Post by hemmerfru on Jul 6, 2016 4:43:22 GMT -5
Hi Greyhound Gappers,
Apologies for the long first post, but I'm hoping you guys can give me some help/reassurance about settling our new hound Jack into our house. We've had him just over a week, and he's mostly settling in really well - started playing with toys, loves a cuddle and enjoys being part of the family action.
The short version
Our hound cries when we're in the house, but not in the same room. He seems fine when we're out. Help!
The detail
He sleeps on a bed downstairs from us in our dining room (I think he'd ideally like to sleep on the couch in the living room...) We were at home for the first week he was with us, but ignored him as much as possible to help with his confidence. He was very independent, and took himself off to sleep in other rooms while we got on with our days. He was even ok with us going out for three or four hours at a time by the end of the week - very relaxed dog, we thought!
But since we've gone back to work, he's started crying first thing in the morning and when we're not in the same room as him. He seems fine when we're not in the house, though he did have an accident of the pee variety yesterday afternoon, even after the dog walker had let him into the yard at lunchtime. We leave him baby-gated in the large dining room with a Kong when we go out and one after the dog walker has been. He gets a 30-40 minute walk in the morning and the same in the evening.
We've tried ignoring him when he vocalises, but his whining escalates into barking really quickly and we have elderly neighbours we don't want to disturb too much. We don't want to leave him with total freedom in the house while we're out as we're worried he'll take too much ownership of the living-room couch. My partner is reluctant to have him sleep in our room in case he becomes more dependent on us.
I'd love to nip the problem in the bud now before it becomes properly ingrained behaviour - so any advice would be gratefully received!
Apologies for the long first post, but I'm hoping you guys can give me some help/reassurance about settling our new hound Jack into our house. We've had him just over a week, and he's mostly settling in really well - started playing with toys, loves a cuddle and enjoys being part of the family action.
The short version
Our hound cries when we're in the house, but not in the same room. He seems fine when we're out. Help!
The detail
He sleeps on a bed downstairs from us in our dining room (I think he'd ideally like to sleep on the couch in the living room...) We were at home for the first week he was with us, but ignored him as much as possible to help with his confidence. He was very independent, and took himself off to sleep in other rooms while we got on with our days. He was even ok with us going out for three or four hours at a time by the end of the week - very relaxed dog, we thought!
But since we've gone back to work, he's started crying first thing in the morning and when we're not in the same room as him. He seems fine when we're not in the house, though he did have an accident of the pee variety yesterday afternoon, even after the dog walker had let him into the yard at lunchtime. We leave him baby-gated in the large dining room with a Kong when we go out and one after the dog walker has been. He gets a 30-40 minute walk in the morning and the same in the evening.
We've tried ignoring him when he vocalises, but his whining escalates into barking really quickly and we have elderly neighbours we don't want to disturb too much. We don't want to leave him with total freedom in the house while we're out as we're worried he'll take too much ownership of the living-room couch. My partner is reluctant to have him sleep in our room in case he becomes more dependent on us.
I'd love to nip the problem in the bud now before it becomes properly ingrained behaviour - so any advice would be gratefully received!
