Love
Well-Known Member
Hi all, I’m hoping to pick the brains of those who are more experienced than I am! Sorry this could be quite long…
We have just got back from our honeymoon which was for 2 weeks. Purdey went to a new but trusted dog sitter friend who has one the same breed. For those that don’t know she’s now nearly 14 months.
We’ve been back a week and did anticipate her to be a bit clingy/worried asca result of the change in routine etc. She is mostly back to normal now other than still being a bit manic at times and not liking being left (for example I came upstairs to empty the suitcases and she was howling for me downstairs - something she has never done not even as a puppy. The odd frustrated whine maybe but not to this extent). Like I say, we anticipated she may be like this and I assume it is quite common? Especially as this is the first time we have gone away without her for longer than 2 nights. We are just going back to basics a bit with that and building back up etc.
The stranger thing she is doing is only on an evening. We have an L shaped sofa and her bed is down on the floor tucked into the corner part. She’s always liked to be right underneath where we sit. Since coming back, she’ll settle on her bed in the same place as normal however if one of us moves even a muscle she’ll jump up off her bed, slink over to her food bowl with her tail between her legs and eat a few mouthfuls of her food (she’s not eating great since returning which is another story but we are getting there and it’s not unheard of for her anyway) before slinking back and staring up at us very anxiously from her bed. She’ll then sort of settle again until the next time one of us moves and it repeats. The first night she was back I leant down to stroke her whilst she was on her bed - this was before we had noticed this new behaviour - and she actually grumbled at me. Something she has never ever done before for any reason, and certainly not because we have just gone to stroke her - she usually wants 1000% attention for 1000% of the time!
Last night we agreed to act completely indifferent, sit up on the sofa as normal and if she does this when we move we totally ignore her. Don’t look at her, go to stroke her or talk to her etc, especially after she grumbled at me when I went to stroke her. After a handful of times where she did this she started to realise that nothing was going to happen and she would stay on her bed but would still be giving us an incredibly anxious look.
Any ideas what this is all about and how best to move forward? I assume this is resource guarding around the bed? I have a bit of a working theory that is something along the lines of the other dog being up on the sofa and dominating Purdey who has been down on the floor? Or maybe trying to take her bed? She is very submissive by nature and the other dog is quite dominant. The other dog is allowed on the sofa whereas Purdey isn’t with us as a rule so was likely preferring to be down on the floor. Is this just something that will work itself out with time or do we need to step in to stop anything escalating? I’m reluctant to mention anything to our dog sitter in case it sounds like an accusation and they did us such a huge favour having her whilst we were away.
Thank you - from someone who is still jet lagged, full of a stinking cold I got of the plane and far more emotional than usual
We have just got back from our honeymoon which was for 2 weeks. Purdey went to a new but trusted dog sitter friend who has one the same breed. For those that don’t know she’s now nearly 14 months.
We’ve been back a week and did anticipate her to be a bit clingy/worried asca result of the change in routine etc. She is mostly back to normal now other than still being a bit manic at times and not liking being left (for example I came upstairs to empty the suitcases and she was howling for me downstairs - something she has never done not even as a puppy. The odd frustrated whine maybe but not to this extent). Like I say, we anticipated she may be like this and I assume it is quite common? Especially as this is the first time we have gone away without her for longer than 2 nights. We are just going back to basics a bit with that and building back up etc.
The stranger thing she is doing is only on an evening. We have an L shaped sofa and her bed is down on the floor tucked into the corner part. She’s always liked to be right underneath where we sit. Since coming back, she’ll settle on her bed in the same place as normal however if one of us moves even a muscle she’ll jump up off her bed, slink over to her food bowl with her tail between her legs and eat a few mouthfuls of her food (she’s not eating great since returning which is another story but we are getting there and it’s not unheard of for her anyway) before slinking back and staring up at us very anxiously from her bed. She’ll then sort of settle again until the next time one of us moves and it repeats. The first night she was back I leant down to stroke her whilst she was on her bed - this was before we had noticed this new behaviour - and she actually grumbled at me. Something she has never ever done before for any reason, and certainly not because we have just gone to stroke her - she usually wants 1000% attention for 1000% of the time!
Last night we agreed to act completely indifferent, sit up on the sofa as normal and if she does this when we move we totally ignore her. Don’t look at her, go to stroke her or talk to her etc, especially after she grumbled at me when I went to stroke her. After a handful of times where she did this she started to realise that nothing was going to happen and she would stay on her bed but would still be giving us an incredibly anxious look.
Any ideas what this is all about and how best to move forward? I assume this is resource guarding around the bed? I have a bit of a working theory that is something along the lines of the other dog being up on the sofa and dominating Purdey who has been down on the floor? Or maybe trying to take her bed? She is very submissive by nature and the other dog is quite dominant. The other dog is allowed on the sofa whereas Purdey isn’t with us as a rule so was likely preferring to be down on the floor. Is this just something that will work itself out with time or do we need to step in to stop anything escalating? I’m reluctant to mention anything to our dog sitter in case it sounds like an accusation and they did us such a huge favour having her whilst we were away.
Thank you - from someone who is still jet lagged, full of a stinking cold I got of the plane and far more emotional than usual
.
so she’s on her way back to normal!
I think the majority of what was going on can be attributed to the phantom and throwing into that the change in routine by coming home again and she was just having a bit of a rough time of it. As soon as we changed back to “normal” with her food routine and she started eating well again, the funny jumping up all the time completely stopped.
