My partner and I have adopted a female miniature dachshund called Samoa, who is 2 months old. She has been with us for 4 days now.
We've already started training and play (teaching her to be left alone, the "bed" command, "sit", etc.). She's picking things up quite quickly.
We take her out into the garden regularly to do her business and give her a little treat when she goes outside. On that front, I think things are going pretty well.
But the problem is, nighttime is a nightmare.
Samoa has a bed with a soft mattress, a t-shirt with my scent on it, a blanket and her toys.
After reading lots of articles on various forums and sites to get her house-trained quickly, we put her bed inside a large cardboard box (with the top open) and a puppy pad just in case.
During the day the box is left open and she has no problem going in there.
At night I close the entrance to the box to stop her wandering around the living room (we live in a flat and don't have a separate room where we can shut her away quietly for the night).
She whines, howls and barks all night long!! We’re only getting about 30 minutes to an hour of sleep at a time. It’s starting to get really difficult. We take her out once or twice during the night for toilet breaks (usually at 2am and 4am).
I’ve read plenty of threads saying to leave the box or crate open so she can move around, but that seems to contradict the house-training we're working on. I mean, she might be less stressed if she could wander, but she’d almost certainly have accidents indoors. And as I mentioned, we don't have a closed-off room for the night. Is letting her roam the living room at night really a good idea?
I get the feeling the bed-in-a-box setup doesn't suit her (she's been attacking it for the last two nights, tearing bits off and trying to climb out). What can we do to get some peace and quiet? I know she's only been with us for four nights, but I don't see any improvement (in fact, we're getting less and less sleep).
Thanks in advance for your advice.
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In response to the man who locks his Cavalier King Charles in the bathroom, trains him "strictly", and suggests everyone else does the same...
I know Cavaliers, and if a 9-month-old CKC is still having accidents, it’s because: 1) he’s being left alone too much and is showing anxiety (a CKC shouldn't be left for more than 4-5 hours as they are very sociable and need to be around people—that’s usually why people get them in the first place; they aren't recommended for anyone who's out of the house for long hours without a dog walker or daycare), 2) he’s not being walked enough, and 3) he’s in distress. A CKC can be house-trained very early on. They are sensitive, though, and "tough-love" training doesn't suit them at all. They have a massive capacity for learning if you use what motivates them most: contact with people and other dogs.
The training this man is describing goes completely against their nature. This is clearly an anxious dog, and that will almost certainly manifest as: toileting issues at an age where he should be clean, destructive behaviour (no doubt why he’s being shut in the bathroom), whining and barking, and potentially even compulsive issues like excessive licking. That is the risk if you use that method with this breed. I don’t know if I’m definitely right, but the mention of house-training problems at 9 months really rang alarm bells.
Plus, a bathroom isn't ideal for a dog because there’s often no window. It’s either pitch black or artificial light, which messes up their sleep-wake cycles during the day and leads to depression—dogs need natural light just as much as humans do. As for the toilet, don't even get me started. They're usually far too small, and the dog knows that's where we go to the loo. Naturally, they want to sleep and eat away from the place where they do their business. Basically, I feel so sorry for this poor CKC.
We’ve ended up in a group of about ten on a walk before. It was actually pretty chilled, but that was in a completely open space rather than a park.
Mind you, we don’t go out of our way to meet hundreds of dogs, and I don't really keep count. If it looks like a good vibe and the timing is right (the location, owners seem friendly, etc.), I just let them get on with it.
It’s about finding a happy medium between banning all contact and forcing it on every poor dog we pass who might not even want to see our mugs! 🤭
Yuna, I don’t really see the point of this tactic of leaving your dog alone for an hour while you're still at home, on top of when you're actually out.
Ignoring them until they’ve calmed down is one thing, but surely it’s better to give them the chance to learn rather than leaving them shut in the bathroom for an extra hour?
I’m waiting to hear back from @picco85 myself.
Personally, I’ve always known Cavaliers to be kept in pairs, or more often in threes, never on their own; that’s the bit I find more unusual.
As for the rest, I’ll wait and see. For all we know, we’re picturing the dog home alone for 10 or 11 hours while picco is at work, shut in the bathroom with a "toy" and a "chew", but that doesn’t really add up with the other thread about "excitement peeing". After 10 or 11 hours—or even by midday if @picco85 pops home—it wouldn’t be excitement peeing, it’d just be a plain old accident, and hopefully a poo as well!
So, I reckon there might just be a misunderstanding, or maybe they’re working from home.
Regarding socialising, I agree that you shouldn't bombard your dog with forced meetings. They’re like us: some love a crowd and others just want to be left in peace. Plus, with a CKCS, you've got to think about their size and how fragile they can be when they're interacting with other dogs. So yeah, it’s much better to have a few regular, reliable mates they see all the time than having to deal with loads of new dogs every day or every week.
I don't think there's an ideal number. But definitely no dog parks with 15 dogs you don't know.
I’m with you on that – the only times I’ve ever tried the dog park was for pre-arranged meet-ups with owners and dogs we already knew! I’m not a fan of the tense atmosphere in those kinds of places where you have no control over what's going on.
Can I ask a question? My dogs don’t have loads of mates (just 10 regulars), though there are others we bump into on walks and it always goes well.
But since dogs learn so much through contact with others, how many should I limit it to? From what I’ve read, Picco only allows 2 doggy friends, which seems a bit low for socialising them properly? I agree you shouldn't overwhelm the puppy, but what would be the ideal number?
Thanks for your replies, it makes much more sense now! I hadn’t seen those messages earlier.
As for picking up bad habits from other dogs, I was worried about that too but the other way round (that a friend’s little dog might copy Athos, who wanders quite far on walks). So far it hasn’t been the case; when he gets too far away, she just gives him a sad look and heads back to her owner, so no worries ^^
Hi there, I don’t really get the comments being made to Picco. Where does he say he’s "breaking" his dog, or stopping him from seeing his mates or having any freedom? He’s only talking about the times when he’s out of the house; he isn’t saying anything about walks or meeting other dogs. I don’t get where the rest of these accusations are coming from—have I missed something?
Besides, no one said anything nasty to me when I was doing the same with Athos. From when he was 2 months to about 7 months old, I think, he stayed in the bathroom when we were out and at night. It was for several completely logical reasons that don't seem cruel to me at all: it was an easy room to clean in case of any accidents, there wasn't much for him to destroy just in case, and the room was small enough for him to feel secure, but big enough for him to move around and play a bit with whatever we left him. Then, he gradually started staying in the living room at night, and now he’s there during the day when we're out, but it just happened slowly over time.
And anyway, if he’d been destroying things while we were away, we would’ve kept him in the bathroom; that wouldn't have made him a poor, mistreated dog as long as his other needs (cuddles, walks, food, play, etc.) were being met otherwise. Mind you, we can all agree that if their needs are met, there’s normally no reason for them to be destructive—which is probably why he never destroyed anything while we were out, actually. Anyway, I’m just saying I don't understand the term "social isolation" in this context. Whether the dog has the whole flat or just one separate room doesn't change the fact that he’s on his own while his owners are out.
I’m only speaking up because he’s giving advice like stopping the dog from meeting other dogs to avoid "bad influences" and locking the dog away while he’s out, and even for an hour after he gets back… so, we might not have all the facts, but I find that concerning to say the least. Even if I agree that everyone raises their dog their own way, there are still some strange things going on there.
Lewina, on another thread the man says he waits an hour after getting home before letting his dog out of the bathroom. If you think that’s normal (which I get, we don’t all have the same relationship with our dogs), for me it’s just completely beyond me.
Can a dog really lose their recall just because they’ve seen another dog ignore theirs?
That really surprises me; social cues are so important and they’re learnt through meeting different dogs. If they copy a mate picking up sticks or digging too much, you can always correct it.
Every dog I’ve come across has taught my girl something; I’ve never noticed them having a bad influence. Everything is a training opportunity. If she gets too wound up when it’s not the right time, it’s a chance to work on calmness. If the other dog is reactive, it’s an opportunity to show her she has nothing to fear with me (lol obviously we don’t go up to a reactive dog unless the owner suggests it, we’re not mad) and so on. You just work with what’s in front of you.
Even the worst-behaved dog is a good opportunity to work on something, even if it's just walking past and ignoring them.
Of course, when it’s time to play, they just do their own thing
