Hi there, we are new and have some things to say :)

[Bruna&Bell]

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".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Adrienne]

Hello, and welcome to the forums!

Bell is a cutie and I am so glad to hear such a happy ending to such a sad start in life! She is very lucky to have found you and you are right, she has a very sweet expression of her face. I am also glad she is calm, which is a big plus for a 5 month puppy. 

I will try my best to tackle the issues you have presented so far starting from the order you have outlined. I may have to do several posts for this, so you may see the rest popping up later on the day. Please note that your questions are in bold and my answers are not. So here are my thoughts. 

1) *Whining and Barking when I am not there.* 

 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.

The fact that you were home sick for 3 days may have caused Bell to get used to you being around. She likely has bonded more with you and felt reassured by your presence around the clock during those 3 days. Then, after those 3 days of you being home all the time, the abrupt return to work on Friday may have had an impact on her with your absence suddenly becoming more salient.  

Dogs are rather routine oriented beings, so they tend to struggle with changes. It could be that in the next few days she may adjust again, but a complaining neighbor certainly puts on us more pressure.

 I find that dogs struggle more with being left alone in the mornings. I think this is due to the fact that, after a night of sleeping, they wake up eager to embrace the day and for a dog nothing beats being around the owners they trust. On top of this, after waking up and breakfast, young dogs are very energetic, so they may have a harder time coping with being left alone and at the same time having surges of energy and not knowing what to do with it, which often leads to undesirable behaviors such as whining, barking, scratching doors or chewing. 

Two hours of whining reported by the neighbor needs to be evaluated carefully. Was the whining continuous? Or just on and off? Was it really for a full two hours? To a neighbor with a low tolerance for noises, just half hour may feel like two hours.  Perhaps the neighbor was more annoyed by the time of the whining if she likes to sleep in rather than the duration. Perhaps she made it up that it lasted that long  just to make a big deal about it (she doesn't sound at all like a nice neighbor.) You'll be surprised how many people in the US call animal control to report dogs who bark a lot, but when they come to asses the situation, the barking isn't enough for them to need to intervene. 

I am not sure about what your nuisance barking regulations are in Germany, but usually what can get dog owners in trouble is for how long the dog barks and the time of the barking. If it was truly two hours straight that is considered quite a lot. It may be worthy recording as well on your side to verify if this is truly happening for your records, and also to gain an insight into what Bell is doing during your absence. If she is pacing back and forth and panicking, this  can be a sign of the onset or separation anxiety.  

There are a variety of recording devices nowadays so that you can see what your dog is doing live or you can watch it later on when you come back. Some recording devices are purposely built for dog owners allowing you to see and even talk to your dog. One nifty invention is the Furbo camera which allows you to not only be able to see and talk to your dog but also allow the recorder to launch treats to keep dogs entertained during absences. 

There are several things though that we can do to try to minimize the whining so that this doesn't become a habit. Here are some ideas:

-Waking up earlier, feeding your dog and then going on a nice invigorating walk. This can help drain energy and hopefully calm her down a bit. 

-Providing food puzzles to keep your dog occupied while you are away. Stuffed Kongs, Kong Wobblers, hiding her kibble in the room she's enclosed in treasure hunt style: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/01-sadie-treasure-hunt/ 

-Keep her in an area where she cannot see things to whine/ bark at

-Play some calming music while you are away. 

-Calming aids such as pheromone plug-ins come to mind 

-And just doing what you did, in other words, having somebody stop midday so that she's not left for too long until she learns to be more independent. Some dogs may need to be taken to daycare if coping with being alone is too much. 

Learning to be more independent will take some time if that's what she's struggling with. She has come from a shelter and many of these dogs with a rough start in life come to form an overly dependent relationship to their new caregivers. Some of these dogs may require behavior modification to learn to cope with absences. Since you will be home for some time, it may help working on that these following days. 

Behavior modification for cases of such involves starting with short absences and increasing them gradually over time (mixing in some briefer times), preventing your dog as much as possible from getting stressed. We do this mainly through behavior modification using desensitization and counterconditioning.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/?s=counterconditioning

These terms just mean that we take baby steps to desensitize them (make less sensitive) and carefully gauge for signs of going over threshold (panting, whining, pacing, drooling) suggesting we have pushed them too far. If we go too fast and expose dogs to situations they're not ready for, we risk sensitizing them (make more sensitive) because we are just convincing them that they are right to be anxious as we are exposing them to the absences they so deeply fear. The whole process obviously takes time and setbacks can occur, especially in those cases when we have no way to prevent them from being left alone for longer than what they are comfortable with (which is why it's best leaving them with a family member or other care taker initially for longer absences).

On top of baby steps, we want to also insert counterconditioning which aims to change the dog's emotional response. From being overly concerned and anxious we want the dog to learn to relax, or at least better cope/tolerate when we are away. There are certain emotions and things dogs do that are on the oppositive spectrum of feeling anxious. For instance, dogs are unlikely to eat/play/sleep when they are nervous. So if we can expose them to very small absences and get them to eat or play with a toy that dispenses food, that's a little step in the right direction to help change over time their emotional responses.

In a dog in the beginning stages of training (a dog who hasn't learned yet a great sit/stay and "leave it") I would prepare a muffin tin filling the holes with some smelly treats or some other irresistible foods and let the dog watch me prepare it. I would then place it on a tall table, extending a bit towards the edge. The dog would normally stick around the table and perhaps start whining or even try to stand up to look at it or catch a whiff with his nose. That's fine: I'll take a dog who is a little impatient over suffering from the stress of full blown separation anxiety any day (we can always work on better impulse control and a good "leave it" later, which is much easier to work on).

Once enough anticipation has built up, I would lower the muffin tin and let the dog enjoy the goodies within as I step quickly away out of the door. If the dog starts eating, fine, but if she starts eating but then tries to follow me as soon as he notices me leaving, I will remove the muffin tin and try again (and I may try to increase the value of the treats further or make them easier to access, maybe smear something to lick on the tin such as a bit of cream cheese (if the dog tolerates it) or peanut butter (careful with the sugarless types which contain xylitol, very toxic to dogs!). After another trial or two, most dogs will start eating as they'll learn that access to the goodies happens only when I leave.

If the dog struggles with this, off course, we have to re-evaluate what can be done next, such as split these exercises into smaller steps, increase the value of the food, and sometimes consider whether a calming aid (or prescription meds from a vet) may be needed for lowering that anxiety just enough for the dogs cognitive functions to open up and learning to be able to sink in.

Moral of the story? These cases may require lots of baby steps and making great things happen contingent on our departures. 

As absences progress gradually (always mixing in briefer ones) there may come a point where the use of technology may come handy. Remote monitoring with a nanny cam or a Furbo camera  can help monitor the dog to gauge comfort levels and make adjustments to the plan as needed.

 

 

 

 

[Adrienne]

2) *Fear of being in the car*

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.  

Often fear of being in the car and motion sickness go hand in hand, leading to a chicken-or-the-egg dilemma (dogs can even have a combination of both!), but often behind a case of car phobia is a case of car sickness acting as the leading culprit.

Dogs are naturally prone to car sickness because their sense of balance in their brain is much better than ours so they become particularly susceptible to the motion of cars. Puppies are particularly predisposed to car sickness, and many luckily outgrow it with help, but not all dogs outgrow it as they mature. Also, dogs who have never been in cars or very little may be more prone to car sickness. 

Dogs prone to car sickness tend to salivate excessively, lip their lips, yawn and drool. They may also pace, pant, shake, and swallow often, and some even manage to vomit. What makes things particularly challenging though is the fact that dogs who are primarily anxious, also tend to drool, pant, shake, whine and pace when stressed, so often it is not possible to entirely distinguish one case from the other. If she was calm in the car after being given the car-sickness pill though, it could very likely be that her anxious behavior was due to feeling sick. 

If you are planning on keeping her crated when at work, you will need to acclimatize her to being in the crate. You can first start the process at home. Placing a blanket on the crate can help some dogs calm down. It also helps exercising the dog, playing and doing brain games before so she's tired enough and relaxed to nap in the crate. Here's a guide on getting a dog used to a crate:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/

3) *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".

With dogs who jump to bite and scratch it helps to redirect this behavior into productive training through play. Here are some helpful games:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/

I particularly like to ask nippy and jumpy pups to target my hand  https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ .

or perform sits: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/jumping/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/case-studies/02-maggie-assessing-jumping-behavior-desensitization/

Also make sure to train her to learn to inhibit her biting with this guide:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/train-dog-take-treats-gently/

Here are more tips: 

-Try offering interactive toys. If your dog is coming towards you with the intention to bite, stop her in her tracks by tossing the opposite way a ball the bounces so that she'll go after that or grab a flirt pole toy that he can chase and grab to keep entertained. You may find it helpful to keep several balls in your pocket ready to launch at a moments' notice or carry a flirt pole around your waist like a belt.

- Ask her to sit when you see her approaching you and reward by tossing a treat/kibble away. Do this as often as needed. You should see an increase in the sitting behavior and a decrease in the clothing nipping behavior overtime.

-Remember that learning (of good and bad behaviors) always takes place in all your interactions with your puppy. You may find it helpful to carry a treat bag filled with some kibble on you at all times so to provide opportunities to make good choices. This for the most part initially until you puppy learns to seek alternate forms of entertainment.

-Make sure you provide outlets for pent-up energy. Games, training, exercise and opportunities for socialization should wear her out and provide outlets for her basic needs. With brain games that allow her to chase things and get rewards out of them (like the Muffin Game or Bottle game) she should seek them more and more which can turn your clothes pretty boring after a while because she gets more out of these activities when he's bored.

-Finally, consider tiredness and overstimulation. Young puppies need to play, be socialized and trained, but they also need to sleep and they can get cranky and bitey when they are tired, but unable to fall asleep. If all your puppy's needs are met, give your puppy a safe chew to gnaw on her crate in a quiet area. Your puppy should find her off switch and should soon fall soundly asleep.

In regards to being on the phone....

I like it when dogs perform certain unwanted behavior at certain times or in response to certain situations or triggers. Why? Because knowing when a behavior is about to happen gives us the power to plan on working on it versus behaviors that happen unpredictably. So if her attention-seeking behavior happens contingent upon you using the phone, you can find her some alternate activities to engage in when the phone rings or when you pick up the phone. For instance you can try any of the following:

1) Put the phone on speaker and sit on a chair where you have set on the table a dish with some kibble. While you are on the phone, you can ask her for several hand targets in a row and reward her by tossing a kibble to reward her. This way she gets to work on training, engages in an alternate behavior and gets to also discharge some energy chasing kibble for a fun workout. 

2) You can give a long-lasting interactive toy (stuffed Kong, Kong wobbler) to enjoy on a mat when the phone rings so she can keep occupied.

3) Organize the bottle game or muffin tin game keeping it ready on a shelf and offer it to her right when the phone rings. 

 https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-muffin-game/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/the-bottle-game/

I hope you find what works best for you and your lovely pup. 

Keep me posted on how things go and I am always here for questions and updates!

Best,

Adrienne 

PS. neuromovement practitioner sounds like an awesome job!