Dog Sitting for my parents.. Is this normal behavior? (barking, train, adopted)
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MY dog goes outside right before I go to bed… Goes for a quick walk and goes to the restroom. Sleeps for the rest of the night, wakes up when I do and goes outside again. (She's staying there with me obviously)
My mom’s dog goes out 4x a night. She jumps on the bed, barks and digs at the blankets to get my attention. Problem is she only goes out to bark and sniff around. My mom says she does this all the time.
If it’s not too cold (Im in Texas) she’ll be outside for most of the day while I am at work (in the backyard). I take them for a walk when I get home (again if it’s not too cold). If it is, I play with them in the house so they can run around and exercise a bit.
Is this normal dog behavior? Going out just to bark? It’s driving me nuts and Im losing sleep. I cant really ignore her when she asks to go out because she might really need to go out to the restroom.
Anything I can do? I have to deal with this for another week!!!
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,055,877 times
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Your mom obviously allowed it, so the pup sees nothing wrong with it. It's only normal in that your mom perpetuated the behavior. You could try to retrain her this week, but she'll very likely just go back to her old ways as soon as your mom returns.
Your mom obviously allowed it, so the pup sees nothing wrong with it. It's only normal in that your mom perpetuated the behavior. You could try to retrain her this week, but she'll very likely just go back to her old ways as soon as your mom returns.
Thing is when we adopted her, she was trained very well.
Now, not so much. Example, if I ever have dinner at my parents house, her dog sits there in the dining room right by the table. My dog doesn’t. She might stroll in but I tell her “OUT” and she steps out. My mom says she does this because she’s scared of me. My dog doesn’t bark as much and my mom also says it’s because she’s scared of me. My dog barks just doesn’t bark at everything lol.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,055,877 times
Reputation: 28903
Yeah, I'm totally with you but I'm assuming that your mom's dog is with your mom most of the time, right? Dogs adapt to who they're with. With my dog, we were together 24/7 (I work from home) and his behavior, when my husband would get home after work, changed to adapt to that new dynamic. They get used to their people -- and that extends to what they can and can't do when their people are around.
Dogs are creatures of habit. They thrive on routine. If waking your mom up four times per night was not ever stopped (by your mom), the dog sees nothing wrong with it, because that's her routine.
Yeah, I'm totally with you but I'm assuming that your mom's dog is with your mom most of the time, right? Dogs adapt to who they're with. With my dog, we were together 24/7 (I work from home) and his behavior, when my husband would get home after work, changed to adapt to that new dynamic. They get used to their people -- and that extends to what they can and can't do when their people are around.
Dogs are creatures of habit. They thrive on routine. If waking your mom up four times per night was not ever stopped (by your mom), the dog sees nothing wrong with it, because that's her routine.
Oh yeah... As soon as my mom gets home from work, she sits on her shoulders on the couch. She never leaves her side. I guess I just have to put up with it but it' tough
It's perfectly normal for a dog that is allowed to do it.
That really sums it up. I'd say grin and bear it this week and then tell your mom you don't want to dog sit again. I know that isn't easy to do, but you're an adult now. You can be assertive without starting a fight. Tell your mom how her dog's behavior affected you, your sleep, your work, etc. Then you might see if you can teach her how to retrain her dog, because you appear to be pretty good at raising a well behaved dog.
If I were you, and I had to get up and go to work in the morning, I'd put the dog in another room (without carpet), and ignore any barking that happened in the middle of the night (using earplugs if necessary).
I was dog-sitting for a friend a while back. The dog sleeps in my friend's bed at her home, but it was understood that the dog would not be sleeping in my bed during that week. The first night, I put the dog (and his doggie bed) in my bathroom, closed the door, and the dog barked for what seemed like the whole night (thankfully I'm retired and my husband was working out of town, so the noise was not a big deal). Night #2, the dog barked for about 10 minutes, then not another peep all night. All the rest of the week, and every time I've dog-sat since then, the dog is perfectly quiet after I put him in my bathroom.
So, perhaps you will have similar success if you set your boundaries with mom's dog.
Your moms dog does that because she allows it. I have a good friend that is too lax with his dog and he lets his dog pretty much do what ever it wants too and to be honest it is annoying , his dog is a brat and I am starting to not enjoy being around them as much. My dogs have manners and do as I tell them too and that is the type of dog I want to be around not some dog that is allowed to do as it pleases.
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