chestnut cob
Well-Known Member
I think unsociable might be the wrong word actually, or too strong a word. A bit of background...
We have a 10 yr old bitch who, up until recently, has always had other doggy company at home. Our elderly (15yo) dog was PTS 3 or 4 weeks ago and she took it very badly, which is understandable as she's never known the house without him. It was done at home and she saw everything, so we'd hoped she would accept it. She is slowly bouncing back but we're having problems leaving her with the dog sitter so could do with some suggestions please. When we had both dogs, we had a sitter come to the house if we were on holiday or out for any length of time (primarily because the elderly dog needed various types of medication through the day), however this particular sitter has now retired so we are using a neighbour who runs a sitting business from her house. This means our bitch has to get used to going over to the neighbour's house but we're struggling to get her used to this. We've been taking her over most days to get her used to being in a different house (she knows the neighbours anyway as they've lived there for probably 18 years), and the neighbour has been over to ours a few times to take her out for walks etc.
The problem is that our dog is not especially sociable with other people. She adores our family and was fine with our old dog but she has no interest at all in people outside of the family or other dogs. She comes to the yard with me and ignores all other dogs. If they come over to say hello, she ignores them or she briefly sniffs and walks away. She can be scared of boisterous dogs - we've tried the usual thing of not giving her a fuss when she runs away from other dogs. In terms of other people, in the 18 months she has been coming to the yard with me, she has found only one livery that she will "talk" to. She isn't frightened of people, just has no interest in them and totally ignores them. All of this means that she really will not settle at the dog sitter's house. Even if only there for 30 mins, she just whinges, whines and apparently walks all around the house looking for us.
So how do we get her to settle with the dog sitter? If we have to be out all day then we don't really want to leave her in the house here alone, even though sitter is happy to come over at regular intervals, check on her, let her out, sit with her for a bit, talk her for walks. Sitter tried this on saturday and said whenever she came back here, dog was thoroughly fed up being in the house alone. Is there a way to get her used to other dogs? ATM we're going for daily walks with the sitter and her dogs to try to get her used to them, plus as I say sitter is coming here for coffee, taking our dog out on her own for walks (she is quite happy to go with her though not overly impressed, if that makes sense). She was socialised as a puppy and has had plenty of contact over the years with lots of other dogs, she just has no interest in them and now old dog has gone, she seems to be distraught if not with us.
Is there anything else we can do? Thanks
We have a 10 yr old bitch who, up until recently, has always had other doggy company at home. Our elderly (15yo) dog was PTS 3 or 4 weeks ago and she took it very badly, which is understandable as she's never known the house without him. It was done at home and she saw everything, so we'd hoped she would accept it. She is slowly bouncing back but we're having problems leaving her with the dog sitter so could do with some suggestions please. When we had both dogs, we had a sitter come to the house if we were on holiday or out for any length of time (primarily because the elderly dog needed various types of medication through the day), however this particular sitter has now retired so we are using a neighbour who runs a sitting business from her house. This means our bitch has to get used to going over to the neighbour's house but we're struggling to get her used to this. We've been taking her over most days to get her used to being in a different house (she knows the neighbours anyway as they've lived there for probably 18 years), and the neighbour has been over to ours a few times to take her out for walks etc.
The problem is that our dog is not especially sociable with other people. She adores our family and was fine with our old dog but she has no interest at all in people outside of the family or other dogs. She comes to the yard with me and ignores all other dogs. If they come over to say hello, she ignores them or she briefly sniffs and walks away. She can be scared of boisterous dogs - we've tried the usual thing of not giving her a fuss when she runs away from other dogs. In terms of other people, in the 18 months she has been coming to the yard with me, she has found only one livery that she will "talk" to. She isn't frightened of people, just has no interest in them and totally ignores them. All of this means that she really will not settle at the dog sitter's house. Even if only there for 30 mins, she just whinges, whines and apparently walks all around the house looking for us.
So how do we get her to settle with the dog sitter? If we have to be out all day then we don't really want to leave her in the house here alone, even though sitter is happy to come over at regular intervals, check on her, let her out, sit with her for a bit, talk her for walks. Sitter tried this on saturday and said whenever she came back here, dog was thoroughly fed up being in the house alone. Is there a way to get her used to other dogs? ATM we're going for daily walks with the sitter and her dogs to try to get her used to them, plus as I say sitter is coming here for coffee, taking our dog out on her own for walks (she is quite happy to go with her though not overly impressed, if that makes sense). She was socialised as a puppy and has had plenty of contact over the years with lots of other dogs, she just has no interest in them and now old dog has gone, she seems to be distraught if not with us.
Is there anything else we can do? Thanks
otherwise they are fine with their own company but in my home, if that makes sense.