I am sure someone will come along with some good advice. Best I can offer is to hang in there. She will need some time to adjust to you guys and you to her. I know it was mentioned before that she will not starve herself-maybe remove ALL wet food from her food for awhile and only offer the dry for a few days? Good luck and I have faith in ya to work out these problems!
Problems
Hello all.
Things are not so great here with me, my boyfriend, and Penny. When we first got her, she just had some hyperactivity problems (that's still a bit of a problem, but she seems to have calmed down a little). Then, a couple days in, she'd get jealous anytime my boyfriend showed me any affection and try to dominate me. After she figured out I'm the owner too, she stopped.
Now, we're having problems with her wanting attention all the time. She whines and pees any time anyone ignores her. Yesterday, she started going in the house and stopped letting us know when she needed to go outside.
She also still won't eat. Hard food, that is. Loves wet food. We do not want her on wet food but she absolutely will not eat the dry food. I've even tried mixing in a little wet food and she spits out the hard food bits or eats around them. I'm starting to notice a little weight loss and its bothering me. I really want her to just eat the dry food, especially now since she's decided going to the bathroom in the house is what she's gonna do. Cleaning up dry poo would be WAY easier.
We're trying to set up an appointment to get her shots and get her spayed, but other than that, we don't have much money for a behaviorist visit or training or anything like that. I'm thinking she might be homesick for her previous owner, but I have no clue. I'm at the end of my rope and so is my boyfriend. We're very frustrated and don't know what to do.
Things are not so great here with me, my boyfriend, and Penny. When we first got her, she just had some hyperactivity problems (that's still a bit of a problem, but she seems to have calmed down a little). Then, a couple days in, she'd get jealous anytime my boyfriend showed me any affection and try to dominate me. After she figured out I'm the owner too, she stopped.
Now, we're having problems with her wanting attention all the time. She whines and pees any time anyone ignores her. Yesterday, she started going in the house and stopped letting us know when she needed to go outside.
She also still won't eat. Hard food, that is. Loves wet food. We do not want her on wet food but she absolutely will not eat the dry food. I've even tried mixing in a little wet food and she spits out the hard food bits or eats around them. I'm starting to notice a little weight loss and its bothering me. I really want her to just eat the dry food, especially now since she's decided going to the bathroom in the house is what she's gonna do. Cleaning up dry poo would be WAY easier.
We're trying to set up an appointment to get her shots and get her spayed, but other than that, we don't have much money for a behaviorist visit or training or anything like that. I'm thinking she might be homesick for her previous owner, but I have no clue. I'm at the end of my rope and so is my boyfriend. We're very frustrated and don't know what to do.
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Hi Penny Arcade's mom.. I feel ya, I had the same problems the first few months I brought Carlos into my home. I absolutely had NO idea about how to handle a basset and it was frustrating. Then I found this forum and boy it's heaven sent.
Crate training really helps, it took Carlos 2-3 weeks to understand that he has too outside. We haven't had any accidents since *knocks wood*
He also refused to eat and would just play and tried to get my attention all day. What I did was I took his food bowl back 15-20 minutes after I put it down, same times everyday, no matter he ate his food or not. He starved himself for two days until he finally ate.
As for the attention seeking behavior, I followed Mikey T's links (thanks!) and it also worked. Carlos used to nag me all day, wouldn't let me do my work, he'd bark incessantly if I sit down in front of my computer or on the phone. After I read Mikey T's links I started to understand that I was the one who let Carlos nag me. So I would give him the attention he wanted before he barked, and if he did bark, I would ignore him until he stopped barking then I distracted him with sit and down training and rewarded him with food. I also make sure he gets plenty of exercise and fetch plays so he burns his energy and becomes calmer inside the house. Now he lets me do my work and he spends most of his time sleeping or playing with his toys. He will tell me when he wants attention (playing fetch or rubbing his belly) or when he wants to go potty.
Anyways, please be patient
Crate training really helps, it took Carlos 2-3 weeks to understand that he has too outside. We haven't had any accidents since *knocks wood*
He also refused to eat and would just play and tried to get my attention all day. What I did was I took his food bowl back 15-20 minutes after I put it down, same times everyday, no matter he ate his food or not. He starved himself for two days until he finally ate.
As for the attention seeking behavior, I followed Mikey T's links (thanks!) and it also worked. Carlos used to nag me all day, wouldn't let me do my work, he'd bark incessantly if I sit down in front of my computer or on the phone. After I read Mikey T's links I started to understand that I was the one who let Carlos nag me. So I would give him the attention he wanted before he barked, and if he did bark, I would ignore him until he stopped barking then I distracted him with sit and down training and rewarded him with food. I also make sure he gets plenty of exercise and fetch plays so he burns his energy and becomes calmer inside the house. Now he lets me do my work and he spends most of his time sleeping or playing with his toys. He will tell me when he wants attention (playing fetch or rubbing his belly) or when he wants to go potty.
Anyways, please be patient
I'm totally gonna try the food thing. We've just been leaving it down. We figure she'll eat it if she gets hungry. A schedule might work better because then she'll know its not always open to her.Hi Penny Arcade's mom.. I feel ya, I had the same problems the first few months I brought Carlos into my home. I absolutely had NO idea about how to handle a basset and it was frustrating. Then I found this forum and boy it's heaven sent.
Crate training really helps, it took Carlos 2-3 weeks to understand that he has too outside. We haven't had any accidents since *knocks wood*
He also refused to eat and would just play and tried to get my attention all day. What I did was I took his food bowl back 15-20 minutes after I put it down, same times everyday, no matter he ate his food or not. He starved himself for two days until he finally ate.
As for the attention seeking behavior, I followed Mikey T's links (thanks!) and it also worked. Carlos used to nag me all day, wouldn't let me do my work, he'd bark incessantly if I sit down in front of my computer or on the phone. After I read Mikey T's links I started to understand that I was the one who let Carlos nag me. So I would give him the attention he wanted before he barked, and if he did bark, I would ignore him until he stopped barking then I distracted him with sit and down training and rewarded him with food. I also make sure he gets plenty of exercise and fetch plays so he burns his energy and becomes calmer inside the house. Now he lets me do my work and he spends most of his time sleeping or playing with his toys. He will tell me when he wants attention (playing fetch or rubbing his belly) or when he wants to go potty.
Anyways, please be patient
We've been doing the attention thing and it has helped. She just still is having problems peeing inside. We're trying right now to find a crate at a decent price (everything around here is so expensive!) so til then we are using our balcony. She goes there for sleeping or when she's in time out.
She's slowly improving and its making it easier to bond with her.
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