Fixing dog behavior problems isn’t just about training the dog. Many times, a “management” solution, where you change the environment instead of changing the dog, is the best way to go.
Our Boxer mix was born and raised in Florida. Sagan has thin fur, but she still wants to stay warm, even when sleeping. She loves being under the covers. When I first met Jill, Sagan slept in bed with her, under the covers. Then the new sheriff (me, Grisha) moved in and said Sagan couldn’t sleep on the bed any more. I have nothing against dogs sleeping in the bed, as long as they aren’t guarding the bed. But she’s a 65 pound dog, and she easily takes up 2/3 of the bed when she’s in it, which doesn’t leave much room for her moms.
Jill thought Sagan wanted to sleep with *her*, but it turns out, she just wanted to be covered at night. She moved into a dog bed with a blanket with no problem. At least, no big problem. In the middle of the night, though, she’d get up and turn around, and lacking thumbs, she’d need Jill to put the blanket back on. If she woke up and Jill wasn’t awake, she’d put her nose up to Jill and wake her up.
Having a dog wake you up 10 times during the night seems like it would be crazy-making, but Jill didn’t complain, much. I wasn’t being woken up, so I let it go. Eventually though, Jill looked like she was losing sleep, so we put our heads together to come up with a solution.
A training solution would be to simply ignore Sagan and her wet dog nose. But Jill couldn’t possibly not have her dog under the blankets at night. She’d be so cold! The dog would lose sleep. Yes, that dog beauty sleep is so important.
We could put her in a crate, so she couldn’t wake Jill up with her nose. But then we were back to the cold dog problem.
But we found a nice management solution. Sagan now sleeps in a dog crate with two dog beds inside and a big, think comforter over the entire crate. Her whole little sleeping area is almost Florida evening temperature during the night, because Sagan is a nuclear furnace and puts out a lot of heat. But it’s not so hot that she needs to leave. She now sleeps through the entire night without a peep. We could have worked on training, but management can be so much simpler, if you find the right solution. Sometimes you just have to think inside the box.
Think through your dog’s problems. Is there something you could do – install a fence, close the curtains, put the dog on leash – that could keep the dog out of trouble?
Written by Grisha Stewart, Ahimsa Dog Training, Seattle![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
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April 13th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
This is Jill, Sagan’s other human. This “warm” crate idea is still working strong. With two dog beds to insulate the bottom and two comforters (one is a thermal blanket) we’re able to keep enough of Sagan’s body heat inside the crate to keep her warm the whole night. Although it was nice to believe she really wanted to snuggle with me, it’s really more about keeping warm. So if you have a thin fur dog who’s asking to sleep with you under the covers, try covering a crate with a whole bunch of blankets and seeing if that works.
The only time I thought our system was broken was one night where she wouldn’t go into her crate. She kept coming back and touching me with her nose and climbing on the bed. After further investigation, we found that our other dog, Peanut had gone into her bed. Once we got him out, she went right in.