New dog is here 🥰

Dopeydapple said:
She took a while to settle in her bed last night. Not sure if she was just chasing her toy around or actually scratching at the door but she did stop after about 10 mins ( then started up again a few times and stopped again), I think she was chasing her kibble toy around most likely.
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Might be worth getting a camera? I ordered one off amazon, it was less than £15 and just connects by wifi to my phone. It's been a godsend as we've recently settled in a rescue pup. I can also talk through the microphone which has really helped settle him at 4am and saves me getting up!
 
Belmont said:
Might be worth getting a camera? I ordered one off amazon, it was less than £15 and just connects by wifi to my phone. It's been a godsend as we've recently settled in a rescue pup. I can also talk through the microphone which has really helped settle him at 4am and saves me getting up!
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Ooh I didn't think of that, we already have 1 in a drawer somewhere, will ask OH to set it up. She's been really quite each time I've come in from dogs or horses today do seems happy enough on her own, I reckon she got pretty used to it after 18 months in kennels.
 
I chuck very absorbent towels over the beds in the kitchen before going out, then they stay in there until they’re mostly dry. Mine also have drying bags/towelling robes for winter, but they’ve had those since they were very little, no idea if it would be too hot given her breed and too much sensory overload given she’s new to you. I hairdryer too, although one thinks I’m trying to kill him.
 
I did a bit of rubbing her with a folded up towel ( more of a pad) yesterday and she was much better, didn't do much and obviously she was dry already but thought a little bit here and there while she us chilled would be good. She looks very weak through her back and back end when she's walking and when you get your fingers through all the fur there is very little coverage over her hip bones so guess she could easily hurt herself at the moment. Dogs Trust did see the weakness too and her back and hips have been x rayed and all is fine, so guessing she just needs to muscle up. I will get a physio involved in making a proper plan and getting some extra exercises when she's officially ours but at the moment any treatments have to go through DT and they obviously don't feel a physio is needed.
 
misst said:
She's huge!! But lovely. I hope she's found her final home x
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Me too. OH is in a bad mood with her today though as she let herself out of the dining room while I was out by pushing it until the bolt gave way. His moodiness is really his own doing as he got up early yesterday morning to see her and stayed up late then up early again this morning. He is not good without 9 hours sleep!
 
Today's evolutions are.... forcing doors till they give way if we are out and the first bit of resource guarding I've seen when she decided her new grooming mit was a new toy, she got a stern no for the growling / snarling and she stopped so then I swapped it with her for some peanut butter. Let's see what the rest of the day brings lol.
 
Resource guarding on day 2 would suggest a dog that isn't clear about boundaries and I would be really careful in how you 'correct' her. Do everything off to the side and do not be in her face or directly in front of her or 'over' her. I really would suggest using a crate/clear demarcation area and not leave down anything that she's likely to pick up and/or guard that you don't intend to take off her.
I'd also have a short house line on her collar so you can move her around without any grabbing.
You say a few times about using the word 'no' when it's not automatic that she knows what that means or any potential consequence.
 
She definitely seems to be the smartest malamute we've had so far. Has learned already that up stairs is off limits, as is getting on the furniture, jumping up has stopped ( well appears to of), seems respectful of personal space even when you're eating, is brilliant walking. Can't believe how well she is doing in just a few days. Now to fix the trying to break out of rooms 😒
 
Just throwing out some ideas:

Not a dog, but many years ago we had a cat who was an expert on opening closed doors. He hung on the handle, pushed with his nose on the key if there was one, and pushed with his hind paws on the doorframe if the door opened inwards. We ended up going around the house we lived in back then with screwdrivers, and changed all door handles to a vertical position instead of the usual horizontal. Don't know if you can still do that with modern door handles, but it was actually quite easy to do on the doors we had back then. We quickly got used to the change in hand movement needed to open doors at home, besides, once you've solved the problem or if it doesn't help, you can change the door handles back to horizontal again.

If you worry about claw marks on the door, could you temporarily duct tape some protection onto it?

Maybe a brain training toy (https://www.nina-ottosson.com/) to let her use some of that intelligence on something else than trying to figure out how to force open doors.
Perhaps an Adaptil diffuser to make her more content in the room she's in?
 
FinnishLapphund said:
Just throwing out some ideas:

Not a dog, but many years ago we had a cat who was an expert on opening closed doors. He hung on the handle, pushed with his nose on the key if there was one, and pushed with his hind paws on the doorframe if the door opened inwards. We ended up going around the house we lived in back then with screwdrivers, and changed all door handles to a vertical position instead of the usual horizontal. Don't know if you can still do that with modern door handles, but it was actually quite easy to do on the doors we had back then. We quickly got used to the change in hand movement needed to open doors at home, besides, once you've solved the problem or if it doesn't help, you can change the door handles back to horizontal again.

If you worry about claw marks on the door, could you temporarily duct tape some protection onto it?

Maybe a brain training toy (https://www.nina-ottosson.com/) to let her use some of that intelligence on something else than trying to figure out how to force open doors.
Perhaps an Adaptil diffuser to make her more content in the room she's in?
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Thanks, we did the door handle trick with a previous one, this one just wants to use brute force. She has a kibble toy and a lickit mat with peanut butter to occupy her but 🤷‍♀️. At the moment if she doesn't stop one of us goes down and directs her back onto her bed with her toy, she settles for a bit then starts up again, we are repeating about 3 times and then she seems to get the idea that she's not getting her way and goes to sleep. Hopefully her attempts will lessen over the next few nights as a sleep deprived, grumpy OH is not fun 😪, on a more positive note, everything else with her is going swimmingly!
 
Well we seem to have sorted her going crazy with my OH, he now knows to look for signs and nip it in the bud early, he will do sits and downs and some heal walking with direction changes to get her refocused on him and that seems to be enough. She is a really fussy eater so looking at options around that but otherwise she's been being a doddle, until last night's walk.... she's always been really good around other dogs, mostly ignores them, sometimes head and tail go up and she shows an interest in meeting them but doesn't pull or anything, no idea what it was about last night's dog but she was on her back legs whining at it, running around me trying to get to it, thought we had got passed it then she whipped round behind me, and bolted for it, I couldn't hang onto her and they had a lovely few minutes of play before I caught her, so embarrassing and no idea what it was about.
 
Thought we had sorted her going crazy with him but she's done it a few more times now, the reduced walks in the heat is not helping as I think she is just more excited to start with at being out. Went out with them tonight and she got over excited early on by a pigeon, closely followed by another pigeon and then 2 boys kicking a football around. The football was too much and she ended up on her back legs trying to pull OH over to them. He did the walk to heal, stop, sit, change direction etc and then decided to go a different way away from them. Anyway what I spotted was that even though she sat when told he didn't reward her as she was still focused on the boys and not calm. In my mind I would want to give her a treat for doing the command and hope that her focus could then start to shift to the chicken but he seems to want perfection before rewarding. I also think that when he's marching her away from things or past things and then doing heal work for a bit after he's being very strong in his grip / forceful, whereas as soon as we are over the initial pulling to get to something I try very hard to relax everything so that the energy level can come down again. Haven't quite worked out how to explain this to him without a row ( man with hurt pride). I took her off him tonight and did things how I wanted and the rest of the walk went great, but it was telling that when I asked him for some chicken after doing some sits and paws his response was "she's been naughty".
 
skinnydipper said:
As you seem to be struggling one way or another with this new dog, why not ask the advice of a local trainer who can see both you and OH in person and advise.

ETA. Does the Dogs Trust have a trainer/behaviourist that you can ask for advice?
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Yes dogs trust have a number to call for a behaviourist, we are also at the vet today so they can sign off on a physio for her so might see if I can get an appointment with their behaviourist. 99% of the time she's the easiest dog ever but OH just seems to either over stimulate her or not react calmly enough when she gets over excited by something else.
 
I think this thread might have given a bit of a negative view of her, so for balance here's the things she does really well after 3 weeks with us...
Calmly lies down and ignores you when you eat.
Chills out comfortably on her own when we are out and stays off sofas
Is happy being groomed now.
Accepts the towel to dry her ( legs and feet still a work in progress)
99% of the time walks happily on a loose lead and ignores distractions.
Settles well at night.
Ignores squirrels and foxes unless they are right in front of her and suddenly run but even then it's a half hearted jump to the end of the lead then stop and check in with me.
Doesn't react to aggressive / reactive dogs she meets on walks.
She is mostly a very easy dog to have around bless her.
 
Dopeydapple said:
I think this thread might have given a bit of a negative view of her, so for balance here's the things she does really well after 3 weeks with us...
Calmly lies down and ignores you when you eat.
Chills out comfortably on her own when we are out and stays off sofas
Is happy being groomed now.
Accepts the towel to dry her ( legs and feet still a work in progress)
99% of the time walks happily on a loose lead and ignores distractions.
Settles well at night.
Ignores squirrels and foxes unless they are right in front of her and suddenly run but even then it's a half hearted jump to the end of the lead then stop and check in with me.
Doesn't react to aggressive / reactive dogs she meets on walks.
She is mostly a very easy dog to have around bless her.
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It seems that the dog isn't the problem but your OH is. Perhaps he would listen to and take notice of a 3rd person advising him to reward 'the try' if he won't listen to you.
 
Dopeydapple said:
... but OH just seems to either over stimulate her or not react calmly enough when she gets over excited by something else.
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If you've tried to explain why, and how you do what you do with her, and he doesn't get it neither by that, nor by watching you and her together, and getting a "better" result than when he does it, then sometimes it's just easier to take suggestions from someone on the outside. Like a trainer telling him that he needs to reward the little steps in the right direction, and not wait until he gets the full wanted behaviour, e.g. sitting down fully focused on him.

Your last sentence reminded me about that even though my mum in general was great with my pets, I still vividly remember a moment from 30 or so years ago. I was upstairs, someone knocked on our door, the 2 Norwegian Buhund bitches I had then began barking (I don't remember if the Smooth Collie maybe also added a woof or two, but the Buhunds as the Spitzes they were, was in another league), and me hearing my mum say "Caalm dowwn!" in the most stressed, tense way possible, followed by "Why don't you listen to me, caaaalm dowwwn!"
I was already interested in human body language, tone of voice etc, and it's effect on dog training, but it was still a lightbulb moment for me, because even without seeing them, it was so clear that my Buhunds reacted to what the tone in her voice told them, not her words. In fact, I could feel my own body responding to the stressed tenseness in her voice when going down the stairs from my room, even though my brain fully well understood the meaning of the words Calm down.

I did explain it to my mum afterwards, and she got a lot better at it, but even I who is far more interested in dog training than she was, have had my fair share of moments when I clearly forgot everything I knew about deep, calm breaths, and staying calm myself to keep my bitches calm.
 
FinnishLapphund said:
If you've tried to explain why, and how you do what you do with her, and he doesn't get it neither by that, nor by watching you and her together, and getting a "better" result than when he does it, then sometimes it's just easier to take suggestions from someone on the outside. Like a trainer telling him that he needs to reward the little steps in the right direction, and not wait until he gets the full wanted behaviour, e.g. sitting down fully focused on him.

Your last sentence reminded me about that even though my mum in general was great with my pets, I still vividly remember a moment from 30 or so years ago. I was upstairs, someone knocked on our door, the 2 Norwegian Buhund bitches I had then began barking (I don't remember if the Smooth Collie maybe also added a woof or two, but the Buhunds as the Spitzes they were, was in another league), and me hearing my mum say "Caalm dowwn!" in the most stressed, tense way possible, followed by "Why don't you listen to me, caaaalm dowwwn!"
I was already interested in human body language, tone of voice etc, and it's effect on dog training, but it was still a lightbulb moment for me, because even without seeing them, it was so clear that my Buhunds reacted to what the tone in her voice told them, not her words. In fact, I could feel my own body responding to the stressed tenseness in her voice when going down the stairs from my room, even though my brain fully well understood the meaning of the words Calm down.

I did explain it to my mum afterwards, and she got a lot better at it, but even I who is far more interested in dog training than she was, have had my fair share of moments when I clearly forgot everything I knew about deep, calm breaths, and staying calm myself to keep my bitches calm.
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I'm hoping he took something from watching me takeover last night, I told him the chicken needed using up this morning so he said he would take it and do 'training' this morning. When I messaged to see how this mornings walk had gone the reply was simply "better". Some walks are just uneventful with her though so who knows if he did better or she was just her mostly normal chilled out dog anyway. Will give it another week or so and try to go with him on as many walks as I can and see what he does. 1 walk he met a husky cross that he's met a few times who doesn't seem to like her but who's owner seems to want them to be friends. I would just say no but he goes along with it and the humpty owner thought they should be allowed to just meet head on on the lead until his dog gets used to her, OH didn't seem to see the issue with this as Tala is unbothered by the other dog, I have a huge issue putting my dog in that situation and marched off with her. Other dog owner followed. When we went different ways I explained to OH if we wanted to introduce them and try to get them getting along then side by side walking and keep moving is better, explained why and he said "oh that makes sense". He just hasn't had enough experiences yet to learn stuff.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Keep the dog, rehome the OH? It's really hard when you live with someone who has no feel for dogs.
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The problem is most of the time she's so good so he doesn't seem to think of the "what ifs" or how to make sure he's setting her up for success. Some more joint walks and a few more unexpected "fun" moments and we might get there, if not he can hear it from a trainer lol
 
FinnishLapphund said:
"Caalm dowwn!" in the most stressed, tense way possible, followed by "Why don't you listen to me, caaaalm dowwwn!"
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This could be Mr. J, he really, really struggles to get the message even now, although I have back up from my son these days so he is slightly better than he used to be. I and/or one of my sons have simply taken over all pet and horse training duties over the years to avoid his impatient and dogmatic (oh the pun, clever me! 🤭) methods ruining my animals.

Don't get me wrong, he loves all animals and would never knowingly harm them, but he has this bizarre attitude that the no nonsense 'I AM IN CHARGE HERE!' shouted louder and louder and refusing rewards unless the desired result is instantaneous and perfect first time of asking. :rolleyes:

I have always believed it is because until he met me he had very little interaction with animals at all. He was definitely a townie, never had a single pet in the house growing up let alone being responsible for training a young animal himself. I often wondered why he even married me considering my background was all farming, horse breeding and several dogs running around the place at all times.

At this moment in time we have builders wandering about the place. Mr' J becomes almost apoplectic trying to shut the dogs up every time they hear or see one of them coming towards this part of the house. All he achieves is two dogs with confused high alert anxiety getting louder and louder. Son and I just quietly but firmly tell them to stop and send them back to their beds which they do almost immediately, but still Mr. J doesn't get it. Bl**dy men! 😂
 
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