RYLEE SCHORN

Hi! I have posted here before about my Golden retriever Ollie. He is doing really well with leave it and stay. Every time I feed him I practice sit and stay. We also have two cats. Our cat bowls used to be on the kitchen floor where Ollie’s bowls have now taken over. We had to move the cat bowls up on our kitchen table (not ideal) because Ollie would try to eat their food. Ollie is currently 15 weeks and is very smart but also loves food! I am trying to figure out if I can ever have the cats bowls on the floor again and if theirs a way to prevent Ollie from eating their food. I have a feeling that I could distract him and command him to stay or leave it once I initially pour the cats food but the problem is the cats eat 3/4 of their food and then finish it later. I’m guessing the answer to this will just be to feed the cats in another room. I can do this but it’s not ideal as the other rooms are carpeted and we sometimes close the doors so that Ollie can’t go in but we also want the cats to have access to their food at all times… Any suggestions? Thanks for reading!

Thank you for your replies on my posts! I have been following your suggestions on your original post. I have made pretty good progress so far. He has stopped barking/whining while watching me pour his food in the bowl. He still does some jumping up and when he does this I stop. Random question but I just want to clarify: do I stop in my tracks and go silent or am I suppose to say ‘no’ or ‘down’ in addition to stopping what I’m doing? I will continue to do this as I’m confident he will continue to make progress. It seems like the barking is occurring more when he is not in on the action. For example he will be quiet in his pen while I’m watching tv on the couch (because the couch is right next to the pen) but when I go to the kitchen or the other room he will start barking. I don’t know if it’s a case of separation anxiety? But the weird thing is we have a home camera and whenever we walk out of our front door to leave him home alone for a bit he doesn’t bark. It’s basically just barking whenever we are home but in another room (more like attention seeking barking). Is there anything I can do about that specific problem or should I just ignore him when he does this? - Also just thought I should add that we don’t keep him in his pen all the time. We try to have him out with us whenever possible but we also don’t want to just give in because their are times where he needs to be in the pen or crate. He’s not trusted yet to be in the carpeted rooms because he tends to pee on them. Thank you!

Hi, I recently made a post about my puppy (12 weeks) barking a lot while I’m in the kitchen. This post is slightly related because since this incident he’s also been barking more in his crate. Ollie had been doing pretty good in the crate, only barking and whining for a minute or two once putting him in for the night. Since this event he is now barking for 10 plus minutes and then waking us up at 3 and 5 in the morning with random bouts of barking. He was sleeping through the night before this happened. A quick summary of the event; I was cooking in the kitchen and Ollie was in his play pen in the living room barking, whining and jumping erratically. — Btw he used to never do this. The barking began after I introduced fresh food into his diet along with his kibble which is why I made my last post (trying to prevent him from barking whenever I prepare his meals and now when I’m in the kitchen period). I have been working on the kitchen barking but now I need to try to get him to like his crate again. — Going back to the event — I tried to calm him down with distractions like toys or telling him to sit or saying ‘quiet’. Well several minutes went by and it wasn’t working, he was barking louder and I was losing my cool. I was on the phone with my spouse who was trying to explain the cooking instructions to me and I could no longer hear him over Ollie’s barking so I put Ollie in his crate which he was resistant to and moved his crate into the other room, closing the door so I could hear and finish cooking the meal. Since then it seems like the barking in the crate has increased. And looking back on the event I am sure it has caused him to dislike his crate. I’m guessing the advice would be that I just should have continued to ignore him? So now I am trying to repair the damage I’ve done. Any advice you can give me? I know a bit about trying to create a positive association with his crate as I did that from the beginning but now it seems like I’m starting over. Thank you

My golden retriever puppy has started barking/whining before mealtime. He is obviously excited and I’m not sure how to stop him from doing this. I read the section on the form about excited whining. I read to give the dog attention once it stops barking. What happens is I feed my puppy half kibble and half fresh food. The barking occurs when I’m preparing his food in the kitchen. I put Ollie in his pen and he sees me getting his food ready. Once I walk over with his food bowl he generally stops barking and will sit but is barking whining and jumping the whole time I’m preparing the food. Any suggestions on how to stop the barking while I’m in the kitchen? Thank you