I wish I could speak dog... Cassie is having problems, what should we do?

[ToBeEvergreen]

For the past week, Cassie has not wanted to use the bathroom outside. She will still play out there, still lay out there when it's not so wet (we've had some rainy days), but will only occasionally do her business outside unless it is on a walk, which is also becoming difficult. She has completely regressed from her leash training, and is pulling more than ever. She is getting into the garbage more, and getting into things we didn't even think a dog would go after, like ornamental pinecones in a basket, that we have always have on a high table.

She is overly-hyper in her house, and I'm now taking her for 2 walks a day, once in the morning and once at night, to get her energy out. This is challenging for me, since she pulls way too much and so I have to stop every second until she stops- which kind of defeats the purpose of the walk, yes? She isn't getting enough energy out, and I can't jog as I am borderline asthmatic. And her reaction to other dogs outside is still pretty scary, so once a day I take her to a field where I walk her on-lead, no distractions and good for training. She listens more there, but is still being overly stubborn all of the sudden.

Besides that, her drool is suddenly not her puppy-drool anymore, but full-on doggy-slobber. This may be doggy adolescence full-blown, although I thought half of you were kidding when I read about it for the first time on here.

The reason for all of this COULD be me going back to college. She has never had such bad seperation anxiety, and was fine last year. Then again, I am the only one who will train her (my mom can't control her on a leash, and only could when we first got her), and I feed her and take her out. Plus we had just gotten her last year.

She does all of this even when my mom is home- and my mom works from home on a computer, and can't give her the attention she needs when I'm not home.

I'm going to search out Petco for a Kong and some other stimulative toys, to keep her busy when I'm not there with her. Does anyone have recommendations? I'm not letting this go, I want to be a good dog owner, so I'll be just as stubborn, patient and try to understand her doggy-talk as much as I can.

EDIT: My mother can't take over one of the feeding duties either. I had to take over that, because she was actively overfeeding both the dogs, since she is used to overly-spoiling her dogs. I told her to stop, and learned she did it behind my back from my brother. I think I am going to, however, have him feed her sometimes, to share the
authority.

For those of you who don't know her, Cass was guessed to be about 3 right now from the vet, and she is a boxer mix.

I am also having a yard sale soon, and as with all of the money I get, it's going towards her training- which might be a behavior trainer if we can't figure out what she needs.

[Karen]

She's topo old for it to be adolescence in the normal sense, dealing with hormone, and all that. So it is all behavioral, from the sounds of it. Can your brother walk her at all? Is there any fences area nearby you could let her run for a while every day? As for her pulling on the leash, what kind of collar/harness do you use? A halti might be a good investment. Most of all, consistent training, especially when walking, and outstubborning her in her training is most important.

[Freedom]

Some of what you wrote it typical dog, some is typical boxer. In other words, there is nothing "wrong" with Cassie!

Dogs learn who is caring for them, looking out for them, and when that person is "missing," if they worry. If there are 2 or 3 folks caring for the dog, they won't miss the "key person" as much. But it sounds like Cassie's world revolves around you. Now you are gone back to school, she doesn't know who is going to feed her, play with her, give her belly rubs, all those important doggie things. So you have major separation anxiety happening.

Dad and I were caring for all 5 here, though I did most of it. In the past year, Dad's dementia has worsened quite a bit, to the point that even if a dog barks to go out, he forgets and just hollers, "QUIET!" Now, I go out grocery shopping and the dogs are a wreck, cuz they don't know how long I'll be, if I'm coming back, what if they have to eat, etc. It is hard to work with.

Slobber, well, boxers DO that. She is just getting into it big time, and the anxiety likely makes her drool even more.

Boxers have short attention spans. Proper training schedules for a Boxer are short 5 minute stints, multiple times per day. (Unlike say, a Golden, who can have 2 half hour sessions per day). Even where I take my flock for training, where sessions are one hour per week, Boxers and one other breed (I forget just now) are allowed to attend for half an hour over 2 sessions for the price of one session, because they are KNOWN to have this short attention span. (It is a group class, so the dog isn't "on" the entire half hour.)

Training is not a one time and done deal; it is for life. So the 'lost' leash training may be due to you starting school, getting busy, and forgetting to keep up with her on this. So she decides it really doesn't matter. This is dog, not boxer-specific.

Getting into the pine cones may be boredom or may be anxiety. Cassie has had a huge change in her life routines and it is troublesome to her.

If you are the type who learns from reading, you will find some of Patricia McConnell's books helpful. Of course, then you still have to do the work and practices. If you go the trainer route, group classes are the way to go as one on one is extremely costly, and will only work as long as YOU absorb it all and do all the homework and practicing, something you will need to do anyway.

Good luck!

[ToBeEvergreen]

She's topo old for it to be adolescence in the normal sense, dealing with hormone, and all that. So it is all behavioral, from the sounds of it. Can your brother walk her at all? Is there any fences area nearby you could let her run for a while every day? As for her pulling on the leash, what kind of collar/harness do you use? A halti might be a good investment. Most of all, consistent training, especially when walking, and outstubborning her in her training is most important.

He gets home at 6 pm, unfortunately. Long work days. When we got Cass, I tried to coax him to walk her alone or with me, to no avail.

I don't think there is anywhere I can let her, although I'm constantly searching for one. I would love to go to a fenced field and let her run. There aren't really a lot of outlets here, and she jumps our 4 foot tall fence in the yard with no problems. We have to be really careful with her.

I use a harness on her, that goes around her front (chest), back and belly, and is supposed to redirect her towards me when she tugs and I stop. It doesn't phase her. Here, this one is kind of like mine, similar in make-up:

http://www.amazon.com/Premier-ECO-Ha...068171&sr=8-15.

If she sees something she wants on a walk as well, like a squirrel (her favorite) or an outdoor cat (her second favorite), or a dog (aggressive rather than chase reaction), even with the harness pulling against her, she will tug. I switched from just the collar to the harness after on multiple walks, she thrashed around so much trying to get away from me and run after something, she would almost slip right out of her collar, and it seemed she was choking herself. Now she breaths heavy and chokes herself with the harness, which worries me as well.

Do any haltis loop around the body too? Any halti harness I have ever seen just loops around the face and neck, and I know she could get out of that, as she has a very nervous reaction towards muzzles. She gets them off at any cost (which is how we learned to do her nails ourselves. The nail person couldn't even get near her).

[Freedom]

From that description, I would not even try a halti, she would freak out with it.

What you have is the easy walker harness, also made by the same company as a halti. As long as you are satisfied she can't get out of it and dash off, that is fine. She isn't really "choking" with that, as it isn't around her throat.

If you think she "could' get out of that too, you may want to try a rope n go harness. I have one for Tasha, my mill rescue, only thing I found which she could not escape out of. See, the first thing is safety of the dog, so you don't want her to get out of whatever.

For the walking issue, you can take treats and a toy with you. Soon as YOU spot a distraction, (which may be before she does), you get these out and get her focused on you. Keep her attention until the squirrel is up a tree, the cat is under a car, the other dog has passed.

[ToBeEvergreen]

Some of what you wrote it typical dog, some is typical boxer. In other words, there is nothing "wrong" with Cassie!

Dogs learn who is caring for them, looking out for them, and when that person is "missing," if they worry. If there are 2 or 3 folks caring for the dog, they won't miss the "key person" as much. But it sounds like Cassie's world revolves around you. Now you are gone back to school, she doesn't know who is going to feed her, play with her, give her belly rubs, all those important doggie things. So you have major separation anxiety happening.

Dad and I were caring for all 5 here, though I did most of it. In the past year, Dad's dementia has worsened quite a bit, to the point that even if a dog barks to go out, he forgets and just hollers, "QUIET!" Now, I go out grocery shopping and the dogs are a wreck, cuz they don't know how long I'll be, if I'm coming back, what if they have to eat, etc. It is hard to work with.

Slobber, well, boxers DO that. She is just getting into it big time, and the anxiety likely makes her drool even more.

Boxers have short attention spans. Proper training schedules for a Boxer are short 5 minute stints, multiple times per day. (Unlike say, a Golden, who can have 2 half hour sessions per day). Even where I take my flock for training, where sessions are one hour per week, Boxers and one other breed (I forget just now) are allowed to attend for half an hour over 2 sessions for the price of one session, because they are KNOWN to have this short attention span. (It is a group class, so the dog isn't "on" the entire half hour.)

Training is not a one time and done deal; it is for life. So the 'lost' leash training may be due to you starting school, getting busy, and forgetting to keep up with her on this. So she decides it really doesn't matter. This is dog, not boxer-specific.

Getting into the pine cones may be boredom or may be anxiety. Cassie has had a huge change in her life routines and it is troublesome to her.

If you are the type who learns from reading, you will find some of Patricia McConnell's books helpful. Of course, then you still have to do the work and practices. If you go the trainer route, group classes are the way to go as one on one is extremely costly, and will only work as long as YOU absorb it all and do all the homework and practicing, something you will need to do anyway.

Good luck!

Relief to at least hear it isn't really abnormal behavior. I have been kind of high-strung lately due to my other dog's struggle with separation anxiety. Came home one day to the house torn apart, gate down, feces everywhere... and the water wasn't working, making it hard to clean, so I had a bit of a breakdown , though it's better now and she is doing crate training.

It's too bad about what's happening with your Dad . You've got a big group there too.

Bahaha, she does have an incredibly short attention span. I usually can train her for about 20 minutes at a time, and otherwise do little bursts of teaching her new tricks throughout the day.

Actually, I am training her more during school, since I'm giving less household chores then. I made it a habit to go with her at 5 o clock pm every day, starting my second week. Before then I was going infrequently to train her.

I love reading, any reading recommendation is welcome ^_^. I'll have to look into that, along with the harness. I don't mind reading up on it. I bought a book about boxers when I got her, by Shiela Webster Boneham (The Boxer). Helped a little when we first got her.

[ToBeEvergreen]

From that description, I would not even try a halti, she would freak out with it.

What you have is the easy walker harness, also made by the same company as a halti. As long as you are satisfied she can't get out of it and dash off, that is fine. She isn't really "choking" with that, as it isn't around her throat.

If you think she "could' get out of that too, you may want to try a rope n go harness. I have one for Tasha, my mill rescue, only thing I found which she could not escape out of. See, the first thing is safety of the dog, so you don't want her to get out of whatever.

For the walking issue, you can take treats and a toy with you. Soon as YOU spot a distraction, (which may be before she does), you get these out and get her focused on you. Keep her attention until the squirrel is up a tree, the cat is under a car, the other dog has passed.

I hope that harness isn't Premier , as that's the one I think I've got now. I would take a quick pic of it, but she goes psycho when she sees it, don't want to get her hopes up. But I'll have to take a peak and see!

Thing about the easy walker harness, it does not deter her in the least. She keeps tugging. She was found running around a busy city, so maybe her previous roaming has something to do with it.

Actually, she doesn't respond to toys or treats when we're on a walk, only when we are in our training field- and only until she gets bored of whatever treats I have. Although there is one toy that she tears apart and LOVES, so I'll try that one today and see if she reacts to it. Normally, even a treat in front of her face is null to distract her. While all distractions are gone, I can get her attention with a treat (not a toy), but if she sees something, she gets this black stare and does not respond to anything, then cries if we aren't moving, or aren't moving towards or away from the distraction (with dogs, she sometimes seems to tug AWAY from where they are, as if running away, although she is very in-your-face to other dogs for the most part).

http://www.amazon.com/Company-Animal...7068629&sr=1-4
^ Is this the halti harness? I'm liking the look of it actually, how it can hook in the front and back like that. Looks like more control, I'm browsing the reviews now..