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Barking and other craziness - please help!


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Vespertine

I'm so glad the forum is back online!

Over the past few days, Effie has been crazy. Every spare minute, she is shrilly barking under the furniture, mostly (but not only) the couch. 

We are using redirects and time outs, but the moment we leave her to her own devices, she's back at it. My previous shih tzu wasn't a barker, so I am at a loss on this, and it's very disruptive. 

Any tips on what to do? And is it possible this is related to teething pain? Her adult teeth are erupting right now, and it's clearly bothering her (she's panting a lot). She has a wide variety of chews, but only spends some time on them. 

P.S. On the good news front, she is pretty much housetrained! I hope I don't jinx it by saying so. :)

 

 

20170118_101857.jpg

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Crinkly

Gorgeous pic!

Yes, I think it could be teething.  But don't quote me on that!  lol.

I must admit that when Tara was that age she was just a barky little madam.  I was rather horrified, since Cato has always been a quiet dog, and my heart was sinking at the sheer amount of barking we were seeing.

And she has certainly had her moments.  I always likened her to one of those silly pink sparkly screaming over-excited little girls that you see.  The ones who want to wear their pink fairy wings to school, and squeal like a boiling kettle, complete with jumping up and down and clapping, if anything exciting happens.

However, I am delighted to say that slowly, almost without noticing, our Little Madam has morphed into a much quieter grown up.  Well, almost grownup.  I think being in a fairly quiet household has helped a lot.  We don't shout, we don't play loud TV or music, we don't raise our voices much at all, and Cato is really only noisy at the front door and when he gets silly-overexcited during games and wrestling.

She is now 27 months, and only barks at people at the front door, and when she is bored in the garden, really, so it is as though she has gradually learned to follow the general pack behaviour.  I suspect if she was in a noisier pack, she would be a MUCH noisier dog!  She is definitely louder than Cato, but she isn't a barky dog.  And she is slowly learning that her over excitement can still be fun without all the noise.

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Pawz4me

I think it probably could be teething, too. Maybe the barking is her version of the crying and fussing a teething baby does? Also, keep in mind that puppies, just like humans, go through an adolescent period. And you get similar behaviors--testing/pushing limits, etc.

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Missysmom

Love Effie's pic and so glad to hear the potty training is going well! I'm afraid I'm not any help with what you're going through but was wondering if you've tried a frozen wash rag for her to chew on for her teething? It's been a favorite toy when I was going through teething with pups, kept them occupied for quite awhile and soothed their gums. Just wet a wash rag and ball it up then freeze and let them have at it, a very cheap 'toy'!

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PipsMom

I cant answer because I'm still melting over her photo :dede:  Simply stunning little baby paw

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  • 2 weeks later...
Vespertine

I wanted to thank you all for your replies on this! It did turn out to be teething. A couple of days later, both the panting and the barking eased off. I was worried because we were leaving for a week and a relative was going to be dog sitting - I  didn't want to saddle her with a mystery behavioural problem!

On 26/01/2017 at 6:14 AM, Crinkly said:

...my heart was sinking at the sheer amount of barking we were seeing.

...I am delighted to say that slowly, almost without noticing, our Little Madam has morphed into a much quieter grown up.

It's reassuring to hear you say that. Effie is much more vocal in general than my last shih tzu. (She sometimes barks for attention, barks to get up in the morning, barks when we go down in the basement...) I'm hoping this will ease off as she ages if we ignore it. 

On 26/01/2017 at 8:48 AM, Missysmom said:

I'm afraid I'm not any help with what you're going through but was wondering if you've tried a frozen wash rag for her to chew on for her teething?

I tried this - thank you for the suggestion! I'm sorry to say that it didn't keep Effie's attention. She loved it for about 5 minutes, then was done with it. Thankfully, now that her mouth is feeling better, she's back to her pizzle!

But here's a pic with the rag:

 

20170126_163356.jpg

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Missysmom

Aww love your pic Effie and sooo glad to hear your teething is better! Missy says pizzles are the way to go, she loves them too!! :throb:

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