dogs by emitting phermones that a lactating mother would. Has anyone tried this product?

For me the greatest immediate need to is to combat the peeing (both marking and submissive). I think if we could get that under control the mood would lighten in the house and Kirby wouldn't consistently be drawing attention to himself in such a negative manner.

Perhaps we really need to look at play and walking schedules and make a concentrated effort to step it up a notch?
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