Hi All!! I am new here and looking for a bit of advice if anybody has any. I'll to to keep as short as possible!! My female Malamute is 8 years old. Up until 4 months ago she had been living in my mother's house with us. We moved house in January, and her routine has changed a lot, as well as her surroundings. It's taken her a while to settle but we're almost there. My issue now is that she's howling when I leave the house in the morning. Thankfully, it's not all day. Between a half hour to an hour at most, and not every day, but probably most days. Anyway.. I know there's not a whole lot I can do, but has anyone got experience of this and found anything that works? The treat toys work for a little while to distract her, but not enough! Has anyone ever tried a plug in pheromone dispenser? Other than that, the only thing I can think to do is regularly pretend to leave the house. Stay really quiet in the hall and wait. If she starts howling I can then reprimand her in the act. I just don't know though... Does ANYONE have a solution? She NEVER howled in my mother's house! Thanks in advance, folks.
Hello Niamh, I had a barking problem with my girl, who was six years when she came here. I did try Adaptil, (as a spray), also the magnesium oil spray on stuff, but they didn't seem to make much difference, - though I have heard good reports elsewhere. She was always left with my male Beagle, but originally had to be crated when we left them, because she was not house-trained. I'm sorry to say that it took at least a year of combining of short absences, long lasting chews (hooves), playing a talk radio station, and eventually allowing her freedom from the crate, before the breakthrough came for us. I can only suggest that you start to shut her in a room for varying time periods while you are doing some housework, or pottering in the garden, so she comes to accept that there are times when she will be left alone. Use the external door frequently. In the driveway, start the car engine and stop it. Drive round the block and return. I used to leave the car and walk the last 50 yards home, to make sure that she wasn't only starting to bark when she heard the car pull into the drive. Treat leaving her as if it is just part of the normal routine. Make no undue preparation, (apart from leaving her with the radio and the chews), and no great fuss when you come to release her. Always aim to release her before she starts barking. Tell your neighbours about the problem you are having, and how you are trying to solve it. My neighbours used a to say they hadn't heard her - I think they just tuned out, but luckily they were dog owners. The radio is a great friend, both as a distraction, and for covering the sound of your movements. Good luck. She will settle, it just takes time.
Well I have had my Sibe for 5 years now and only this last year he has been exposed to the wonderful world of television. Before he wouldn't even acknowledge anything on the screen but I was browsing through youtube and found some doggy entertainment videos, some are a few hours long. All he does now is watch TV lol. There are videos of like 3 hours of squirrels and ducks eating together and he is mesmerized. Word of warning though make sure the TV is out of reach, my fella thinks the squirrels are hiding in the back of the TV or inside the speakers so there is occasionally some dog snot on my tweeters lol. So my advice is get her a big screen TV and some good shows. Here's a couple to test the waters, you don't need to have it loud but loud enough to distract her, after an hour of staring at the TV and a lot of head tilting to the sounds, she will be begin to get mentally tired and fall asleep. You could burn them to DVD or if your TV accepts a USB stick just fill it up with videos, there are a few like those baby Einstein videos with lots of weird little sounds thrown in to keep up the interest.
Also just to add, you could add a few videos of yourself talking to the dog via your cell phone, and slip them into the video line up every half hour or so.
