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706 Posts
Hi,
First I would like to say...that I LOVE this forum. I wish I thought of joining a dog forum 12 years ago when I got my Shiba! I'm getting so many tips and learning so much on here!
Okay, lets get to my issue. I live in an old apartment building with 8 units. There are only 2 suites on my floor, mine and my neighbors across the hall from me. When I say across the hall, I mean literally 3 feet across from me lol
Problem no. 1:
The couple that lives there are really nice kids, (I'm guessing mid 20s). The girlfriend used to come everyday at 10am and 2pm in between my lunch hour/when I get home to keep my pitbull puppy company when she was a bit younger. She's been busy with school so she hasn't come to visit and that's okay with me because Mia gets too excited and ends up ripping up her pee pad by the time I come home for lunch. She will be 4 months on April 15.
I ended up giving the gf (Alicia) a list (more like an essay lol) on things/"rules" with Mia, like not allowing her to jump, nip/bite, only addressing her when shes calm and not jumping up on the baby gate etc so now when Mia sees the Alicia and if she doesn't address her right away, Mia will sit and wait to be petted. yay for progress! But even though Alicia follows my list and will correct Mia, she still lets certain things slide and Mia will still get crazy hyper when she sees her.
The boyfriend (Josh) however is a different story. Mia gets sooooooooo riled up she goes crazy and it takes forever to calm her down. His hands are so marked up by her teeth he finally realized he has to listen me when I say, don't get her so hyper! He totally encouraged her craziness because it was a way to tire her out. We are trying to change that now and Josh is learning to not get so excited when he sees her. No excited voices etc and waits until she calms down..which....doesn't really happen. He can't even hold her because she squirms with excitement.
Problem no. 2
This problem is getting really annoying to me. So because our doors are so close to one another and the building is so old the walls are very thin. I can hear every time they open their door and vice versa. Note: it's a very loud distinct noise.
Sometimes I take Mia into the hallway to run around and play fetch. It's carpeted so she doesn't slide around like she does inside my apartment (it's all hardwood or linoleum). If Josh and Alicia are home, they can hear her running around so they open their door and will join in and play with her. I didn't mind at the time because its good socializing for her and she can burn off all that excess energy. However, now she associates Josh + Alicia = playtime.
I am also in the middle of housetraining her so every 30 mins I am taking her out to go potty. My neighbors don't always know that so when it gets later into the night, close to Mia's bedtime (which I have told them lots of times before) they hear me open the door and then they suddenly open their door because they want to play with her. Then Mia gets soooo excited she's too excited to pee and I have to calm her down before we go back inside (she terrorizes my Shiba when shes in that zone). Sometimes she will even wait outside their door or dance around, whether or not she hears their voices inside.
Now I've noticed that even if we are inside my apartment, if she hears their door opening she will get crazy excited and totally distracted. She'll sit and stare at the door. I have to get her to focus on me but it doesn't always work. It disrupts our training sessions and even wakes her up if I'm trying to get her to sleep! I have to spend 15-30 mins to calm her down.
Is there anyway to desensitize her to the door opening sounds?
How do I stop that association between neighbors = playtime?
I feel like such a bad/mean person by telling them to ignore her if we run into them in the hallway but that's the only thing I can think of right now to stop her from getting so excited.
Any thoughts/advice?
Thanks!
First I would like to say...that I LOVE this forum. I wish I thought of joining a dog forum 12 years ago when I got my Shiba! I'm getting so many tips and learning so much on here!
Okay, lets get to my issue. I live in an old apartment building with 8 units. There are only 2 suites on my floor, mine and my neighbors across the hall from me. When I say across the hall, I mean literally 3 feet across from me lol
Problem no. 1:
The couple that lives there are really nice kids, (I'm guessing mid 20s). The girlfriend used to come everyday at 10am and 2pm in between my lunch hour/when I get home to keep my pitbull puppy company when she was a bit younger. She's been busy with school so she hasn't come to visit and that's okay with me because Mia gets too excited and ends up ripping up her pee pad by the time I come home for lunch. She will be 4 months on April 15.
I ended up giving the gf (Alicia) a list (more like an essay lol) on things/"rules" with Mia, like not allowing her to jump, nip/bite, only addressing her when shes calm and not jumping up on the baby gate etc so now when Mia sees the Alicia and if she doesn't address her right away, Mia will sit and wait to be petted. yay for progress! But even though Alicia follows my list and will correct Mia, she still lets certain things slide and Mia will still get crazy hyper when she sees her.
The boyfriend (Josh) however is a different story. Mia gets sooooooooo riled up she goes crazy and it takes forever to calm her down. His hands are so marked up by her teeth he finally realized he has to listen me when I say, don't get her so hyper! He totally encouraged her craziness because it was a way to tire her out. We are trying to change that now and Josh is learning to not get so excited when he sees her. No excited voices etc and waits until she calms down..which....doesn't really happen. He can't even hold her because she squirms with excitement.
Problem no. 2
This problem is getting really annoying to me. So because our doors are so close to one another and the building is so old the walls are very thin. I can hear every time they open their door and vice versa. Note: it's a very loud distinct noise.
Sometimes I take Mia into the hallway to run around and play fetch. It's carpeted so she doesn't slide around like she does inside my apartment (it's all hardwood or linoleum). If Josh and Alicia are home, they can hear her running around so they open their door and will join in and play with her. I didn't mind at the time because its good socializing for her and she can burn off all that excess energy. However, now she associates Josh + Alicia = playtime.
I am also in the middle of housetraining her so every 30 mins I am taking her out to go potty. My neighbors don't always know that so when it gets later into the night, close to Mia's bedtime (which I have told them lots of times before) they hear me open the door and then they suddenly open their door because they want to play with her. Then Mia gets soooo excited she's too excited to pee and I have to calm her down before we go back inside (she terrorizes my Shiba when shes in that zone). Sometimes she will even wait outside their door or dance around, whether or not she hears their voices inside.
Now I've noticed that even if we are inside my apartment, if she hears their door opening she will get crazy excited and totally distracted. She'll sit and stare at the door. I have to get her to focus on me but it doesn't always work. It disrupts our training sessions and even wakes her up if I'm trying to get her to sleep! I have to spend 15-30 mins to calm her down.
Is there anyway to desensitize her to the door opening sounds?
How do I stop that association between neighbors = playtime?
I feel like such a bad/mean person by telling them to ignore her if we run into them in the hallway but that's the only thing I can think of right now to stop her from getting so excited.
Any thoughts/advice?
Thanks!
