Howling!

[Sandie]

Hi everyone,

     Anyone got any ideas on how to stop my 8 month old Wesley from howling the house down? He has steadily got worse and worse and is slowly doing my head in.

The other day he howled his head off in the car outside my friends house. Aimee was in there with him and he started her off too. Talk about being embarassed it was the first time he had done it in the car.

He howls for no reason other than seeking attention. I am sure it has something to do with him not being able to see me. I usually ignore him but last night he was at it four times in the middle of the night. I dread to think what the neigbours thought of it all. I have tried squirting water at him and now as soon as he sees the squirty bottle he shuts up.

Its getting to the stage i can't even go to the toilet in peace!    :oops:

If you have any ideas please let me know before i spend my hard earned cash on a behaviourist.

Many thanks,

Sandra                    

[Katina]

Sounds like a case of separation anxiety. I have had this problem with one of my dogs and the only thing that finally helped, was _total_ ignorance. I don't make any fuss when I have to leave her. I just complitely ignore the dogs for about 20 minutes before I go (this means I don't speak to them, and I don't even look at them, no matter what they do) and then I just leave them. When I come back, I ignore them once again. My dogs get my attention only when I decide to give it to them (i.e I don't play with them if they bring me a toy, I push them away if they come to me without being called etc). This probably sounds horrible to some of you, but this will work wonders, I promise   ! It also makes the dogs perform better in obedience, agility, showring etc, as when they finaly do get my attention they are on cloud nine and they will even "stand on their heads" if I tell them to  :wink:..