Kingdom of Pets

Posted by Steeno25
Mar 23, 2008

Hi~

We adopted a stray 2 year old black lab mix, Jameson, from the local shelter in early January. He does have a bit of separation anxiety that we are working through. He was house trained and kennel trained when we got him and had weaned him out of the kennel. We have doggy proofed the house, but tend to come home to pillows moved about.

My question is about training your dog not to chew on remote controls. Our mistake when we first brought Jamo home was not to move the remotes for the TV at our house - but over the weekend we had him at my parents house and he demolished two of their remotes. The first one I had put away on top of the TV to a place I thought was out of reach - I was wrong. The next night it was a remote in a room where the door was shut. We did have two other dogs at my parent’s house (4 and 14). Jamo has been introduced to both dogs before - but this time I don't know what got into him with the remotes.

Any suggestions? Should he be re-kenneled? If so, how do you know when it's time to let him back out and be in the house on his own again?

Posted by Blue
Mar 27, 2008

Hello
If it's just the remotes you could try putting a dog repellent on it - like bitter apple (available at most pet stores) or make a concoction out of chilli pepper and water to put on the remote. If you apply bitter apple/chilli & water on a cloth first and then just rub down the remote, it won't harm the remote and the residue will be left behind to deter the dog.

Otherwise, the best way to keep your remotes in good health is to put them somewhere where he can't reach them .

What are you doing to help with his separation anxiety? What are his symptoms?

Blue

Posted by Steeno25
Mar 27, 2008

The reason we think Jameson has seperation anxiety is because when we would leave in the morning - we'd come home to find items we touched the night before moved around the house. Or a shirt that was just washed and on a chair to dry would be moved from to where Jameson's bed was. He also likes to take the dish cloth off of the oven and move it to the other room. This would happen with blankets and pillows as well. We do shut all bedroom / bathroom doors while we're gone and move remotes from harms way. Could I be wrong about the seperation anxiety? Does he just need to be kenneled to get used to the rules of our house?

To help with the seperation anxiety at night and while we're home, we randomly will put on our coats and shoes, get the keys and have Jameson lay down on his bed. Then we'll walk out in the garage and stay out there for a few minutes. We've been gradually staying out there longer and longer to help him get used to being home alone. He seems to be responding to this and getting better about us being gone.

I do have concerns about leaving him unkenneled at my parents house with both the other dogs around. I'm afraid the 4 year old dog (Harley) is making Jamo anxious - we visit my parents house for one weekend a month and sometimes Harley is there and sometimes he isn't. Jamo has been left alone with Toby (the 14 year old dog) and there weren't any problems. This last time all 3 dogs were left home along together and Jamo ate the 2 remotes.

2 Year old Adopted dog and remote controls