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Dog psychology
Jan. 6th, 2006 03:06 pmMy puppy dog is upset, and if he could just speak English, this would be much easier.
So, okay. He had to be in a kennel for a week, while we visited D's family in Tahoe, and once we got him back from the kennel, we thought he'd have a great time playing with my family's various kids. Except some cousins were there too, with their extremely allergic 7-year-old, so Frank wound up shut in a bathroom one evening and left home by himself the following evening. The day after that was quiet, and I stayed home with him, but the next day was the 31st, so once again he got left home alone for many hours. Without access to his usual sleeping-space, because that was being used as a guestroom and the door was shut to keep him out. We'd moved Frank's bed out to the hallway, which was apparently a bad thing to do.
Got home around 2am to find bits of the dogbed strewn all over the hall. Stuffing and chewed-up pieces of fabric were absolutely EVERYWHERE. Frank, meanwhile, seemed simply overjoyed that we'd come home, and I couldn't tell if he even remembered having destroyed his bed. I got it all cleaned up, and assumed that I was simply dealing with a neglected pet who was telling me as clearly as he could that he didn't like being left by himself.
Except that, in the days since then, he's been behaving bizarrely. He doesn't seem noticeably sad or anything, but keeps going places where he knows he's not allowed to be. It started with him sleeping on the sofa in the tv room (totally forbidden, as he knows full well), and coming into my office while I'm there (that room has always been off-limits for him). Now it's escalated into going into my office when I'm not there, and also hanging out in our bedroom, which is also never allowed.
My best guess here is that he's a territorial animal and he's distressed about his place having changed: he used to have his bed in his particular spot, and then we moved his bed, and now he doesn't even have one anymore. So to retaliate, or simply to act out his distress, he's transgressing every boundary of place that he knows.
Or am I overanalyzing?
In any event, it has to stop. We had originally not even been sure we would replace his bed, as this is the fourth one he's eaten (though it lasted longer than any of its predecessors, and I doubt he would have destroyed it if we hadn't moved it to the hall). But the lack of a bed does really seem to upset him, so we're heading to PetCo this afternoon to buy a new one. And I fear we're going to have to bring back the electric collar for a while -- which is how we originally trained him not to go into my office or the bedroom. And man, I felt so terrible about that at the time. It's a conditioning system, so if he gets too near someplace he shouldn't be it beeps at him, and if he keeps going it zaps him. And the first time, oh my how he yelped and ran for comfort -- straight into the arms of the people who'd done this to him, though of course he'll never understand that. I give it credit for being effective, as I don't think he ever got zapped more than once; he'd back off as soon as he heard the beeping after that one time. But I felt like such a terrible, cruel dog-parent, being so mean to a poor stupid puppy.
Anyway. I hope this all blows over with the new bed, because meanwhile I feel like my dog is broken, and that's kind of unsettling.
So, okay. He had to be in a kennel for a week, while we visited D's family in Tahoe, and once we got him back from the kennel, we thought he'd have a great time playing with my family's various kids. Except some cousins were there too, with their extremely allergic 7-year-old, so Frank wound up shut in a bathroom one evening and left home by himself the following evening. The day after that was quiet, and I stayed home with him, but the next day was the 31st, so once again he got left home alone for many hours. Without access to his usual sleeping-space, because that was being used as a guestroom and the door was shut to keep him out. We'd moved Frank's bed out to the hallway, which was apparently a bad thing to do.
Got home around 2am to find bits of the dogbed strewn all over the hall. Stuffing and chewed-up pieces of fabric were absolutely EVERYWHERE. Frank, meanwhile, seemed simply overjoyed that we'd come home, and I couldn't tell if he even remembered having destroyed his bed. I got it all cleaned up, and assumed that I was simply dealing with a neglected pet who was telling me as clearly as he could that he didn't like being left by himself.
Except that, in the days since then, he's been behaving bizarrely. He doesn't seem noticeably sad or anything, but keeps going places where he knows he's not allowed to be. It started with him sleeping on the sofa in the tv room (totally forbidden, as he knows full well), and coming into my office while I'm there (that room has always been off-limits for him). Now it's escalated into going into my office when I'm not there, and also hanging out in our bedroom, which is also never allowed.
My best guess here is that he's a territorial animal and he's distressed about his place having changed: he used to have his bed in his particular spot, and then we moved his bed, and now he doesn't even have one anymore. So to retaliate, or simply to act out his distress, he's transgressing every boundary of place that he knows.
Or am I overanalyzing?
In any event, it has to stop. We had originally not even been sure we would replace his bed, as this is the fourth one he's eaten (though it lasted longer than any of its predecessors, and I doubt he would have destroyed it if we hadn't moved it to the hall). But the lack of a bed does really seem to upset him, so we're heading to PetCo this afternoon to buy a new one. And I fear we're going to have to bring back the electric collar for a while -- which is how we originally trained him not to go into my office or the bedroom. And man, I felt so terrible about that at the time. It's a conditioning system, so if he gets too near someplace he shouldn't be it beeps at him, and if he keeps going it zaps him. And the first time, oh my how he yelped and ran for comfort -- straight into the arms of the people who'd done this to him, though of course he'll never understand that. I give it credit for being effective, as I don't think he ever got zapped more than once; he'd back off as soon as he heard the beeping after that one time. But I felt like such a terrible, cruel dog-parent, being so mean to a poor stupid puppy.
Anyway. I hope this all blows over with the new bed, because meanwhile I feel like my dog is broken, and that's kind of unsettling.
