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08-22-2008, 12:09 AM | #1 |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2008 Location: West Chester, PA, USA
Posts: 323
| Tea with strange behavior issues. I started to post this in the health forum, but she's not unhealthy and has a clean bill of health from the vet. Some of this is hard to explain in writing, but it's very easy to see if you live with her. For the past two weeks, she seems to be sulking a lot. It's kind of like pouting that a small child does. She also snorts at the other dogs, and the best way I can explain that is that it's kind of like the "Hmmmph" you see on comedy movies when a rich lady walks by someone she thinks is beneath her. She's recently gotten in fights with the other dogs and I had to break them up. Tea has always been our alpha, even though she's not the oldest of the dogs and she's the smallest one. She's always been very possessive about toys. Now she's very selfish. I've been catching her hoarding toys in a specific place like under a footstool, and she guards them, then she snarls at the other dogs if they try to get a toy. I'm trying to deal with this as a behavior issue, which I hope it is. What I can't figure out is why all of a sudden? Nothing at all has changed at our house. It's worrisome to me that an adult dog would have such an abrupt behavior change. Do any of you know of any physical conditions that might cause this? Thanks so much. |
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08-22-2008, 12:26 AM | #2 |
Banning Thread Dictator Donating Member | Good for you for getting her checked out at the vet first. I have no idea why the behavior would come on suddenly, especially with no changes in the household. Hold old is she? Maybe it's just something she grew into? As for hoarding, I have one of those. He started the day I got my second Yorkie. The best advice I received was to take charge of all the toys in the house. Tea needs to know they are your toys, not hers, and you decide when it's playtime. A behaviorist I met online had me pick up all the toys in the house, and bring them out only for supervised toy time. Since my hoarder was aggressive, he was leashed during toy time. When toy time was over, all the toys were put away. It was hard for me to do, but I can honestly say it worked. After a couple weeks, I was seeing a difference. After a month, the problem was effectively under control. He still has issues from time to time, but now I'm able to leave the toys out all the time. The other main advice I was given was to increase his exercise. A tired dog is a happy dog. Good luck. Maybe someone else will have some ideas on why the behavior started so suddenly.
__________________ Mike ~ Doting Dad to Jillie, Harper, Molly, Cooper, Eddie (RIP), Lucy (RIP), Rusty (RIP) and Jack (RIP). Check us out on YouTube Last edited by alaskayorkie; 08-22-2008 at 12:27 AM. |
08-22-2008, 12:53 AM | #3 | |
Donating Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2008 Location: West Chester, PA, USA
Posts: 323
| That's the funny thing... Quote:
I so much agree with the exercise thing, but we have a very large property and she runs so much that I don't see how her little legs carry her so far. My DH calls her "Ranger" when we're outside and often says, "Where are you, Ranger?" She's very hard to keep track of in the yard and we often find her in a neighbor's yard. Someone told me years ago that terriers just roam, but none of our other dogs do that. They do roam the yard, and some parts of that are still far enough that we call them back, but Tea just does as she pleases. If I take three minutes to water plants, she's out and about. It's really hard to find her sometimes because she just looks like a little black spot in the yard if she's that far away. When you leashed the one who had the problem, were others leashed as well? I haven't tried that, but I think Tea would think she was being punished if she had to wear a leash in th house and nobody else was wearing one. She's around a year and a half old. | |
08-22-2008, 01:11 AM | #4 |
Banning Thread Dictator Donating Member | When I leashed, I just leashed the hoarder (Eddie) But I predominantly played with him. I gave the other one a toy, and he was fine with that. Then I tossed a ball for Eddie on leash and had him drop it. Several times, he tried to get the other toy, and I wouldn't let him. But I tried to make the game I was playing with him fun. When I was done, I picked up all toys. We got to the point where Jack, the other dog, is allowed that one toy. He's fine with that. That's all he wants. And Eddie leaves it alone. How does Tea do with learning tricks? Eddie stares at me like that when he's bored and wants me to play with him. You don't want to encourage him to stare at you all the time for attention, but maybe some mental exercise would tire him out in another way. Just ideas. I'm certainly no expert.
__________________ Mike ~ Doting Dad to Jillie, Harper, Molly, Cooper, Eddie (RIP), Lucy (RIP), Rusty (RIP) and Jack (RIP). Check us out on YouTube |
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