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Can a dog get depressed (and meditations on dog pee)
Jasconius
sword criminalmad onlineRegistered User regular
sword criminalmad onlineRegistered User regular
I have a basset hound puppy (male, neutered) around 6 months old. He has been a ball of raw energy for his entire existence.
Up until 2 weeks ago, at least one person was in the apartment 24/7 for him and he had plenty to do. But my girlfriend got a job and now we have to keep in his kennel for a very unfortunate 16-20 hours a day during the weekdays, depending on the day. We don't want to do this, it breaks my heart to do it, but he's been very challenging to house train and our other dog (a yorkie) MUST be locked up when we are gone, and she freaks out if she's locked up and he isn't.
We're in the middle of buying a house with a yard so he can stay out there during the day, but for the next two to four weeks, this is how it's going to be.
He seemed to take it pretty well until yesterday, where his energy level seems to have gone way down. He's not as rambunctious, and when we take him on walks we basically have to drag him along (where it used to be the opposite). We find this to be very unusual since we figure he would enjoy the walks after being cooped up. I even took him to the dog park and he just milled around and laid down. He's stopped running too, which he did a lot.
We can't see any visible limps or physical problems. I want to know if this could be cold or something, or if he's just having a really bad week.
Need advice on what to do.
This is a picture of him last night, on his bed. He carried his bed from the living room to his room and basically put himself to bed after being in his kennel for almost all day.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BSzM-DeIEAAtuT6.jpg
Up until 2 weeks ago, at least one person was in the apartment 24/7 for him and he had plenty to do. But my girlfriend got a job and now we have to keep in his kennel for a very unfortunate 16-20 hours a day during the weekdays, depending on the day. We don't want to do this, it breaks my heart to do it, but he's been very challenging to house train and our other dog (a yorkie) MUST be locked up when we are gone, and she freaks out if she's locked up and he isn't.
We're in the middle of buying a house with a yard so he can stay out there during the day, but for the next two to four weeks, this is how it's going to be.
He seemed to take it pretty well until yesterday, where his energy level seems to have gone way down. He's not as rambunctious, and when we take him on walks we basically have to drag him along (where it used to be the opposite). We find this to be very unusual since we figure he would enjoy the walks after being cooped up. I even took him to the dog park and he just milled around and laid down. He's stopped running too, which he did a lot.
We can't see any visible limps or physical problems. I want to know if this could be cold or something, or if he's just having a really bad week.
Need advice on what to do.
This is a picture of him last night, on his bed. He carried his bed from the living room to his room and basically put himself to bed after being in his kennel for almost all day.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BSzM-DeIEAAtuT6.jpg
this is a discord of mostly PA people interested in fighting games: https://discord.gg/DZWa97d5rz
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we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Jasconius on
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but they're listening to every word I say
What Jebus mentioned is what I'd recommend. That or try to find a doggy day care that's good since it's only for a few weeks.
I'm assuming the house is in a remotely good neighborhood so keeping them outside won't be much of an issue but if not, please take into account that some jerks do steal dogs. Growing up in Detroit, it was common for pitbulls to be stolen and I had several friends who had their dogs (a few were not pits) taken from their yards when they had been left out alone.
You really owe it to him to figure someway of being there more for him, or a dog sitter.
Do you not live there? Is there a reason you two can't be present in shifts?
Anyway, you need to make a large space for a pen for him. If the other dog freaks out, make it a space that dog can't see (and this dog should probably have a pen space too). That's in addition to finding a dog walker to come and take him on a long walk every so many hours. He's a puppy, he needs that kind of activity.
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Other than that, I echo everyone else. I'd try anything I could think of to break up that crate time. Penning is a great idea, as well as a dog walker, even if you can't get the dog walker there every day.
On Thursdays I work from home and I can take him on a couple of walks during the day but he's not to the point yet, demeanor and potty training wise where I can keep him in my upstairs office all day (it's a spiral staircase, I have to carry a 40 pound dog up and down the stairs, he can't make it on his own)
We have a screened patio but I don't think it would be healthy for him to stay out there all day because he eats his own feces, and at least he won't poop in his kennel.
I've looked into a dog walker. I can't afford 5 days a week, but I can at least do 2 days a week
As far as the house is concerned, the back yard is privacy fenced with a covered/screened patio. I was planning on hooking up some sort of mister in there so he can go in and lay down and keep cool. He does not bark unless he's playing with another dog... we've never heard him bark for attention, so I'm not sure how he will behave outdoors.
I'll look into a playpen as well.
he has more toys than any dog could ever want, the issue right now is just space
I thought about letting him sleep with us (that's how the yorkie stays sane), but he would not be able to jump on and off the bed, I think it would be dangerous for him
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Honestly, and I completely understand that this sucks, but you might want to think of seeing if someone else can take care of him for a while, at least until you get settled.
I have to second this recommendation. Are there friends, family members or neighbors that could house him temporarily until things are properly set-up for him?
Me and the Wife had to do this with out Shepard and the dog could NOT be happier, she still freaks out when we go see her but she loves her temporary home.
Why does the yorkie have to be locked up? Honestly it sound's like the yorkie is the dog with the problems, not the hound.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
she will rip apart furniture. she is an emotionally fragile dog. if she gets locked up and hears noise in the house (like another dog), she will bark nonstop until she is released
i think one of his front paws is injured, we noticed he is very slightly limping. he plays as normal with anything that doesn't involve running. but as soon as you ask him to move, he has no interest
we ordered a 5 foot diameter play pen for him which should be here on thursday, so with Labor day he's only got 3 more prison days to go
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Our basset/dachsund mix had this issue, and the surgery to fix it is painful, expensive, and not 100% guaranteed to fix it (Our Maddie's front paws are still bowed out, for example). Sounds like a vet trip is in order!
I need to look into this
The update is we don't think there's anything wrong with his temperament at the moment. We were home three straight days and when we took him for walks he'd have 5 good minutes of mobility and then he'd really start to slow down to the point where if I stopped walking, he would immediately laid down (two weeks ago he could go all day)
For a while we thought he had a limp, but if he does, it's really minor. He's behaving as if walking for extended time is painful for him
So we decided to give him 2 days off from walking (carrying him places), and on the 3rd day he had a lot more energy, but he did eventually get tired again (but only after 5 minutes of running full blast chasing another dog in the dog park)
He's had no leg trauma that I am aware of. But he does get a lot of weight on those front legs from jumping. We tried applying pressure to various parts of his front legs and he didn't yelp or anything
we'll probably try to bring him to the vet, we have free appointments
if he had a serious bone injury, it doesn't add up that he'd be willing to run as fast and as hard as he does though
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and everyone from the pet store to the vet recommends it
the girlfriends family has a large breed dog that is crate trained and it seems to work well
that's the main reason
the other reason is he isn't 100% housebroken yet and I don't need him peeing on my bed
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When your vet and the people at the pet store recommended overnight crate training, did they know the dog would also be crated for 8 - 10 hours during the day? I'm not trying to be mean here, but this is a puppy. It's going to need more than 6 hours of non-sedentary life a day to be normal. Be very, very vigilant on visual inspections, also, as nervous and/or depressed dogs can really chew the shit out of their extremities.
the first two or three months of ownership he had to pee every 5 minutes, and he did, wherever he wanted to
in the last three weeks he's had only 2 or 3 accidents
we think the issue is he holds it to the last second. he goes to the door, and if we don't immediately sprint to him and take him out, he will just pee there. Occasionally he will just let it all out while he is laying down. We haven't figured out that one yet.
we read that bassets are notoriously hard to potty train, so we expected this
but until he can go a month without randomly peeing on the floor, I'm not letting him on my bed
I am completely aware of the fact that it's not good to keep a dog in a kennel for 18 hours a day. For him I don't think he should even be indoors for that long. That's why I'm breaking my balls to buy a house with a yard so we don't have to, and it's why my girlfriend had to take a job to help pay the bills for when we move. I'm not going to send him to doggie boarding school until the furniture gets moved. His life ain't that bad.
He's just gonna have to deal for 2 or 3 more weeks until we can actually move in. The play pen arrives Thursday
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I crate one of my dogs overnight, it's because she's a bitch. She knows that my husband will move if she pushes him while he's sleeping so she'll wait until he's asleep and nudge him off his pillow so she can sleep on it. Basically, she's a master criminal. I can't lock her out of the room to sleep because the bedroom has the AC and Pug faces don't do well with heat. I don't feel bad creating her as the crate stands open during the day and more often than not she'll choose to sleep there anyhow. Half the time when the crate gets opened in he morning she just gives you a dirty look for making noise and she goes back to sleep.
OP is trying to fix the crating thing, and that's cool. I have a question, is the house you're moving to have a chain link or a 6 foot privacy fence. I ask because it sounds like you're going to be leaving the pup outside while you're at work. I don't know the area you're in but around here it's heartbreakingly common for dogs to be stolen out of back yards. If it's a chain link I'd see if your landlord will let you put in a covered dog run that you can lock. If it's a privacy fence I reccomend a padlock on it. You've got a young desirable breed there that could make a lot of money for some fence jumping asshole.
Edit - you're buying the house, all good, then you don't have to ask to install a run. I'd really install a covered locking dog run if you have a short hopable fence.
PSN Hypacia
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Our plan is to get a dog door and put the play pen on the dog door so he can come inside and stay in the pen so he won't attack the furniture
the play pen we got is 5 foot diameter
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New thread subject
dog pee
He randomly pissed on the floor again today. This is the third time in the past week where he thought it would be fun to walk right up to the sofa while my girlfriend was reading, unload, and then walk away like nothing happened
This is a new behavior in the past week, it happened on Thursday, Saturday, and today. But it also happened once while he was ON the sofa playing, so we aren't really sure if this is about boredom. He's not a bored dog. He has rule of the house when he's out. He probably has literally 50 toys and bones combined, and a cat to chase around. He gets three time as much play and attention from us than our other two pets combined.
In the past few weeks he's made huge improvements. Used to be he had to be trotted out every 30 minutes or more, it become so commonplace we had to build a sandbox on the patio for him to use because we have a 3rd floor apartment and it's not good for the breed to have to deal with a lot of steps and he's getting too heavy (40lb) to carry. Similarly it used to be that every time we took him out of his kennel, we had to immediately march him outside or he would pee on the floor. Now he can hold it for quite a while, and has been very good about telling us when he needs to go out. he hasn't pooped on the floor in months
but now every now and then, he'll just let it go right in front of us
back when he was untrained he would at least try to hide it
It's sort of a moot point since he'll have a yard soon anyway, but it's just really frustrating to have trained diligently for 4 months and still have him be a huge dummy sometimes
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we thought that neutering was supposed to stop that
I thought they were supposed to lift their leg when they do that? We've never seen him lift his leg. But I don't think any of these three times we were actually watching him as he did it.
he spent the early morning in the pen but he cried most of the morning and then tore up the puppy pads
so kennel it is for another day. tomorrow I'll be home and I can work an acclimating him to it
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as if he has no control over it or he's too lazy to get up and move to the door
we brought it up to the vet and I don't remember what they said but clearly they weren't concerned about it
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We tried crating our beagle, what a disaster. He has free roam of the lower level while we're at work during the day, and I come home at lunch to take him out for a whiz, give him his denta stick and play a bit with him. When possible, I'll take him over to my mom's for a 'play day' with her dog. There's some serious lavishing of affection when my wife and I get home as well; I found a big lipstick kiss mark on his forehead the other day which was pretty funny.
You shouldn't have the dog. You shouldn't have any pets. You are an irresponsible pet owner and general sack of shit.
I had him in his new pen most of this morning. He doesn't like it, but at least he can stretch his legs. I took measurements on the sliding glass windows in both the apartment and the house and they are the same size, so I'm going to pick up a doggy door from Home Depot this evening... he will have plenty of space until we can move.
Surprisingly he has not used the bathroom in the pen at all, which I did not expect.
His energy levels when outdoors are still not what they were a couple of weeks ago, but there are 15 reasons why that could be, so I'll just monitor it to make sure it doesn't get worse
*edit* I'm going to bungie cord the gate to the dog door so he can go in and out during the day without escaping into the house
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This does not sound like marking. I mean, he's still a puppy and all, but it's still weird.
It has been raining every day for the past month so its been even more swampy than normal... I wonder if that is a factor. Were talking 90+ degrees with a heat index of 115
I installed the dog door. He hasnt quite figured it out yet, but hes adapted to the pen.
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