Quote:
Originally Posted by electricevoix  So I know this if my first post but I'm really desperate at this point to try find a solution for my current issue with my yorkie. Back story is that Mia is about 4 yrs old. I got her when she was a puppy, i'd say around 6 months or so. I was living at home with my parents still and went ahead and house trained Mia. I also got her because my grandmother lived with us and thought hey what better company for my grandmother than a little puppy and also because I fell in love with the Mia when I first saw her. She learned to use pee pee pads and eventually would just go to the bathroom where her pad was and do her thing on her own. Here's where the bad habits come into play. Since she was a puppy I tried crate training, unsuccessful. So since then she had been sleeping in either my bed or my grandmothers bed. Never caused any issues obviously and while I was at work she had someone to keep her busy during the day.
Fast forward to December 2012, my fiance and I purchase our first home. It's a 2 level townhome. My fiance was very adament that if the dog came with us that she wouldn't be allowed on couches or into our bed. I agreed, since these aren't habits I would like to continue being i'm sharing a life, a house and a bed with someone and want to respect her wishes being it originally is my dog after all. So we mutually decided to put her in our downstairs coat closet with a wall gate that has a door. I prop the door wide open every night and the closet is very roomy especially for her size. I would say the space is about 3 ft wide by 6 feet long. At the back of the closet I put her pee pee pads to keep them away from her bed. She's had this bed for the past 2 yrs i'd say. I figured in order to avoid a total shock it would be good to bring things to the new house that she would recognize, so the bed and all the liners she had before came with as well as the wall gate I used at my parents house.
So in order to try to get her adjusted to the "new" process we started putting her in the caged area every night, she has food and water in there as well. Also some of her old toys in there as well. Trying to keep as much as she would remember and feel comfortable with in that caged area. In the beginning she would whine a little on some nights and others not at all. When she would whine or bark I would walk out of the room onto the landing and yello no, she would stop. Then maybe half hour later start up again and I would yell again. Certain nights she would keep doing it so it got a point I was in and out of bed so many times I would go downstairs and repremand her, smack her on her bottom and say "NO!" to try to reinforce that it's not good behavior.
Now the past week she has been non stop whining leading to barking. The yelling from the landing doesn't seem to work anymore. Going down and repremanding her doesn't work. This morning pushed me more than ever. She just keeping doing it and I got about 3 hours of sleep total because she wouldn't stop and nothing I did worked. Now my fiance is really upset about it as well because it's affecting her sleep as well which in turn affects her health.
To give you some additional details about the schedule these days is she is mainly home alone for a very large part of the day. Main reason being is due to the time of year and we are both accountants. We work very long hours. I'm out the door by 7 am and my fiance is out by 8. Neither one of us is home before 9 pm on any given weeknight. I know this doesn't help the situation but work is work. As soon as I get home I let her out, put her in the bathroom with a pad she does her business and I let her run around the house to get some exercise. She follows me around the house and I play with her. My fiance and I will watch a little tv and Mia wants attention so i'll put her on my lap and she'll be perfectly fine, with the exception of late. Even on my lap she's been prone to whine a little so i'm totally confused as to what to do to try to get Mia used to the new house and new pattern on things.
Anything i've come across related to this issue has been with puppies 8 months or less. Given Mia is older than that i'm wondering if something can be done differently or did the 4 yrs of past behavior become permanent? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! |
Okay, so here is the thing:
Dogs are very social animals. If you have a dog, it is very natural for it to want to sleep with you. They are not meant to be alone all the time, and will never be happy with that. There is a great dog training book that I read a long time ago called: the art of raising a puppy. It's written by a group of monks that raise German shepherds. While your dog is not a puppy I think that it would be an excellent book for you to read so that you could understand where dogs are coming from. Mia is not being a bad dog because she does not want to sleep downstairs in the closet by herself. I have owned many dogs in my lifetime and I can promise you that none of my dogs would have been happy with that sleeping arrangement.
She also definitely needs more hands on time with people. Either a dog walker or perhaps a daycare but because of her small size it would need to be at day care with small dogs.
Being outside by herself really isn't an option because some very terrible things can happen to small dogs when they are by themselves.
I'm sure that you love her and that you very much would like to find a situation that will work. In order for that to happen I think that you may need to learn a little bit more about why dogs are the way they are so they'll understand that some of the things you were asking of from Mia are really too much to ask for a dog. They need our love, companionship, and leadership. They will never abandon you and they will always be your best friend even if you are not being a best friend to them.
I know that you are trying and I hope that you will really do some research so that you can incorporate Mia into a life with you and your fiancé. I believe that that is what you really want to do, and that is why you are here at Yorkie talk.