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Obsessive Barking/ Behaviour problems
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[A little background: My Weim Charlie and I just moved between provinces almost four months ago, joining my boyfriend and his Husky named Sahara. We’re<span style=”line-height: 1.5em;”> in the process of trying to get a house, however for now we are stuck in his apartment. I am finally just getting settled enough that I can afford to do proper training and will have my vehicle back in two weeks to be able to have personal transportation.]</span>
When I put Charlie and Sahara both away in their own crates or together, Charlie will be quite when I leave and barley make a peep. If he even thinks theres potential that I will be leaving the house he goes right into his crate for me without asking.
The problem is I struggle to manage both dogs at once and so the problem i’m trying to get to is that when I leave him alone without Sahara in order to take her out for a washroom break/walk, he has an absolute melt down crying and yelping as absolutely loud and frantically as possible. From what I can tell this usually subsides within 10 minutes but I have neighbours to worry about so I cannot just let him cry it out. Does anyone have any suggestions to help keep him calm when he is completely alone?
My other issue I have with Charlie is that he is scared of strangers (and bicycles, and skateboards, and scooters and anything else with weird wheels), that combined with the fact he is easily excitable and curious, as soon as he sees a person or animal he barks extremely loud and jumps and tries to jump all over them. I’ve noticed and man people look fearful of Charlie now because he is so loud, large and jumping around like maniac. In fact just a few days ago he almost took me out flat on the sidewalk trying to keep him calm when he saw a dog at the other end of the block and I have to just stick with avoidance whenever possible.
Please if anyone has any advice at all I would appreciate it or knows of any reputable trainers in the Edmonton, AB area.
Thanks! and of course as i’ve been typing this Charlie is sleeping like an angel on the bed near me curled up on my sweater.
Sounds like most Weims I know, to be honest. Making sure their “go to your spot” command is rock-solid will be a good start. Even so, sometimes I need the water spray bottle to let it sink in that it’s not a game.
Other than that, time, practice, patience, age.
Forever Weimanamanama
I had some similar issues with Seamus when he was an only dog and I left the house. What finally worked was having a good routine for leaving. That meant for us that he would go to his bed, get a treat, put on his pawz away collar (disc w/collar so he wouldn’t get on the couch) and I would put a blanket over him (Seamus loved his blanket). This seemed to help him know what was going on (I was leaving) and helped him stay in a calm state. If he got up from his bed, back to bed, calm, blanket. It took A LOT of practice. I actually did this every day numerous times (would go get the mail or walk around the yard) to get him used to it. I find dogs really like routine.
I have also always made a habit of taking one dog out seperately from the other once or twice a week so they would be ok with that. At first I would have to give the one that stayed home a kong of some type of treat that would keep them occupied a few minutes.
But in your situation I would start out with baby steps. Have Sahara sit by the door (act like your going out) and have C do his crate routine. Then just take it as far as he can handle. That might mean just walking to the door and touching the leash, but not leaving. Repeat Repeat Repeat. Do it like once every hour in the evenings when your home. He will start to learn that nothing bad is happening. Remember to stay calm! What a behaviorist pointed out to me (behaviorists are really people trainers) is that I was so anxious anticipating Seamus to have some sort of melt down and that he fed off of my body language.
I also had MANY issues with Seamus being leash reactive to just about everything (he even charged a little statue of a goat in my parents yard). That I didn’t have the expertise to correct by myself. I got a behaviorist to work with me. It is influenced a lot by how you are feeling. For example, one day Seamus freaked out about something on our walk, I was so mad about how a person had reacted toward Seamus that I decided to walk away, but was very much in my own mind (thinking about what I should have said) and walking very briskly that I passed my neighbor with 3 littly yappy dogs without even noticing (and Seamus not reacting). Take a deep breath, walk tall and act like you have everything under control. Ask someone else to watch you. I caught myself hesitating or (ever so gently) pulling back on the leash if I saw something coming after the behaviorist called me on it.
Hope this helps a little. There are also some good books on leash reactive dogs.
Charlie sounds like Athena. As you know we have put in many hours with our dog trainer.
The other day she went nuts at a skateboard. I asked the girl if it was ok if she smelled it. The girl stepped away and Athena barked and lunged. Sniffed and realized it was ok. When the girl went back on the behaviour was better. Not good but definitely better. Practice and slow exposure seem to help.
Weimanamanama Weimaranermama
Sorry guys, I’m a little delayed in responding. I always forget about this handy little website when I get busy 🙂
Thanks for all the advice, some really great stuff.
And with some good new, between the efforts of both boyfriend and myself…Charlie’s behavior in regards to people coming into the apartment and the buzzer going off has dramatically changed. He is definitely not perfect but he is night and day in comparison. It is so nice to come home and not be knocked over or to know that when someone rings the buzzer he won’t go berzerk or take ten years to calm down when they come in.
We have a long ways to go and lots of different things to work on but it feels so amazing to see the positive changes!
Well, if you can manage it with Charlie, maybe we should put in a bit more effort with Athena 😉
Forever Weimanamanama
BasG and I have gotten ours to wait with saying hello to us until we put away what is in our hands. Now I still need them to wait until I take my coat off.
i am happy Charlie is doing so much better!
Weimanamanama Weimaranermama
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