Hi, i am in desperate need of help!
I have a 2 year old parsons terrier, he has always been badly behaved when left alone, but after moving house on Friday his behaviour has become worse overnight.
He used to sleep in the bed with us but now is left in the kitchen overnight with our 2 other dogs, a jack russel and a german shephard.
We have woken to find he has been on the dinner table and left us a present on it!!! as well as chewing various objects.
I don't want to keep him outside at night because i know he would howl and get out of the garden.
I am expecting our first baby in 5 weeks time and need to stop this bad behaviour ASAP.
Please help!

[Lara's mom]

I'll be very interested in hearing what people in the forum have to say about moving house with dogs. My mother died last night. I live in a two bedroom apt. which I will no longer be able to afford. I'll have to move into a one bedroom. I'd like to hear any suggestions about how to make the transition easier for my girls. I'd ideally like to move as soon as possible and avoid as much trauma for them as possible.

Originally Posted by Lara's mom

I'll be very interested in hearing what people in the forum have to say about moving house with dogs. My mother died last night. I live in a two bedroom apt. which I will no longer be able to afford. I'll have to move into a one bedroom. I'd like to hear any suggestions about how to make the transition easier for my girls. I'd ideally like to move as soon as possible and avoid as much trauma for them as possible.

I am so sorry for your loss, and that you have now to face yet another disruption in your life.
The key with moving house is to change the routine as little as possible.
I have moved house frequently with my dogs, [Labs] and never had any trouble. Change NOTHING in addition to the move, leave their bedding unwashed for at least a couple of weeks, feed them at the same time in the same order and in a place as close as possible to what they were used to.
Take them out for their walk at the same time. Spend MORE time with them, loving them and giving them lots of attention, not LESS!
The mistake that Leanne has made here was to add the trauma of moving the pup out of their bed AT THE SAME TIME as moving into a strange environment. The addition of the baby in 5 weeks time is going to add yet another stress into the life of this terrier, and quite frankly I would be quite worried. IMO this pup and its owners need a session or two with an animal behaviourist now, which could very easily have been avoided by following a set of fairly simple rules as those above.

Originally Posted by jabberwocky

I am so sorry for your loss, and that you have now to face yet another disruption in your life.
The key with moving house is to change the routine as little as possible.
I have moved house frequently with my dogs, [Labs] and never had any trouble. Change NOTHING in addition to the move, leave their bedding unwashed for at least a couple of weeks, feed them at the same time in the same order and in a place as close as possible to what they were used to.
Take them out for their walk at the same time. Spend MORE time with them, loving them and giving them lots of attention, not LESS!
The mistake that Leanne has made here was to add the trauma of moving the pup out of their bed AT THE SAME TIME as moving into a strange environment. The addition of the baby in 5 weeks time is going to add yet another stress into the life of this terrier, and quite frankly I would be quite worried. IMO this pup and its owners need a session or two with an animal behaviourist now, which could very easily have been avoided by following a set of fairly simple rules as those above.

All of the above was done, including a dog trainer. The house we have moved into is familiar to the dogs as it was my fathers house which the dogs visited a number of times a week.

[german sheep]

hi leanne,

your dog was used to sleep with you in the bed and all of a sudden you are leaving him in the kitchen. A dog can not see you logic behind that and gets a loss of control. He can not see you any longer, and he has to look what the other dogs are doing during the night. Because of this stress he had to make a "present" on the table.

Then you have to know that every dog has a tendency to escape. You shut the door and he has no chance to find a place of its own, because the time before he slept with you in the bedroom. So he gets an appetence behavior, that means he is looking how he can solve his problem.
When ha can not come to solve it, then of course he has to look how he can compensate his stress and has no other possibility but to chew on furnitures and redecorate the kitchen.

What you should do, is give him a green zone, a crate to show him that this is his space to relax. Train that he shouds stay there, but be carefull, therefore this place must be absolut positive in his mind.

LG
gs