He should adjust in time to losing his companion. However long that takes is questionable though and he will continue to be angry and feel neglected and reflect that anger with destruction just out of loneliness. It may improve with time and may not. You have to ask yourself is this fair for your dog? I would spend nearly all my time with him when I was home taking walks, etc. and if you can't do more than 2 hrs. it may be best to find a better home for him where he has a better environment. If his new home is a better place where there is a yard to run, and owners that can spend more time with him he will gradually accept the new home and owners. I know that is hard but may be the best. When your living situation improves you may think about owning another dog.
Other than that, working 2 jobs leaves the dog alone too much to be fair so you need to get someone…the same person all the time... over to your apartment to spend time with him if you don't want to give him up. He can bond to that person and that will help the loneliness somewhat. If you decided to give him up, the new owners could come over frequently for walks and visits before you gave the dog to them so that the dog would consider them friends before adoption, that would help the dog transition. I would not give that dog to an inexperienced owner though. That could end in disaster. It will do the same things with the new owner although it should get over the transition quicker because it will be in a better environment. Also, was your husband the dog's leader? You now have to be a positive leader for him because it sounds like he lacks leadership.
HELP! Kipawa nipped twice in 3 days
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And just as an another perspective…I instruct all visitors to our house to ignore the dogs...because although the human may LOVE dogs, or be great with dogs, or whatever, they are still strangers to my dogs. And my dogs (or any dog) may not appreciate a stranger singing to them, or massaging them, or whatever. I understand that the home health care staff is different than strangers, per se...but still...the dog may wish to have some boundaries with non-family humans. That being said, it is unacceptable for the dog to show his displeasure about strangers,or their behaviors by biting them
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Never hurts to have eye exams, but since he had one only a few months ago, I would not do it until it has been at least a year
Give hugs to Kevin and Therese from me and the girls!
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Cory my boy who crossed the bridge this year, was always untrustworthy around any male that came into our home. While the kids were young, and we had herds of young males running in and out, Cory wore a soft muzzle, all their friends were told to just ignor him, not even look at him. Cory also would not stay in any type of crate, ate out of all of them. So he was left loose while we were not home. He did fine with this. He was Funny his favorite dog sitters were both female, a mom and her daughter. The one time their son attempted to dog sit, cory tore his jeans. As he go older he was more trustworthy, but we never completely trusted him with anyone outside our immediate family. But he was a show dog, and at shows he was a perfect gentleman, so who knows why this breed does what it does. But I do agree you need to get a solution fast, and get the med checks done first is my advice.
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And just as an another perspective…I instruct all visitors to our house to ignore the dogs...because although the human may LOVE dogs, or be great with dogs, or whatever, they are still strangers to my dogs. And my dogs (or any dog) may not appreciate a stranger singing to them, or massaging them, or whatever. I understand that the home health care staff is different than strangers, per se...but still...the dog may wish to have some boundaries with non-family humans. That being said, it is unacceptable for the dog to show his displeasure about strangers,or their behaviors by biting them
+1 to this - I was thinking the same thing that perhaps he wanted his space, but also agree that biting isn't acceptable. I am adamant that visitors to my house ignore the dogs (not even look at the dogs). If I have people come over that I know or suspect won't ignore the dogs, the dogs are crated or put outside to run. I have one b-kid that does not like to be approached by strangers - she prefers to make the first overtures. Since I want to set her up for success, I don't put her in a situation that could go wrong.
The other thing I was going to say was about it being "breeding season". I do have one intact boy that nibbles people (usually preceded by intense sniffing) when it is that time of year. He does it to me and to my brother - but I put the kibosh on it when it happens (it feels like a pinch when it happens, but it definitely isn't a bite or breaks skin). During breeding season, he definitely isn't out of the crate (unless in the yard) when visitors are over because I don't want them to mistake his nibbles for bites. However it sounds like since Kipawa broke skin, it might be more than a nibble.
Good luck with everything and let us know what you figure out.
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Andrea, you must think our home is a training facility for opera singers! Just kidding. The way you worded it in the posts made me laugh, though. Your point is excellent. The two ladies I mentioned are care givers that are here every day. They do some cleaning in our home, so Kipawa is very familiar with them/their smell/movement/what they do. He doesn't like the one lady who is high strung. He likes the other (the singer) very much. But I agree that even a dog needs a break/quiet time. I am going to start putting him in his crate for 1 - 2 hours in the a.m. and an hour or so every night. Thank you for the excellent suggestions.
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One of the bites was with teeth (broke skin). The other barely left a bruise. So, mating nibbles perhaps, but it doesn't matter to which degree he used his teeth on these ladies. We are not ignoring this behavior. We'll do more crating while they are here, and more work with the trainer, of course. We already tell people to ignore him when they come in, so most everyone is trained with that already. Still, he is such a people lover, always has to see who it is. He's a wonderful, sweet dog. We just need to have some better house rules so we can set him up for success.
I definitely will keep everyone posted. We are at a basenji event this weekend and I will keep a very close eye on him.
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Give hugs to Kevin and Therese from me and the girls!
I certainly will, Pat! I think it's going to be a great weekend.
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sounds like resource guarding. counter condition and desensitize. He must not be there in the kitchen when humans eat. and/or you feed him yummies in front of care givers so he associates good things in that spot of house when caregivers are there. Timing is critical so if you need to hire a professional to help, do so.
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Kipawa…how did the weekend go?
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Fran, what did Therese say about this behavior?
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I haven't commented so far as my advice ould be similar to the others. Please let us know what Therese and Kevin suggest, it may help others as well. I hope you had a good weekend.