leigh
02-28-2006, 07:26 AM
Hi,
I have 2 English Cocker Spaniels, both 7 months old, sisters from the same litter.
Last month we had them neutered and ever since then, one of them has been displaying undesireable behaviour.
Thay are both pretty much 99.99% house trained (the odd accident occurs, normally due to excitement) but on the whole they have been excellent as since we've had them we have been really diciplined about taking them out to eliminate.
All was going really well but since the neutering Mollie has been:
1. Not making it though the night without peeing and pooing - since neutering we wake up each morning to a puddle on the kitchen floor and a smell, yet no evidence of poo (We assume she's eating it - See 2. below). We are certain it is Mollie as Millie sits waiting cross legged with a 'hurry up, come on' look on her face and goes straight out and does the business.
2. Eating her own poop the initial day or so straight after neutering, she was turning around and scoffing it right down, she no longer does this but when supervised she will look around at it and i get the feeling she's about to tuck in, but we firmley say 'Leave it' and she does. On a walk she makes no attempt to eat it and is off doing what Spaniels do as soon as she's done.
Both dogs during the day are excellent (I work from home and we take regular trips outside) and when we're out and the dogs are left at home (sometimes for 4 hours or so), we never come back to any mess.
Other info that may or not be pertinent is:
She is the more 'food motivated' of the 2 (She is smaller than her sister and has obviously had to compete with her litter mates for food.)
She is smaller and obvoiusly not 'top dog' but she keeps pushing to take the job from her sister, which her sister doesn't allow. (If they were the same size she'd definitely call the shots.)
She is however marginally more responsive to training and very eager to please.
We have only diciplined them when we've witnessed them eliminate in the house, and then only a firm 'No', never physical, and taken them outside so i'm sure she's not waiting until we're out of the way, or she'd be doing it during the day too.
We feed both of them Hills Puppy (Chicken).
Initially we put this down to the neutering, assuming that everything inside was sore and a full bladder/bowel hurt, but 1 month on we still have the problems and we don't know what to do. Can anyone suggest a. why this behaviour is happeing and b. how we can address it as we're flat out of ideas.
Thanks in advance,
Leigh.
I have 2 English Cocker Spaniels, both 7 months old, sisters from the same litter.
Last month we had them neutered and ever since then, one of them has been displaying undesireable behaviour.
Thay are both pretty much 99.99% house trained (the odd accident occurs, normally due to excitement) but on the whole they have been excellent as since we've had them we have been really diciplined about taking them out to eliminate.
All was going really well but since the neutering Mollie has been:
1. Not making it though the night without peeing and pooing - since neutering we wake up each morning to a puddle on the kitchen floor and a smell, yet no evidence of poo (We assume she's eating it - See 2. below). We are certain it is Mollie as Millie sits waiting cross legged with a 'hurry up, come on' look on her face and goes straight out and does the business.
2. Eating her own poop the initial day or so straight after neutering, she was turning around and scoffing it right down, she no longer does this but when supervised she will look around at it and i get the feeling she's about to tuck in, but we firmley say 'Leave it' and she does. On a walk she makes no attempt to eat it and is off doing what Spaniels do as soon as she's done.
Both dogs during the day are excellent (I work from home and we take regular trips outside) and when we're out and the dogs are left at home (sometimes for 4 hours or so), we never come back to any mess.
Other info that may or not be pertinent is:
She is the more 'food motivated' of the 2 (She is smaller than her sister and has obviously had to compete with her litter mates for food.)
She is smaller and obvoiusly not 'top dog' but she keeps pushing to take the job from her sister, which her sister doesn't allow. (If they were the same size she'd definitely call the shots.)
She is however marginally more responsive to training and very eager to please.
We have only diciplined them when we've witnessed them eliminate in the house, and then only a firm 'No', never physical, and taken them outside so i'm sure she's not waiting until we're out of the way, or she'd be doing it during the day too.
We feed both of them Hills Puppy (Chicken).
Initially we put this down to the neutering, assuming that everything inside was sore and a full bladder/bowel hurt, but 1 month on we still have the problems and we don't know what to do. Can anyone suggest a. why this behaviour is happeing and b. how we can address it as we're flat out of ideas.
Thanks in advance,
Leigh.