We adopted our dog Muri last week from a rescue organization. She's a complete sweetheart but needs so much attention. She follows me everywhere (might even want to take a shower with me!!), keeps an eye on me when sleeping in her crate, needs to be close all the time and so on. I'm more than happy to help her adjust (I believe it's her insecurity and adjustment period) but there are times when I need to leave her on the other side of the door or ignore her. That's when the problems start - she starts peeing and pooping everywhere. It literally takes a moment after I close the door. I assume it's her way of showing she needs attention? How can I address this?
Last night after she destroyed her crate and it was too late to get a new one, I had to leave her to the bathroom (didn't close the door but blocked the doorway so she couldn't get out). Oh the mess she had made! She's fine in her own crate - no accidents overnight so she CAN hold it.
The other problem that I'm having is her trying to dominate over smaller dogs and children. I have two young kids that are completely annoyed by that and have started to avoid her. She definitely needs an obedience class but meanwhile what can I do? Any helpful tips? Since she's a rescue dog I don't have any information about her background but obviously she comes with a baggage.
What rescue did you get her from? Some rescues have help available for behavioral issues.
During the first couple of months, dogs may take some time to adjust. I suspect it is more separation anxiety than simply needing attention. There are ways to help desensitize her to you leaving, but it will take a while. There is a distinguishing program and I will look for it or type it up myself, but before I forget what ... these links are important. The first is actually useful for you now to help teach her that she cannot "demand" attention. The 2nd link is to behavior training. Mary is so easy to follow, you can get your kids in on doing it with her. Having them involved with her will help a lot, both her and in them building a relationship.
Nothing In Life Is Free.. by Debbie McKean.. essential to changing demanding behaviors, providing a calm environment with your dog
http://k9deb.com/NILIF.html
Notice training is on left, trouble shooting links on right.. Mary Woodward
http://www.clickerlessons.com/index.htm
An overview of separation anxiety by Kathy Diamond Davis
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1393&S=1&SourceID=47
Okay and basic retraining..
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/common-dog-behavior-issues/separation-anxiety
Very early days if you just got her last week, and yes, I agree with Debra, sounds like separation anxiety, which can happen with any dog in a new setting when they are feeling insecure, and more likely with a rescue. You don't say how old she is and you do say you don't know anything of her background, so you will have to work with what you have and guess about possible previous problems. There are reasons dogs end up with rescue organizations, but the good ones will have spent some time figuring out what the dog responds to and what issues it may have.....
Best to plan things so that you don't have to leave her unsupervised very often, and of course replace the crate so you have a secure place to put her. Not sure why you would want to leave her in the bathroom at night. Better with you in the bedroom, either in your bed (which most Basenjis prefer) or in her own bed close to yours. All of my rescues have slept with me from day one, and they settle down well when they have company. Typically even on the first night the dog likes some physical contact for reassurance and with that will be quiet and let you sleep.
Crates keep dogs safe. It keeps them from not just destroying your home, but from ingesting things and dying. Until you get a dog reliable, crates are the responsible option. Abusing a dog by having them always in a crate, obviously wrong. Using them to keep them safe when necessary... not only good, but in case of medical emergency where they have to be crated, it can save their lives or at least make recovery easier if they are crate trained.
DebraDownSouth, thanks so much for the links! And great idea involving kids in her training.
Looks like she's settling down a bit, no accidents yesterday and keeps herself busy by chewing on the bones and toys. We take 2 long walks (about an hour each) per day and go outside in every couple of hours at least for 5-15 minutes. So for a 4 year old dog that seems to be enough physical exercise, right?
As for the crate, I don't trust her yet. Not a fan of a dog in my bed, and she actually likes her crate. It's her spot, she goes there to take a nap, and late evenings, when she's ready for the night, she curls up there as well. Before getting her I wasn't sure if I wanted to use the crate at all but it seems to be working out for her. As for the bathroom incident... that was only an emergency solution for one night and she obviously didn't respond well:)
So glad she is settling down! Glad to hear she obviously isn't unhappy with a crate. I've had a few that also preferred sleeping in their crate, door open, would find them in there. 
Crates are a last resort for me. <<
Hm... here is an example of why owners need one. Not only avoid expense, but this JR person lucked out that nothing was ingested that could kill your dog.
November 7 路 Wedgefield, FL
Oh my!! I came home today and wanted to cry!! My Beautiful Abby has been chewing up everything!! Will it end!!! First was my Hemingway table and chairs, five $70 rugs, my eyeglasses from my tall nightstand, baseboard, our brand new sofa, our kitchen bench to our table and chairs, 2 $70 doggie beds, a $40 doggie bed, need I go on!! I have so many toys and teething bones will this stop!! Help!! I only work 6 hrs and she sure goes to town when I leave and she has 2 other doggies to play with!! I've never had a doggie that chewed like this!! She's a big stinker!! HELP!! Lol<<
Just so you understand... when someone gives bad advice, I will give mine. Perhaps your abusive and low (no one cares if you cut your family jewels off, nor is your personal attacks anything but a comment on you) comments have harassed others enough to either let you post what you want unchallenged... or kick you off forums lol... but I care about dogs and I will offer opinions when I feel something is being said that is dangerous.
@katoman Not all of us mis-use the dog crate! And the one's who abuse crate use have your testosterone pouring out everywhere! I don't deserve to have you use your boiling over the edge, testosterone lecture towards me & neither do a lot of others that will or have, read what you wrote!! The people who DO MIS-USE THE CRATE deserve your rants but please, direct it at them only & make sure it's not aimed at those of us who use a crate in the appropriate manner! Say something nice about those of us who use a crate for a very minimum amount of time? Please? If I'm getting a new piece of furniture, I'll have my dog go into the crate but it's in the living room so they can see what is going on, plus, my dog isn't going to sneak out the open door & go out into the street & get hit/killed by a car!! Some of us do use crates as a protective tool to prevent our dogs from getting hurt. But as soon as the old furniture is out & the new is in ~ then the crate door is opened & out comes my dog ~ unharmed by a car or who ever is moving the furniture! Also, my dog is a Basenji but the crate for her holds her & myself at the same time & we still have spare room!! Even a dog that's been trained by the best trainer money can buy & they have 6 Diplomas on the wall showing the schooling they've been thru, they might be able to get the dog to sit & stay in the opposite side of the room but when they have to turn their back to answer the moving peoples question or hold a door open for them.....the dog can get confused hearing all the people talking at the same time.....it only takes one word spoken by the movers or the owner, the dog hears that one word & believes he's been released from that position...then off he goes! You have many good points in what you've said but it's like the old saying goes, "It only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bushel full". In this case, what you're referring to is a whole truckload of bad apples that's ruining the whole orchard full. Most of the people I know that have dogs or cats, what-ever.....they love their animals the same way most parents love their kids, they don't want them to get hurt! I really wish your friends that work with the stressed dogs/cats, etc....were going to be around long enough to straighten out the 2 legged parents now days! Not all current parents are "tired" of their kids & just allow them to grow up vs. raising their kids! But sadly, that is the case with many young parents...they don't know how...they're too tired... whatever the reason ~ they don't care what their kids are doing as long as they aren't bothering them! But this isn't about 2 legged kids, it's our 4 legged kids that need help ~ from those tired, don't have time or really give a crap about their dogs people...leaving them in a crate that long!! I agree with you on that! It's abuse to the dog...plain & simple!! As soon as my furniture was delivered & the door closed & locked behind the movers ... my 4 legged kid is coming out baby & I'm going to take them right to the new furniture & show them why I had to crate them for a little bit & yes, my dog is allowed on all my furniture, new or old & in my bed at night!! But would you please lighten up a little? I can tell, crating a dog is a very serious subject with you ~ I get that & it should be! Oh, I don't use the plastic crates...I use the all wire crate & get it big enough that several dogs could fit in it ...or my one dog plus myself & I'm really not skinny, no rolls of fat on me but I'm husky enough! I hate animal abuse!! But I LOVE MY BASENJIS & other dogs too!!
@katoman You talk so bad about people who use crates! You almost had a stroke trying to type so fast when you bragged about breeding your mix with a purebred & others voiced their opinions (which is what a forum is for) & now I read that YOU wrote: "... this post is from a friend of mine, Judy who I adore. I advised her, temporarily get a crate. The puppy she has, ABBY was from my litter." WHAT?? You are the one who hates a crate & you are also the one who bragged about how good your mix & purebred's puppies turned out!! I've been trying to give you a chance to prove that you weren't just some one on here who needed to vent by downing others (at your own expense) & pasting about a page that was clearly written by someone else & then you have the nerve to keep referring to your genital area!! I will be nice enough not to down you with several words that describe you very well. I believe your boat is fast sinking so you need to make up your mind ... either sink or swim!! If you can't stand it in the forum, then you should quietly just back out! And you have a FaceBook page for people living in Florida with Basenjis!! It seems to me that, YOU SIR, ARE UP TO SOMETHING & IT'S PROBABLY NOT GOOD!
A Dog Crate Is a Cage Is a Prison
OMG... did you really just post PETA? OMG, okay while I try to stop laughing at the insanity of you... a pet breeder, quoting PETA who would label you with things that would have your head explode... might I suggest that far from a PROFESSIONAL opinion, it is the opinion of a radical group whose goal is to stop ALL OWNERSHIP OF ALL ANIMALS, including dogs. A group that has KILLED pets as being a better option than OWNERSHIP. But thank you... probably biggest laugh I'll get today... someone using PETA as a "professional opinion." BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Rather than me telling you, let me use their own quotes. I do thank you though for showing how very uneducated you are. Please, read up on your own.
"Owning animals is the equivalent of slavery." Hope Bohanec, In Defense of Animals, AR 2010. (Hope also thinks eating any animal is murder, and serves on Peta boards)
"We should take good care of the domestic animals we have brought into existence until they die. We should stop bringing more domestic animals into existence." Gary Francione, Interview on Columbia University Press blog, June 18, 2008.
But it is also important to stop manufacturing "pets," thereby perpetuating a class of animals forced to rely on humans to survive." PETA pamphlet, Companion Animals: Pets or Prisoners?
"We at PETA very much love the animal companions who share our homes, but we believe that it would have been in the animals' best interests if the institution of "pet keeping"鈥攊.e., breeding animals to be kept and regarded as "pets"鈥攏ever existed. The international pastime of domesticating animals has created an overpopulation crisis; as a result, millions of unwanted animals are destroyed every year as "surplus." This selfish desire to possess animals and receive love from them causes immeasurable suffering, which results from manipulating their breeding, selling or giving them away casually, and depriving them of the opportunity to engage in their natural behavior. Their lives are restricted to human homes where they must obey commands and can only eat, drink, and even urinate when humans allow them to." Animal Rights Uncompromised: PETA on Pets: published on PETA's website, January 8, 2007
"I don't use the word "pet." I think it's speciesist language. I prefer "companion animal." For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship 颅 enjoyment at a distance." Ingrid Newkirk, PETA vice-president
"It is time we demand an end to the misguided and abusive concept of animal ownership. The first step on this long, but just, road would be ending the concept of pet ownership." Elliot Katz, President "In Defense of Animals," Spring 1997
"Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought about by human manipulation." Ingrid Newkirk, national director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), Just Like Us? Harper's, August 1988, p. 50.
"Liberating our language by eliminating the word 'pet' is the first step... In an ideal society where all exploitation and oppression has been eliminated, it will be NJARA's policy to oppose the keeping of animals as 'pets.'" New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, "Should Dogs Be Kept As Pets? NO!" Good Dog! February 1991, p. 20.
"Let us allow the dog to disappear from our brick and concrete jungles--from our firesides, from the leather nooses and chains by which we enslave it." John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic Washington, DC: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (PeTA), 1982, p. 15.
"The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist." John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic (Washington, DC: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), 1982, p. 15.
"Breeders must be eliminated! As long as there is a surplus of companion animals in the concentration camps referred to as "shelters", and they are killing them because they are homeless, one should not be allowed to produce more for their own amusement and profit. If you know of a breeder in the Los Angeles area, whether commercial or private, legal or illegal, let us know and we will post their name, location, phone number so people can write them letters telling them 'Don't Breed or Buy, While Others DIE.'" "Breeders! Let's get rid of them too!" Campaign on Animal Defense League's website, September 2, 2003.
"I'm not only uninterested in having children. I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity." Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's founder and president, New Yorker magazine, April 23, 2003
"Our goal is to make [the public think of] breeding [dogs and cats] like drunk driving and smoking." Kim Sturla, former director of the Peninsula Humane Society and Western Director of Fund for Animals, stated during Kill the Crisis, not the Animals campaign and workshops, 1991
"The bottom line is that people don't have the right to manipulate or to breed dogs and cats ... If people want toys, they should buy inanimate objects. If they want companionship, they should seek it with their own kind," Ingrid Newkirk, founder, president and former national director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), Animals, May/June 1993
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/pets-shelter-euthanization-rate_n_6612490.html
Genitals??? what the hell are you talking about....... everyday I have to remind myself, Trump was elected by uneducated people in America and then I deal with this.......God Help Us all
Again, were you not quite yourself when you posted this? I already answered it once but here:
JR
DebraDownSouth
0
DebraDownSouth 43 minutes ago
@katoman said in Breeding my 2 year old Basenji:
@Nancy-Berry there is nothing that mentions genitalia, you might be confusing the work genetic -OMG this is hilarious.
You maybe were not awake or fully in control of your faculties, so you might want to reread your own post
There is no law requiring to neuter them, it's a choice, and I am pretty sure I live in America still. Just because I am not a vegan, and I choose to eat meat, or I don't smoke, (I have never smoked )...its my right not too nor because I decided to have 2 real human children and not cut my ba!!$ off, and you might be all of those who wags a finger at all that, that's your right to do as you please, without my comments as it is my right as well.<<
"not cut my .... off" .... genitalia there, not genetic. LOL. Yes it is hilarious.<<
You really are a crazy person you need real professional help.
Please stop this!! It serves no purpose and only upsets everyone else. Enough already!!
@margiem
Sadly, bullies will bully, abuse, post vile comments and do whatever they can to get people to cower and stay quiet. Find any forum where such personal attacks go unanswered and see how fast the forum is gone. Unless a monitor quickly removes abusive posts, then the bullying behavior continues.If you are willing to ignore someone advising breeding pets and then attacking anyone who disagrees, that is your choice. But I don't consider that to be something I find valuable. Abusive personal attacks either need their posts removed, the person banned (I suspect this person was before), or people to stand up to them.
