[CarrieD]

My family is getting fed up.

Menolly has thus far torn up the couch, Dad's favorite chair, my pillow, several towels, library books, school books, home books, both my nephew's sippy-cups, two Tupperware lids, the front blinds, and my thumb drive (which, amazingly, still works). It's not funny anymore and everyone is really, really mad. Even Mom, who has been my only ally through this, is fed up. She even told me today 'if you can't take care of your dog, maybe you shouldn't have one'

The most constant phrase in the house is 'Menolly, NO!'

I've tried everything; being calm, being angry, ignoring her, the spray bottle (The hose when she was outside and out of range), growling, 'dropping' her (as dad calls it), being gentle...NOTHING works. The rough correction she either thinks is a game or turns into a cowering puddle of jello. The light correction she completely ignores.

She's now been banished off the furniture permenantly. She spent almost all of today outside because Mom was the only one around and she had to watch my nephew (his mom- my sister -goes to college, too). Despite learning 'sit', 'down', 'come', and even 'stay' with fairly good dependancy, she's a boprn theif an steals everything that's not tied down. We put things up high, and that dog JUMPS. A 12 1/2 inch Beagle jumps so that she can reach everything on a 3 1/2 ft counter except what's right against the wall, and anything straight up to about four feet...and we're running out of shelves. She rarely tackles my nephew now, thank goodness, but will steal food from him...worse, he thinks it's funny to feed her his food.

I want to know what I'm doing wrong. I'm petrified that, since I still live at home, dad will say 'that's it; the dog goes'. and if he did my first impulse would be to say 'if she goes, I go', but I <span style="font-style: italic">have</span> nowhere to go. I'm stuck here until I get a steady job. (I have enough on-and-off odd jobs to support the dog, but nothing beyond that)

I can't take her for walks because every time we do, she either spooks at the cars and panics, or nails herself on a scent on the sidewalk and refuses to go any further. I can't watch her all day because I have school and, now, work. When she stays in the crate all day (we actually did it recently) she goes absolutely stir-crazy (ramming her head against the bars, clawing until her claws are ready to bleed) and I'm afraid she'll hurt herself.

I'm desperate. I CAN'T lose my dog again...I refuse to...but then I can't alienate my family either.

 

[CarrieD]

Crazy Daisy- Treats? Just once; I keep forgetting to take them along. Mostly she's scared of the big dogs in our neighborhood. To tell you the truth, so am I. I know they're just barking to bark, but some of them are huge, and a couple scare me half to death by peeking thier heads over the fence. One likes to jump; I don't want him jumping over his fence (he seems quite capable of it) and eating her up. Maybe owning a smaller dog has made me paranoid; I used to just ignore the big dogs.

She likes her crate- when the door is open. She sleeps there when I work at my desk and I've never used it for punishment. She just hates it when I leave her alone and close the door. When I've put her in there to keep her contained near bedtime, she cries for maybe five minutes then settles down. It's when I leave her there alone when she goes bananas. We did try moving the crate out in the living room but it didn't work. Joseph thinks the crate door is fun to open and close. I'd lock it, but then there's always the possibility of an emergency.

I would keep her out in the backyard, but she's starting to tear up the dog door when it's closed.

Sandy- Unfortunately I can't sign us up for obediance classes because they take two things: money and transportation. Both grant checks are delayed, and my first paycheck is going directly to dog food and school expenses. It doesn't help Dad works 6 days a week and there's only one car. My only other transportation is the bus, and her crate is too big to take. There used to be free classes at the park, but those stopped years ago and they weren't that good; just one day a week for four weeks of the basics. If something changes, you bet I'll take her to some classes.

 

[CarrieD]

Thanks for the advice. I walked her on a different route this morning and it worked quite well. I'm going to walk her again in about 15 minutes. I don't know if I'll be able to walk her in the morning every day; I wake up at five AM to go to college and then don't get home until about three. The streets are well-lit, but walking alone early in the morning makes me nervous. Maybe I'll gop down to Miltary Surplus and snag some pepper spray. My job is on 'off' days when I don't have school and with that I work until after six. (Mom has to feed her supper those days) I'll work on doing the training sessions more often; so far it's only been once a day. And now that I have a little extra money, I will look into more chews for her.

Thanks again, and I'll let you know how it works out.