Post by japperwoman on Jun 22, 2015 20:47:17 GMT -5
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. So, we got our English bulldog from a rescue just over a year ago. Her info was spotty at best. I was told she was possessive of her food and her kids around other dogs. Other than that she had no known bad habits. I was told by the rescue that she belonged to a friend of theirs and that they were divorcing and neither one of them wanted the dog. She was between 2-3 years old. Now, here is what we have learned over the course of a year. She has incredible food allergies.No problem we are working to figure them out (elimination diet and dog dermatologist). She is aggressive towards other dogs. She has a very distinct pattern. She will sit politely while another dog sniffs her, she will then turn around and ask to be picked up, if you refuse then she will attack. It has happened the same way several times. No problem, we keep her away from other dogs. She is terrified of thunder storms. No problem, we keep her close during storms. We crate her at night and she is more than happy to go in there and sleep. When we got her we would also crate her when we left the house. She seemed amendable to that as well. I would say about three months ago things started changing dramatically. When we would crate her anytime other than at night she would go crazy and break her crate. Heavy duty metal crates and she would use her amazing jaw and tear the door off the crate. After the third crate we decided to not crate her when we left. She not only was destroying the crates but harming herself in the process. So, we decided we would block her in the kitchen when we left. That proved futile since she got out every single time but couldn't get back in where her water was. So, we just decided to leave her loose in the house. She was like a new dog. She was well behaved. She was calm when we left instead of panicked (she definitely has separation anxiety). She would lay in her recliner instead of trying to get out the door with us. That lasted about two weeks. Since then she has been up to NO GOOD. Every time we leave she either, gets into the garbage (now we put it outside), gets into the bathroom garbage (bathroom and bedroom doors shut), poos or pees in the girls rooms (block of the upstairs), and now the newest terribleness... getting up on the table and counters. How does this short fat dog get up on my four foot counters? I don't know, but she does it. Yesterday she finished up a tub of butter pushed wayyyy back on the counter. Then vomited all over last night. When we went outside without her tonight my husband came in to find her mere minutes later up on top of the table finishing off a plate of meatloaf. I don't know how to retrain this behavior as it happens when we aren't home or at least in the house. She is really a delight and blessing to our family when we are home but I know that if we leave her I will have a stomach ache wondering what she has gotten into while we are gone. Has she just settled in and feels comfortable to act out now that a year is up? Is it something we have done? Could it possibly be nutritional? The last one might be a stretch but much of the naughtiness is food related. This started around when we put her on the boiled venison/boiled potato diet. She has not lost any weight but I do feel like she has lost some muscle mass. She has been on it for just over three months but we can't start adding new foods in until she has been off everything else for six weeks. Unfortunately she keeps getting into things she shouldn't. Sorry if this was rambling. ANY advice and help you can offer is greatly appreciated. Thank you.