Home Alone

[dhernandez]

Hello all,
We've been having some problems with our little guy, Yoshi. He is 7 months old and pretty well behaved. Our main concern is that he hates to be alone in his cage. We tried leaving him out before and he is too crazy. He tears everything in site, so we resorted to leaving him in his cage. He is fine in his cage at night when we sleep (his cage is next to our bed). He also used to be ok when we first left him in the cage alone, but lately he's tried his very best to get out of there. He drools a lot!! He tries to bite his way out and he has mananged to unlock the crate and set off our security system. We don't know what to do about it. He just can't stand being alone in the cage.

 

[Joe Beam]

Maybe he needs more exercise. A walk in the morning, solved all my crate problems.

 

[morjem911]

A doggie door fixed our problems. As long as Killian knows he can come and go as he pleases, he's fine.

It was really cold and snowing yesterday, so I don't think he wanted to go outside, and when I came home, some of our Christmas decorations, stuffed animal kind of things, had got the "Killian Treatment". My whole floor was covered in stuffing and the empty bodies were shoved down in the couch cushions under his blanket! He did know though that he had done something wrong and acted like he felt bad as I swept up.

The kicker was, these had been out for weeks and he never paid them any attention, but the first day that he couldn't go play outside when he wanted, they got it!!

 

[dhernandez]

I will try out exercising him a bit more. Hopefully that helps out.

I can't do the doggie door for a couple reasons. One is that I live in a condo and it wouldn't be ok to let him roam freely out there. The other being that I don't live in the best of neighborhoods and wouldn't trust him out there alone.

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[TossBranAbi]

Have you tried a Kong? Abbie has separation anxiety and a Kong is what saves us and our house! I stuff it as tight as I can and freeze it.

 

[BarbaraWNJ]

Exercise!

I never had a dog and when my son became ill, right after he rescued a boxer puppy, I had Samantha and what a mess it was. UNTIL I learned that boxers need to run every day at least one hour or they will get into mischief and become badly behaved. What I also learned is that my little girl was very much like a baby and I had to baby proof my house. Thankfully, I had the help of my fantastic vet and a lady from the NJ Boxer Club who gave me tremendous amounts of time on the phone. Soon, a great trainer entered my life (from my vet's advice) and it's all worked out. Samantha is a wonderful dog and the delight of our life.

What I thought would work was a long walk several times a day - absolutely wrong. Boxers have so much energy that they need to really run it out twice daily. Now, I couldn't manage that with work but we get to the dog park each day for 60-90 minutes of full blast fun and she's a totally different animal. Dog parks can be problems but you generally have enough choices so you can find a good one. My dog park, Woodale Park in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, is filled with caring and responsible owners who also helped this truly inept and overwhelmed owner. I was a mess.

So, exercise your baby - get up earlier and take him out. Believe me, I understand because I live in an apartment too. The poor little guy is just frustrated as well as lonely. Get a personal trainer - forget the Petsmart etc classes beause they're a total waste of time and money. Invest in a top trainer for a few sessions and then just do it! You'll be glad you did.

And, it's more than totally worth it. Hang in there. Believe me, this 60 year old mother with a horrible back survived and you will too. If you're young and healthy, you can job with your pup too.