Some help with Sam PLEASE!??? Behaviour

Hi All!

Well Sam has been with us a few weeks now and things have been great considering her coming from a rescue sanctuary.

Unfortunately we had to go away last week and couldn't take her, so we used an organisation called Animals at Home who "homed" her for the week.

Sam has been back 4 nights now and we have problems we never had. HELP please!!!!

1st) She won't sleep all night! She starts crying within a couple of hours and continues all night. Sometimes we get up and check by letting her out but nothing. We know they let her sleep in their bedroom while we were away.

2nd) Thing is this links with first one as twice now she has then messed downstairs by the front door. She has never messed indoors! (Wondering if this could be linked with eating next doors wet cat food when only used to dry??)

3rd) Completely ignoring us! When she wants she comes, when she doesn't she refuses and we have even had to go and get her!!!!!

IDEAS AND HELP PLEASE?????

I think she is probably feeling comfortable with you, thus the recall issues!
Go back to basics and keep her on lead if needs be (we have ahd Tango almost 6 weeks now and she is still onlead more than she is off...)

As for the night thing...hmmm..bit naughty of them not to follow your routine. Sounds like she moaned downstairs so they let her up? Making your job harder as she has learned that moaning works.
Do you crate her at all?
Is she left on her own in the daytime at all?

The messing is probably all part and parcel of the above, sounds like anxiety.

Hi thanks for your reply.

Having now spoken to the Animals at Home guy he has confirmed that the lady had lots of whining all night so she let her in to sleep in their bedroom!!! So yes I think it is related to her thinking she can whine to get in etc.

Do we just completely ignore? Or do we get up give a stern No and send back to bed?

As for being left alone, not much, maybe 2-3 hours now and again if we have to go out etc.

I'm also wondering if she may not be too well as she has a very dry nose at the moment, not that usual for her???

Any more advice anyone?

Thanks

How much/how often is she eating the wet cat food? Maybe it's giving her an upset tummy?

That has nothing to do with ignoring though. It's a common thing with rescue dogs apparently. They are on their best behaviour for a while, then they start to see what they can get away with. I would recommend like Ramble, just do more training and get a strong bond with her.

I found clicker training to be a fun way to really interact with my dog and get him focussed on me (although it's not 100% of the time, but who wants a perfect dog anyway? ).

HTH x

Hi Thanks, I wondered about some back to basics training for 'come' etc. Thing is we don't actually know how she was trained to come etc with getting her as a rescue.

Maybe we've been lucky up to know but until we train our way she'll be a bit hit and miss now?!

I rehome rescues, the rescue angle needs to be taken into account when thinking about this situation.

It takes about 2 months for a rescue dogs to consider itself 'at home', and become fully bonded (ie, comfortable, secure, and at ease) with you as owners/family

This is why we dont home rescues to people going away the first few months.

In your dogs eyes, it has simply stopped off at 2 different buildings and had 2 different lots of 'acquaintances'....
This might account for the current unsettlement and new behaviours.

Also, after around 14 days, their 'bad' (or 'true') habits can show.

Your dogs current behaviour may be taken as evidence the pet care company followed a different routine, but is also likely to be evidence of not having settled down yet.

In which case, start from scratch as if this is the first day you bought her home from the rescue, and set in your desired routines and training and toilet training

This doesnt mean show her loads of attention and reassurance - that would be the worst thing to do, that would create future unsettlement if you had to leave her alone.

With rescue dogs, what you should do is just keep it to yourselves and your home first few weeks, before traveling her round everyone.
Your usual regular house visitors would be fine, as this will be part of the normal routine.
But all the things you might wish to do to show her off in these early stages ie, lots of pub trips, visit to show her off to relatives in other bits of the country, i would wait after a fortnight to a month or longer depending on dog.

In the home, with you right here right now, just let her find her feet and come to you.

Also, you need to consider the breed.
Beagles are notoriously stubborn and general obedience can take that bit longer with them.
Plus, every single beagle i have ever homed hasn't been clean, and has taken a good few months to toilet train.

Beagles love to scent. If she is hanging around near you but not running off, that just means you aren't interesting enough yet and she likes to take her time sniffing in a relaxed fashion, as opposed to charging around or running off, as say, a Greyhound, collie, or shepherd might do
Also, as I said earlier, you dont have a true bond yet.

So I would get her into a good reward based dog training class as soon as possible.

Have you told the rescue you have a problem and asked if/how they did the training, incl recall?

Well the rescue was different in that she was taken in by her owners due to lack of funds! We know she was fully trained, house trained etc. We also know they split her from her brother, keeping him but getting rid of her.

The rescue sanctuary just confirmed that she responded to sit, stay, and come.

She had been in the sanctuary for 4 weeks and had not liked the kennel environment one bit.

Must admit I do tend to worry about these things, but I am concerned about her.

We had had her 3 weeks before we had to go away, we did ask them to keep her until we returned but they wouldn't. She is sleeping a lot at the moment but again I am putting that down to the hot weather at the moment?

Have her booked in to vets this afternoon for a check up, just to see.

THANKS for all the advice please feel free to give more!!!!

I just realized, that you wrote that you let her off the lead, after only a couple of weeks of her coming to live with you. Generally it is recommended that you keep the dog on lead for about 8 weeks, to get the dog bonded to you before letting it off. In those 8 weeks you should do lots of recall training on a long line (like a horse lunge line or similar) and start attending training classes for further bonding and training. Allowing the dog off lead too soon, has often lead to dogs bolting if frightened, and coursing -or having- accidents.

Hi yeh we intended to do that but on a long lead she wouldn't go off!!!!! She just stayed with us etc. She loves going out in the fields with us and has never not come back, it seems to just be at home in the garden she does it!?

Are you suggesting we should go back to on the lead? This would feel such a step back etc?

Anyone else any feelings on this?

Thanks again!

Hello again.

Last post took ages as dogsey crashed.

My dogs are sleeping lots - so am i!

What Im seeing is a combination of lack of bond, probable insecurity, and breed traits.

Firstly, she may be carrying some residual kennel stress, but not too bad if she was put in the owners home.
Next, you need to consider, from the dog's point of view, she has been in 3 'homes' in 9 weeks....see wont be that bonded with anyone yet.
My guess - out of the three 'homes' the biggest bond was achieved at the rescue.
Fair play if you had no choice to go away and the rescue couldnt hang on to her, but what you need to do is forget about the different approach of the pet company, and just regard it as a glitch and move on.
As when it comes down to it, the whole 9 weeks has been inconsistency anyway...different people different way.
For example, the rescue has trained her in obedience, but you dont know what method and words they used, what the timing was, etc, etc.
If i know my rescue beagles, after the '2 week honeymoon period', she *may* have soiled your house anyway.

So, lots of examples of inconsistency, but no one did anything wrong, just circumstances, start from scatch now.
It's good she has some obedience experience, but you need to start this over again with yourselves in your home.
That is what will create the strong bond with you.
You may find you havent made a step forward to make a step backwards, but that she just feels too insecure at the moment to run away when out in public, so is happy to mill around sniffing.
But as she further gets over her honeymoon period, she may start getting cheeky and dart off further after scents.
Dont forget the traits of scenting and stubborness.
Which is why you need to go back to basics now by teaching recall on a long line - not flexi.

Ok thanks all helpful stuff.

We have a huge line, not flexi, about 100ft i believe. May be worth trying again, I just know my partner and daughters would be gutted to have to lead again. Seems such a shame after she suddenly found some fun in running for first time in her life.

She doesn't have a clue how to play still, never fetches a ball, just runs after it if it is treat based!

But when she gets out and can run around she seems so happy, tail high in the air, real proper body shape in her walk etc.

Such a shame to take that away by leading again?

you can still do all of that on a long line and incorporate recall and obedience training

generally speaking, you shouldnt let a new dog off the lead until you have achieved your training

Ok thank you very much. Makes sense.

I was just going to add that the first thing I thought of is that the dog has picked up an infection, or has an upset tum from a change of water / food.
If her health is OK, why not just go back to square one? She needs to get back into a routine and get to know you again.

hiya, yeh I wondered about the infection bit. Taking her to the vets for a check over at 4:30.

Just seems such a step back, and it's going to be hard to get the family to understand that. She really did settle so well so quick, maybe too quick.

So her recall is good away from the garden but not good in the garden?

Well when we're out in the local dog walk/field we have here, she goes wandering and sniffing off into the long grass and bushes. We can walk on quite a way if we wish and she comes running and never loses sight of us. If we call she comes running really fast and is obviously very happy and enjoying the freedom.

There was one occasion when she jumped through into the next field and we called, she came flying over the hedge happy as anything back to us!

The disobedience seems to be in the back garden where she can smell the cats next door and their food. Also indoors when led down. If we call her to come before going out etc. That tends to be the ignore?

Maybe in that case you could do some training with her in the house. And keep letting her off lead when your walking?

Do you shut her in a room when you go out? We used to put Bryan in the kitchen with his bed when we went out. He would know we were going out so would not come to us in that situation. Because he didn't like being shut in the kitchen.

We used to have to pick him up and place him in the kitchen - he would go all floppy.

Also, if she's smelling cats, yeah she's probably going to ignore you. But if it's just in the garden personally, I don't think it's a biggy.

We leave her in the open house with the neccessary doors shut. We don't say goodbye and tend to leave the tv on for company!

When we come back she usually appears from her cushion in the lounge or bed on the landing. Very happy to see us etc.

Any further ideas anyone?

Thanks all this is so helpful

I was thinking, and therefore agree with all of this.

I don't think you need to worry too much about this as it is all stuff you can work through. I think you are right to have her checked over with the vet though, just to be sure.

Other than that, have the rescue centre not offered any follow on behaviour assistance? If not they should have and I would be inclined to discuss it all with them.

Other than that, everything Krusewalker has said.