I feel like such a bad dog owner!

[rustic_image]

I recently moved out of home into a new city, leaving my 1yo border collie at home for a month while I got settled. She just came up yesterday but being a new place and everything whenever I left her alone she would bark/whine. She was out in the back section for the night in her crate and just had continuous barking. Though after 1-2hours she was having breaks between barking. But our neighbours complained and got the SPCA out here!! I felt so bad, luckily the SPCA lady was really nice about it and understood why she was barking.

But to make things worse, this morning I had to put her in her crate again(she was whining, not as bad as last night tho) because I had to go to town with my mum to get some things I needed. We came home and not long after animal control came over because they had had a complaint!!!

I feel so awful getting both animal control and the SPCA over here. She hadn't even been here 24hours!!

I bought her a kennel and run yesterday and it got delivered today so i'm pretty happy about that, and she's been pretty good for most of today. She's such a great dog, so very glad to have her back with me!! Lol, though my dad offered me $1000 for her when I bought her for $600

I'll have to take some more recent photos of her to show you all. Can't wait until she's 18months (she's 15months atm). I want to start agility training!!

[Bordercentrics]

It seems obvious to me that she is barking because she was banished outside(or is the "back section" another part of the house?). Is she used to being away from you much? Border Collies are happiest when they are with you as much as possible. She should be crated inside the house when you are gone and sleeping near you at night. It looks like your new neighbors are going to be completely intolerant of her barking if there were two complaints in under 24 hours. You are asking her to accept an awful lot of change in her life all at once. If you were with her, she could handle it better. You may also need to talk to your neighbors and explain that you are working on helping her adjust to the move and ask for their patience. Grovel a little

 

Kathy Robbins

[katherinelynne]

I will say our dog crates are in our bedroom. I have it decorated really nice but still have both crates in with us, they dont match the room granted but I don't care and the dogs are happiest when they are with us. I tried putting them in a spare room when we redid the house but it just didn't work we missed them as much as they missed us.

[rustic_image]

I would have her in my room but my room is tiny! I had her in her puppy pen the 1st night after the SPCA came and there was hardly any room at all to get out the door. She was perfect last night, didn't hear her at all.

Tried to talk to our neighbours but they're over the back so we don't know how to get to them. We talked to one who also have a dog and when they were looking after a dog for 1 day they also got a complaint.

She's now closer to the house in her kennel and run.

I'm going to take her to a dog park today. Didn't have dog parks back home.

[SincereArtisan]

I couldn't fathom keeping my dogs outside, all night long, there is just too much that could go wrong, in my opinion.

 

Do you have a crate? Can you put a crat in another room of your house? Maybe puppy-prof the bathroom, and make that her room???

[Beth G]

Are you saying she sleeps outside everynight by herself?? I'd be afraid to leave my dogs out by themselves. I don't trust anyone around my dogs!!

 

Besides mine are house dogs. They are almost always with me(in or outside) unless I run out to do errands.(They get carsick).

 

I'd sleep with my bedroom door open and put her crate right outside it so she can hear your voice is she gets scared and whimpers. this will reassure her.

[sandra s.]

I would have her in my room but my room is tiny!

 

I'm having a hard time picturing a room that is too tiny for a human and a BC to sleep in. People here can get religious about crates, but we live without them just fine. I know I'm not the only member here who shares her bed with her dog at night .

If that's too close for comfort for you, why not just put a blanket on the floor next to the bed? A curled up BC doesn't take up much space at all! Or even UNDER the bed, if there's enough room there.

 

They don't need space to run around at night, they just want to be with you. And they sleep the whole night through if they get their exercise during the day. Kessie is much stricter about her bedtime than I will ever be. Grumpy in the morning, grumpy in the evening, bloody h*ll . Peace and quiet please, for the lady's beauty sleep .

 

I'm not totally against outside dog runs - WAY better than sitting in a crate staring at the furniture all day, IMO - but it seems a waste to leave her outside when you're home. You've only got this one short life together, after all.

 

Good luck with finding a solution!

[Beth G]

Lol...when 11:00 p.m. rolls around, Poppy wants us BOTH to go into the bedroom.

 

We're talking, he wants to lie on his dog bed....NOW!!!

 

And will nose bump me until I join him. He is very serious about his sleep too....lol.

 

Now, If I'm watching a movie and it runs late, he will get all grumpy, and will stare balefully at me for awhile, and then finally he will give up and go in our bedroom, to go to sleep on his own.

 

But, he will still come out every few minutes to try and persuade me to join him!!

[nancy]

As to a neighbor complaining the first night. As I read it, the dog was outside and barking steadily for several hours. And even then kept barking but with occasional breaks. I'd sure do what I could to finally be able to sleep. And, if the barking echoes off the house and in my windows, I'd sure complain wherever I could. I feel it is my right to sleep with my bedroom windows open - and sleep.

 

Some years ago, we had an across the street neighbor who was downhill from us. They had a carport. Our bedroom is at the front of our house. They tied their cocker spaniel in the carport at night. Their bedroom was at the back. The dog barked all night. The carport acted as an echo chamber and gave us the full force of the barking. They couldn't hear a thing.

 

My solution was to get their phone number. If the dog barked steadily for 15 minutes (which means that it woke me up), I called them. It took about 2 times of their saying, "Do you know what time of night this is???" and my answering,"Yes, because I looked at the clock when your dog woke me up." They decided the dog should sleep inside.

 

If you want good neighbors, start being a good neighbor.

[Meg's mum]

It sounds as though you are rather young and I can see that you are very new to these boards. There are lots of threads on seperation anxiety, barking and crating. While I am aware that many highly experienced BC handlers and owners of working stock dogs leave their dogs outside of the house, most of us believe that Border Collies that have identified their humans as part of their pack do not understand being isolated from the pack outside. This isn't to say they are puntable lap dogs (sorry to all of you who have little bow haired lap dogs, I'm trying to work on my biases...). My Meg would rather be fording a stream up hill like a salmon and running with the wolves than chewing on her dog toys, but ONLY if either my husband or I were out there with her. She sleeps on our bed and her crate is in the livingroom upstairs. If she wakes up in her crate and we've gone to bed she hustles down stairs to come join us.

 

Does she need to be left outside or locked in her crate for some reason? I'm with leaving your bedroom door open, her crate in another room and throwing some old towels or blankets in likely looking comfort spots between the crate and your bed to see where she decides she's most comfortable.

 

Meg barks. She's barking now. It drives me nuts, but working with her on it has helped along with distracting her from it. Desensitization happens little by little as she becomes familiar with sounds and their sources. Identify silence with a word, reward it, teach bark, reward it. You can't do this if she isn't inside with you.

 

Good luck!!!!

[rustic_image]

My room is off the kitchen so leaving her just outside my room is not an option, also I don't want the cats in my room so wouldn't want to leave the door open...

She doesn't like to sleep on my bed for long periods and I'm a bit worried about leaving her loose in my room when I can't watch her as she might get into something.

I have a double bed in my room and my chair and desk, and a wardrobe which juts out. Pretty much if I put the crate in my room I could barely walk past it ro get out my door and I wouldn't be able to access my wardrobe.

When she was outside barking it was only until 10pm, not in the middle of the night. She doesn't usually bark at all, just whines. And she won't bark/whine if i'm there so it's hard to tell her to be quiet.

I would much prefer for her to be here inside with me, she was pretty much every night when I was at home.

It's just hard because I'm flatting with 4 other people. There aren't that many places to put her anyway that wouldn't get in someone's way.

Do you think I should try her loose in my room for one night to see how she goes?

She was just lying down, doing nothing the other night for an hour or so, but whenever someone went into the kitchen she would growl and bark...

[shelb'smum]

I had issue with my shelter dog barking ALL the time when I would leave the apartment. until I let him sleep in the room with me. he would get his mommy "fix" and be happy while I was at work. this is a dog that I don't trust father then I can throw him alone in the apartment. but I let him and Shelby sleep lose in my room every night and they do just fine. of course I wake up to half of my TWIN bed taken up by two masses of un-movable dog!

[mbc1963]

That sounds like a very tough situation. Sounds like a LOT of big life changes for you, never mind your dog. I wonder if you're expecting too much of her: to be able to accept all these new people, new places, and new expectations. My heart is breaking for the dog, to have been uprooted and planted into such an entirely foreign world.

 

Any chance that in the near future you'll have more space for her in a different apartment or living situation? That many roommates who aren't thrilled to have the dog around sounds like a bad beginning, and the neighbor thing makes it sound even worse.

 

Sorry to not sound upbeat. I don't know where you are in life, and I could be way off, but you sound like you're just starting out, and I remember how chaotic and frazzled my life was in my early 20s. I wouldn't have been able to be a good and fair master at that point!

 

Mary