Comments | k_matic: All work and no play makes me very dull indeed.

k_matic

All work and no play makes me very dull indeed.

Feb 16, 2005 13:00

I have a list of things to do at work that just gets longer, no matter how many things I cross off it. I'm working 9 hours + a day and it's till not enough, and thus kipping 10 hours a night out of sheer exhaustion. The reason why I'm so crap is that I haven't been though the Alpha phase in a project for about 5 years, having had so many of my ( Read more... )

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k_matic February 16 2005, 09:53:39 UTC

What, while you weren't there? Thats why we're getting the ultra sonic thing, so he can be admonished while we're not actually there (cool, I got to use the word "admonished" in a proper sentence!)

Woah this is so long, I've had to split it into 2!!! mzbee February 17 2005, 17:08:20 UTC

Aha!! We had exactly the same problem with out little Fitzy ( ... )

Part 2... mzbee February 17 2005, 17:08:34 UTC

Then one night, I thought I'd try this out... I said "be good!" as we went to bed, made no fuss, didn't say goodnight or anything... and he whimpered a bit, the settled down!!!! it was fantastic!! We made him sleep downstairs from then on, no matter how much we wanted him with us, because he understood that we could be gone from the room for long periods of time, and we would still come back ( ... )

oops! still more... mzbee February 17 2005, 17:18:29 UTC

oh! and also, I should add that we took him to training/obedience classes as soon as he was old enough, but although he was well trained from those, it made no difference to anxiety at being separated from us, till we did what I've told you about.

And also, we now have him sleep in our room with us a couple of times a week if we want to, and he's fine. He doesn't freak out or anything the next night when he's on his own. He's completely cured, we've finally got through to him!!!

There is hope!!! :-) hang in there. haha!

Re: oops! still more... k_matic February 18 2005, 00:51:34 UTC

Fantastic - thanks for the advice. Poor Jim is already tearing his hair out over this, and I'm stuck in Leamington feeling mega-guilty about leaving him to suffer it alone during the week.
Most of the problem has been with brass making a fuss almost immediately, so that it has been impossible to come back into the room during a quiet period and give him some praise. Basically we think that because he was born and raised in a kennel with about 10 other dogs, he's never been on his own at all and has a very acute case of separation anxiety. what we can do about it remains to be seen, but we just hope we can break this destructive cycle ASAP. You're right about it being very distressing to watch (or in our case listen to) as you can tell he's very very panicked and very frightenend. Having said that, you're also prone to bouts of "fucking shut up or I'll skin you alive!"
I just hope it doesn't take months to sort this out, or Jim will have given the dog back by then. :(