New Behavior Problem

[Halli's Mom]

Up until Monday, Halli has been an angel. This week she turned 4 1/2 months, and what a different dog!

We used to crate her at night, but she really hated it and would bark alot during the night. We tried an experiment letting her sleep in the master bedroom/bathroom at night with us UNCRATED and it worked GREAT. She slept longer, no barker, no accidents. VERY CONTENT.

During the day we decided to babygate her in the master bath while we were gone, as she really liked sleeping on the tile in there, and has been housetrained for weeks. This worked GREAT for a week. Then the weekend came (probably the catalyst to the new behavior problem) and we spent all of our time with Halli, not gating her or crating her at all. In fact, we took the crate down. My husband and I both work during the week, and one of us will come home at lunchtime to walk Halli. Monday is when the fun begins.

Monday noon: Halli had knocked over the babygate, peed in the master bedroom. No other damage. Babygate replaced in such a way it could NOT be knocked over.
Monday evening: Halli had CLIMBED over (I can't imagine she jumped!) the babygate, and again peed in the master bedroom.
Tuesday noon: (door to bathroom now closed, no babygate). No problems.
Tuesday evening: PEE everywhere in master bathroom, except the spot where she was sleeping.

We are guessing a) She doesn't like us gone and b) she doesn't like to be confined in the master bath. She has toys and some water in there and a window. If she hadn't peed in the master bedroom, I would have considered leaving her the run, although she is still pretty young for that, like I said, she's been housetrained for weeks, though, and we come home every 4 hours. (nevermind that she holds it for 8 or 9 hours at night)

Our plan is to see if she continues this "peeing" while we are gone for the next 2 days, and if the rest of the week goes the same way, I guess it is back to the crate.

Any suggestions???

 

[Jeannie]

I would suggest the crate. If she objects, just let her know that you a boss and she is to stay there. Also, I would not leave water. If you are coming home at noon you can give her a drink and potty. She won't die of thirst for a few hours.

 

[brendapiepiorka]

Definately the crate. We used it religiously till maggie was about 7 months old. Then at night and when we are away, she is in the kitchen with a gate. She has the french doors to lie infront of and look out. I still don't give her the run of the house when we are gone. First off because of the stairs and second, because she is still a little rough on the cats and I figure they need a peaceful night too

. And she is ten months old.
Brenda and Maggie

 

[sarnewfie]

definatly the crate as others stated, you could try two baby gates but my feeling is she is smart enough to knock the bottom one out.
you have a typical landseer.
when someone comes home, she really needs her mind challenged, is there any toy, like a rewarding toy that you have there, such as a buster cube? you can put her breakfast in that, go to work, and than let her out to pee, there are other interactive toys out there, she is bored and needs to be kept occupied.
try a kong toy, fill it with yogurt and freeze it, or freeze a sock such as what luckytohavenewfs suggested wet the sock, knot it up and than freeze it, you also can freeze peanut butter in a kong toy.

 

[Snow Angel]

It is amazing how angelic they can look but oh my home alone I think some of them grow little horns when we close the door.I used to have to argue with my husband about putting ours in the crate when we were not home(they seemed to be alright at night without being confined)It took a few scares and a number of destroyed items to get him to see that once their in their crate no harm can come to them and they can 't cause any!Now at 13mnths when they see us getting ready for work they go into their crates without a fuss!!!!

 

[sarnewfie]

http://www.animalplaza.com/breeders/kickoffs/newfdld/index.html
well i bought a newfie devil for tonkas mom and dad, they can be found at the link above, i am not sure wich page this brings up, but if it is the map for newf breeders, hit home, than at the home page pick your breed than choose merchandise or products and you will see all kinds of neat breed items for sale, i thought the newf devil was appropriate! LOL
i also bought the GSD dressed in a doctor outfit, for my sister, she is an MD and she loved it, so i marked the site and will most likely get her a few more items from there.

[ 01-22-2003, 08:51 AM: Message edited by: sarnewfie ]

 

[Annie Milliron]

No matter how much you puppy proof your house, there is going to be something, somewhere that is dangerous to Halli. A crate is the best solution... both your house, and Halli will be safe!!!

I agree with you about the weekend... you inadvertantly undid a lot of your training (I'm positive I would do the same thing!). Even when you are home, she should be crated occasionally for "quite time".

It's important for you to "win" this "battle". She needs to know that you guys are in charge. I'm certain she'll grow to love her crate. And, if you really hate the idea, once you know she's trustworthy, you can try again. I'd get a taller babygate then!!!!

Good luck!
Annie

 

[Halli's Mom]

Thanks for all the replies...and what you all have said confirms what I thought. Crate it is.

(oh, when I said the "run" I just meant the bedroom/bathroom -- NOT the whole house! She is in NO WAY ready for THAT!)

My little "devil" dog will just have to deal with going back in the crate during the day. Maybe her halo will come back!

 

[Marthas Vineyard Newfie]

Hi Hali's Mom..

I have never grated Murphy. He is 14 weeks old. From the day we got him, it has been constant supervision and professional training
for him. He is house-trained, and extremely well behaved. Because of my husbands work, we have to travel in a public boat and bus once a week. We do take Murphy with us. He lets us know when he needs to potty. I have grown identical twin daughters, and training Murphy was a lot more work, than house training my kids. Murphy will begin water rescue training this summer

I love seeing his freedom in the house, and he is a good boy.

 

[Sound Bay Newfs]

Definately go with the crate. As she grows, she will become stronger and smarter. Then if she starts to damage things and you decide to crate her, it will be more difficult. Remember the teenage stage is ahead. Even though they can seem like little angels when they are little you cannot guarantee that it will continue forever.

 

[MGoBlue]

I no longer feel alone with this problem!
I also have a 4 month old "angel" who has found more ways to get around a baby gate than I could ever have imagined.
We actually use the baby gate in 2 ways:
1 - to keep her enclosed in one part of the house (i.e. away from stairs) and
2 - we use it inside her crate to section it off as she grows.
See, Carmen seems to be perfectly comfortable with having "accidents" in her crate, because she's small enough to poop in one end and lay in the other. We use the baby gate to make her space smaller so she won't do this. Well, there has been a few times when I have found Carmen innocently lying on the correct side of the divider, but poop on the side that's supposed to be empty. I was befuddled, so one day I decided to spy on her. I witnessed her using the center adjuster rod like a step; she was launching herself right over the top of the baby gate! She would do her "business" and then climb right back over to the clean side.
To fix this, we adjusted the divider so that it was off the floor, leaving only a small space at the top and bottom of the crate. It was too little space for her to be able to climb through, so that should have fixed our problem, right? Nope. She found that she can poop on her blanket and push the blanket under the divider, onto the other side of the crate!

I guess I have to give her credit for being resourseful!
But the main point is - like you, I KNOW she can hold it for more than 3 hours. Some days I think she just gets angry when she's left alone. I have also found that Mondays are the worst. She gets used to us being home all day on the weekends, and isn't used to getting back into the weekday schedule. I am going to try to crate her for a couple of hours on the weekend, and then maybe she won't have such a tough time adjusting back and forth between weekdays and weekends. I'll let you know how it turns out!