Search the Community

Hi there. Sorry if I write such a long post. Bell is a shepherd mix, 5 months old. She comes from the south of Italy where she was abandoned in a bag as a puppy with all her siblings and the mom tied up to the door of the shelter. I must say few things about us before, she has been in the shelter since the abandoning. I got her 3 weeks ago, driving half way there (I live in Germany). She could be with her mom playing, everytime the shelter holders went there to feed and clean the place (which was at a distance from the city, with many fields around). Therefore she is used to be alone almost all day and to see me taking care of her more, made me almost immediately her "the one in charge". She is very social, sweet and calm. She keeps mostly her tail between the rear legs, wants to stay more home than to go out and play or walk and barks only at other dogs seen from the window or cats when we meet them on our way outside. Before her, few years ago I had a Rottweiler girl for almost 14 years together with my ex husband. I have 3 Kids, triplets, 9y. old, that come to me each other week. One of them sits in a wheelchair. I live at the 1st floor of a building, in a rented apartment and I work 8 hours a day outside home. Bell is a lovely and very smart girl. She has seen me once going to the toilet and from then on, when she has to and I didn't get the signal in time she goes there potty. For her "emergencies" I put a puppy toilet in the bathroom, which I am taking day by day a little bit more close to the outside door. During the night she likes to sleep on her crate which is also her transportation box and at a certain point in the night she come to me, jumps on the bed and sleeps at my feet. I have these 3 main issues to solve: 1) *Whining and Barking when I am not there.* In those three weeks, Bell has always been together with either me, my mom, my mother in law or my kids. I went to work andd left the house for 8 and a half hours, having kids and grandma home. Apart from a few very usual accidents with potty, we all dealt with it pretty well. They had to leave the house for max.2 hours to go to school/music/training and so on. Bell was alone home. Nothing bad happened and she went potty on the toilet if she needed. The last one has been the first week where we are in the house alone, Bell and I. I went to work on monday 5:30 a.m. knowing that a friend of mine was coming to take Bell outside at about 11.00 a.m. Everything went just fine. Then I was home sick for 3 days. On Friday I had to go back to work, the same way. At 11:00 my friend took her out. The neighbour though, was awake at 6:30 because of the constant whining and barking of Bell. You can imagine her disappointment, telling me "that was very irresponsible of you!" ...but to me the effect of her words was "just wanting to point the finger at you and give you the guilt of my own frustration". after all, she doesn't have pets, her kids are grown up and independant and she jumped up right away to the conclusion that was more convenient for her, including calling everyone around and telling about how much she was bothered by my irresponsabiity. My question is, is a whining of 2 hours long after 3 weeks of living together (where the dog was already alone at least 2 hours) really so bad? It was the first and single time it happened. My kids were more difficult to deal with at 1 y.old when I wanted to go somewhere by myself!!, but you know, they do not bark so loud, a dog can be "brought back to a shelter" but a kid cannot. Now, one of the things that got me to your training is the way you explain that you need to reach the brain of your pet, talking about neuroplasticity, I am a neuromovement practitioner, I know what you're talking about! Let alone the fact that I know I was not irresponsible, I asked someone to come at half time of my absence, I made sure she couldn't hurt herself, I left her toys and fresh water to drink and a clean toilet she can use in case,.. I would like to gradually make her understand that it works that way, I may be outside for long but I always come back for her and everything is taken care of. I know it will have to be gradual, and frankly, the neigbours will have to be patient for a few weeks until I really get her feeling safe. Is there a quick way to train her being alone and not whining? I must profit of the next 3 weeks, where I will be home. 2) *fear of being in the car* she was brought to me 1300Km from the south to the north of Italy in a cage, in a cold and loud transporter full of other dogs. You can imagine the trauma. When I got her on my arm, I cuddled her a bit, then I put her in the transportation crate I also use for her as a bed. She slept for the hour driving and nothing happened apart from a pee accident. That night she slept deep in her crate. The afternoon after that I thought to bring her to the pet shop and get some things for her. I took her and put her on the car, in the crate as the day before. It was a 3 minutes driving to the shop, and 3 mins back. She drooled so much she made the whole blankets in the crate and the whole self wet from it. She repeated this behaviour for the whole week while I was in Italy at my moms. Friday night I gave her a pill the Vet prescribed, to avoid car-sickness and she slept and was calm, not drooling the whole 8 hours driving back to Germany. I have already brought her in the car for just few minutes at the time, bringing the kids to school. Everything looks fine now, she has understood I am not leaving her. But I am doing it without the crate. She sits on a mat on the rear seat, with the safety belt and the harness. I would like to teach her to be calm and feel safe also when I bring her with me to work. I can get out of the production plant often enough to let her out. It is a solution I may need in case no one can go home to look after her. But I don't like to leave her on the seat, I will use the crate. *jumping up, scratching and biting* She got very long nails. I must trim them, but because they are black and she is so small, I don't want to risk anything and I am waiting for the first visit at the vet. Still she comes to me at times and jumps up. I try to ignore her, but it is pretty impossible to do that when she is hurting you. The same goes with the desire of attentions as soon as I talk to someone at the phone. She starts biting me, bites everywhere, the sweatshirt or the hand, the pants, the feet...her milk teeth are pretty sharp, she didn't change them all yet. How do I get her to not use her paws to catch my attention? I need something in addition to the "ignoring".