[Phoenix]

My mother has a 14 year old Toy Poodle who was the runt of his litter and since the day we bought him has been a yelper. In fact, if I remember correctly, when we walked into the pet store where we bought him he was yelping even then. Once we got him home, he would be very calm - the perfect dog - whenever we were around, but if we were to leave him, he would jump up and down at the door once we left, and scream very loudly. Sometimes he would tire himself out, or calm down and would go rest (or so I think), but then when we would come home, the same would happen. He would jump up and down on us and scream for about 10 minutes until he calmed down again. If we would try to leave twice in the same day, he would do the same, but worse.

Unfortunately, we never disciplined him or did any training with him to correct this behaviour. Now, my mother lives on her own with him and he does the same, but now he not only jumps at the door almost All Day, and yelps, but he also will sit in the apartment and almost sing (its more of a long cry) over and over the whole day. And he still does the same jumping and yelping when she comes home. Its very disruptive to her neighbours, and something must be done -is it too late? She's almost at the point where she wants to take him for surgery to get his vocals clipped. I can't stand the idea of it, and am hoping someone might have a suggestion for who to talk to for training or a collar... etc.

I should also mention, we tried to take him on vacation with us, and in preparation for the trip, bought him some valium to administer while we travelled on a ferry, so he could sleep and we could go up aboard the vessel for a short bit. Actually the valium made it worse - he continued to jump and yelp, but would stumble over himself and hurt himself trying to jump, as though he was fighting the drug instead of relaxing with it.

I know that dogs are very receptive to their owners, and unfortunately, my mother is quite high strung too, so he acts out. When I'm dog-sitting with him, he seems to be a little calmer.

Can anything be done here?

[nattiej1976]

this page has some good ideas
Behavior Changes & Problems in Older (Senior, Geriatric) Dogs
its last point did say something about medication, I would only go that last step at a very last resort, however many of the other tips would be very worth exploring.
Good luck