Sunday, October 01, 2006

sweet fuck, I'm going insane

Over the past week, Girl has really found her voice. She used to just bark or whine to go outside, and I thought that was great. It greatly reduced the amount of pee on my floor. On wednesday night she woke up at 1230 and began to bark. They've been sleeping through the night pretty much since 12 weeks, so we were surprised. P took her outside, but she didn't need to go. I took her outside because sometimes I can get her to go when he can't. I don't know if she was scared, cold, hot, bored, lonely, or just filled with the desire to inspire murderous rage among her humans.

I read up and decided to go with the ignore-the-behavior-and-she'll-stop approach. I've tried. It's damn hard to ignore when it's bouncing off the inside of your skull. I still take her outside when she needs to go, but other than that, I'm on ignore. I think my brain is vibrating right now.

Holymotherofcrap. It's driving me crazy. Can a person go insane from the barking? (I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is right now - I took away rawhides because they got too small and am not giving them back. Power struggle and I'm not giving up. Even for my hearing. I'm not.)

shut.the.fucking.barking.up.

7 comments:

Irish Girl said...

I loved your last post as it reminds me so of myself. I don't make friends easily either. Thanks for sharing.

And the dogs? Don't know what to tell you. Mine sometimes bark at nothing as if there is an axe murderer outside my front door that they must alert me to. Makes me crazy.

Then they'll come over and lay a big droopy loving dog head in my lap as if to say "I love you, Mom" and all is forgiven.

Hang in there.

raw said...

Why do they do this to us??? Right now, my dog continually whines to go outside because there is a dog in heat down the street. My husband does a fine job of tuning him out. I do not. I lose my mind and have to go to another part of the house and hope he doesn't follow me with the whining.

Hopefully Girl will soon realize that she has lost and will shut up. :)

Anonymous said...

Makes me glad that guide dogs are trained not to bark... I wish I had some words of wisdom, sorry!

Rebecca said...

We've never had a puppy, other than a foster pup who stayed with us for a few weeks several years ago, so I'm no help in that department.

I agree with you on not giving in on the rawhides, both for the safety factor and the control factor. But what about maybe using the "remove and replace" method - giving them something else in place of the rawhide? Perhaps a stuffed Kong?

Angie said...

I hate when our dogs bark! Sorry.

Cat, Galloping said...

hello, it's been, like, over a month since you've posted. everything okay?

raw said...

Thinking of you. How are you? And the puppies? Take care.