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My gf had to go away for a new school for nine months. Instead of having her pay to board the dog I told her we would watch her and she would only have to cover the medical and food expenses.
The Lucy dog is a 2 year old Blue Heeler mix. She is potty trained and is really a sweet dog overall. She's attached herself to me and will not leave my side. Period. She's fine with my pet rabbit but doesn't care for other dogs at all.
My questions. I would like to start making doggie treats as what I buy are getting expensive and I had no idea greenies were possibly not that great for Lucy. Any good recipes anyone would like to share?
Second off, the dog barks a bit excessively and I can't have that. My husband wakes up early in the mornings and she barks. If we are in the living room and anyone comes downstairs she barks. I live in military housing and share walls with people that are paper thin to begin with. Not only that but it kills me when I have a migraine. So far I've been using a water bottle but she still barks like crazy.
I've tried to pinpoint why she barks, like my kids in the living room with a couple of friends will set her off. Even if they aren't that loud. Any sort of door opening of closing will make her bark regardless of what level in the house said door is on. Bathroom doors upstairs she'll bark at while downstairs.
If I'm upstairs in my room sitting at my computer desk or sitting on my bed regardless of who it is she'll growl at anyone going upstairs. She'll bark at my teens coming into my room and has lunged at my son's face once already. Can't have that either. So she's over protective but it's worse in my room. At least I've got that figured out.
That's a good place to start for now. lol There's a few more issues but these are the most pressing. Then I'll figure out how to get her to stop being so fearful of my husband (who has done nothing wrong to her) and possibly like another dog.
She's in her prime and is a very active breed, would exercise her as much as you can (reasonably), she's prob. a tad intimidated and nervous in her new surroundings and a lot of the barking is inevitable but she'll sleep better and longer given more exercise. Does her owner jog w/ her or take her to the dog park, etc? Hopefully you're in touch w/ the owner and she can give you some pointers. I probably wouldnt have offered w/o a trial run, given also that you're in tight quarters and have neighbors to think about. She'll adjust - and so will you - but it may be a long week (esp. if her owner has never gone away).
Re recipes, would just google them - would not give her greenies, a while back they caused problems (blockages?) in dogs and I seldom see them for sale anymore. If she's barking, you dont want to give her treats anyway, in their minds it just serves to reward them and they'll continue the behavior. Milkbone makes some very small 'mini's' (mini-bones) that mine love - but honestly, they dont get many treats, they have to earn them, and w/ more than one dog, you want to be very careful that whatever you give her is bite-size so there's no skirmishes etc over them. Would probably be extra careful w/ her when feeding her etc and when your children are around, she may not be used to children and seems to startle easily.
Best of luck
PS If you really are baking this week, maybe baking some dog biscuits for your next door neighbors (if they have dogs) might be a good idea (peace offering) under the circumstances (I seldom bake but they would make a great gift).
Last edited by Honeycrisp; 03-18-2012 at 07:21 PM..
Thanks Honeycrisp for the advice! We've had her for three weeks now and I know things won't change overnight but something has to give or these next nine months will not be fun.
She is given two walks a day. A good 4 miles with me in the mornings and I have the kids take her out for a smaller one in the evenings.
A trial run probably would have been a better idea but she's a good friend that I went to boot camp with over ten years ago. She's still active duty and if I was still active duty I'd hope someone would help me out in the same situation. My husband says I'm too nice sometimes.
Dog park is out of the question as she can't stand any other dogs.
and yes she's not given any treats unless she's acting accordingly. If anything I think we are giving her too many treats thinking that she'll take more to the kids.
Thanks Honeycrisp for the advice! We've had her for three weeks now and I know things won't change overnight but something has to give or these next nine months will not be fun.
She is given two walks a day. A good 4 miles with me in the mornings and I have the kids take her out for a smaller one in the evenings.
A trial run probably would have been a better idea but she's a good friend that I went to boot camp with over ten years ago. She's still active duty and if I was still active duty I'd hope someone would help me out in the same situation. My husband says I'm too nice sometimes.
Dog park is out of the question as she can't stand any other dogs.
and yes she's not given any treats unless she's acting accordingly. If anything I think we are giving her too many treats thinking that she'll take more to the kids.
Maybe walks is not enough.
I exercise my hound from a pick up truck and let him run.
Start with slow short runs.
Rip is up to 15 miles at an average of 12 MPH.
Your dog likely will never need to do that but, 5 miles a day would make a huge difference.
Omigosh, 3 weeks and for a lot longer, kudo's to you, how lucky your friend and her dog are, it's definitely not easy to get someone to go out on a limb to dogsit for a few hours, much less a lot longer ;-)
My Jazz was a Heeler ( also called cattle dog) border collie mix . It is not uncommon for heelers to not do well with other dogs. I have met some that do great but the majority I have met not so well as they tend to see the world as theirs and are not into sharing and expect others to play bu THEIR rules and will enforce it if they do not. Jazz did ok with dogs she knew but strange dogs no.
I live in a condo so not only did I provide a lot of physical exercise but also a ton of mental stimulation and that would keep her from having issues. Heelers are very smart dogs and need the mental stimulation. I did it when we walked or when I played ball, by doing a ton of obedience drills or tricks during both activities. Like I would throw her ball and make her wait then perhaps release her to get it but stop her part way with a down and maybe a roll over or spin then release her and perhaps stop her again right before she got the ball she had to think a lot and seemed to love it( she was well trained so yes it would be off leash or if we could not be off leash then on a long flexi leash). On walks I would toss in lots of sits, downs etc so she always had to be listening and paying attention to me as did Dash( border colliesX springer) I would also hide things for her to find at home . I had several kong toys and other toys I could stuff food in so would fill them and hide them right before I left to go out or even if I just wanted some" me time" as if I was home Jazz wanted to play all day and if I was working or on the computer I had balls dumped in my lap non stop all day as Jazz only believed in " Jazz time" !
She too liked to bark at things and saw everything and I do mean everything so I got a citronella bark Collar and it worked great ,My neighbors claim she and Dash were so quiet when I was gone that they figured I was taking them to work with me. After a period of time she no longer needed to wear it when I was gone. If she barked when out with me or at home with me just asking her if she wanted the"Barkey collar" shut her up.
Heelers do tend to be one person dogs and while Jazz loved meeting people and was very sweet to people she was very attached to me and if she felt anyone was a threat to me up came her hackles and what I use to call her " ugly face" and she was very frightening looking. I had to be very careful about how people touched me when she was around. She and I had a very special bond and she was my once in alife time dog .
My newest dog Chaos has some heeler in her too and I see it most often in the seeing everything and barking at it issue so when I am gone she wears the barkey collar and is quiet as a mouse. She too wants to be with me all the time but unlike Jazz she is very social and loves to share toys and sticks with other dogs as that means a great game of tug with them.
I think what you are doing is great so hope you can solve some of the issues so that the experience is great for all as heelers( and mixes of them ) are great dogs.
Well, far as treats go, you could boil some chicken breast, tear it up into small pieces and give it to her as a treat. I do for my dogs and they Love it. Best way to get their attention off of whatever is bugging them too. My dogs bark terribly sometimes, when people walk past outside, what I started to do was say a quick "hush!" one time and If they shut up, they get a treat. And If they are quiet after I say "hush!" once and wait with them being quiet for 30 sec, they get some more chicken. Works like a charm. It has been 1 week since they barked uncontrollably.
Omigosh, 3 weeks and for a lot longer, kudo's to you, how lucky your friend and her dog are, it's definitely not easy to get someone to go out on a limb to dogsit for a few hours, much less a lot longer ;-)
I agree, very nice friend. Especially to take in a Blue Heeler.....I haven't met one that I've liked yet.
I think I'll head over to check out the citronella collar today. That hopefully will curb some of the unnecessary barks. I've done a lot of reading and researching but I've yet to figure out why she sees my kids as a threat and growls at them. She lunged at my son again last night and all he was doing was petting her on the floor. Everything was fine she was happy and then just snapped and lunged at his face. I watched the whole thing. He wasn't even looking at her he was zoned out on TV. I'm guessing she had some kids that were nasty to her earlier? I made her go to the garage immediately.
She's scared witless of my husband if I'm not here. Which I am 95% of the time. I'm a SAHM and we only have one working vehicle right now. If she's downstairs waiting by the window for me to come home and my husband simply walks down the stairs and so much as says hi to her she pees. He doesn't scold her or anything because he knows she has issues. She's fine with him if I'm home though.
Thanks everyone for all the help though, we'll get through this.
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He doesn't scold her or anything because he knows she has issues. She's fine with him if I'm home though.
