 Barked: Mon Aug 25, '08 9:10am PST |
 | |  | | I have previously posted a similar question on other dog forums and most people responding with "Try NILIF". They have been trying to following the suggestions from the NILIF web page but still have a few more questions.
Here is the background.
My sister has a 1yr old son, is pregnant again (due in 2/09) and has a chi/jrt mix named Rufus.
Rufus has always been a bit of a jerk when he doesn’t get his way, but since Oscar was born and especially since he has become mobile (crawling and now walking) Rufus is being a brat.
When he is mad at my sister, he will pee on her stuff.
When he is mad at my BIL, he will pee on his stuff.
When he is mad that the baby is getting too much attention, he will poop in Oscar's room.
For random reasons (we don’t know why), he will pee on plastic bags in the kitchen.
These are not always sneaky bowel attacks. He will walk up and pee on something right in front of you. You cannot startle him into stopping the flow, nor will picking him up stop him either. He has access to the backyard at all times via an open door or the doggie door. The pooping in the house is a new behavior, and only in the last month.
Rufus will also growl and/or snap at Oscar when Oscar is trying to play with him, but not all of the time. Rufus will bring a toy over to Oscar to play with, or try and snuggle with Oscar… but will randomly not want to play anymore and growl. My sister tries her best to keep Oscar from hurting Rufus, and does not scold Rufus when Oscar is the instigator. The baby and the dog are never left alone together. But a baby can pull a dog's tail or go from patting to fur pulling in the second it takes you to sneeze.
My BIL takes him for walks everyday and plays with him. He gets at least 70% of the attention he was getting before. He has been given a clean bill of health by the vet. New baby, new job, new dog... all of these things can alter the amount of attention a dog receives. Unfort, there is only so much time in a day. They are trying to do whatever they can to correct these behaviors. They don’t want to make Rufus an “outside dog” but they also can’t have him peeing and pooping in only the baby’s stuff. They are afraid it will get worse when the second baby arrives if they cant get a handle on it now.
We need real advice on how to change specific behaviors, specifically the pooping in the baby’s bedroom... The other forums I have posted on only give guilt trips and say “poor neglected Rufus” and don’t give any helpful advice. |  |  | |  |
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