Question
My wife and I were living separately until about 3 months ago. She has a dog and has always given it a lot of attention.
Since the move, it has been woken up earlier, because I tend to wake up at about 8am, whereas my wife wakes up later. I open the back door so it can defecate but it doesn't get any other attention until about 11am when my wife wakes up.
The problem is, I work from home sometimes. We have a home office, which we agreed the dog would stay out of. I close the door and start working and about 10 minutes later, the dog whines and scratches at the door.
My wife says that she is working on making the dog a bit more independent but that hasn't really happened. I don't like dogs and just want to get on with my work without being disturbed. I am not interested in anything that needs a lot of time - but equally, shock collars and similar "inhumane" options are out of the question.
I started to read up on repelling dogs and recently sprayed the bottom part of the office door with vinegar. It seemed to work at first but the dog seems to have got used to it.
Can anyone recommend something?
Answer
You could try setting up a baby gate to keep the dog from approaching the door, but you may then find that the dog sits behind the gate and barks instead, but it's worth a try.
You could let the dog into the bedroom with your wife when you get up. He'd probably prefer being with her to being with you, assuming that he's not allowed access to the bedroom at the moment.
You could give the dog something to chew to keep him occupied away from the door when you get up, although I suspect finding something that will keep the dog busy for four hours is asking a lot of any chew.
Bully sticks or beef trachea are perhaps least likely to cause problems, assuming that the dog can digest beef. Rawhide chews are popular, but really dogs need to be supervised when eating it because if they eat too fast and don't chew it properly it can cause serious intestinal problems. Cooked bones are a bad idea, and I suspect you don't want to get into feeding raw bones since they tend to be messy.
It may be that the only answer to this is for your wife to get up and walk her dog.
Answered By - Victoria