Noise

[Shalista]

Bax gets 2 miles (stop and sniff) every day and then about 7ish walks (more stop and sniff) around the farm which can be anywhere from around a mile+ to just a few hundred feet. inside the house he gets tug and and flirt pole.

as far as mental inside goes, lately he gets to deconstruct paper towel stuffed paper towel tube(s) with treats inside, kong(s) (frozen and otherwise), roller ball with his breakfast/dinner, nosework, obedience training(half hour session plus additional quickies), trick training(half hour session plus additional quickies)

I've been trying to up my game cause of everything. Should i be doing more?

[Horace's Mum]

How long does it take to walk the 2 miles?
I would try to incorporate training on your walks, introduce your obedience training and trick training to "dance" along the walk for a minute or so, then give him chance to go and sniff and do his thing, then do a bit more dancing, and so on. It just helps to keep him thinking and gives you more chance of feeling satisfied at the end so when he comes home he is ready to chill.
What kind of walk is it? Roads? Fields? On or offlead? Are there any obstacles you can use to do agility type stuff, even logs and things he can jump on or over safely? Is it the same walk every day or do you have many variations?
I just know from my own experiences that doing more of my "work" outside on the walking time allowed me more chillout time when we were home, because some of his "jobs" were then associated with outside, reducing the need for me to interact all the time at home, and doing as much as possible out on walks also led to him being pleasantly satisfied and ready for a quiet time when we got in. But when we had a lot of issues going on with a lot of anxieties it took 2-3 hours of walking a day, but all of that was training time (teaching a deaf dog recall is quite intensive!). It is also worth bearing in mind that a dog who has anxieties runs on higher adrenaline and this can take days if not weeks to calm down after a spike.
Have you tried any clicker training with him? Something like freeshaping that really pushes him to think for himself, but also really builds his confidence if you keep the rewards high frequency.
What kind of nosework do you do?
Apologies if some of this is elsewhere, I'm just trying to think through other options and ideas from my own experiences of an intelligent, anxious and hyperactive boy.

[Shalista]

I haven't timed our walks but i think its about .5 an hr? 45 min?
I haven't really tried to mingle the training with the walking because i thought stop and sniff was more important since he gets mind work inside?
The 2 mile walk is along country roads and we stop off and wander around the fields as we go.
Nothing for him to practice his agility with sadly, though he loves that stuff. Jumps in particular were his favorites when we were taking the class.
He is always very much on lead. his prey drive is a bit scary. I used to allow him off lead around the farm but he took off one to many times and didn't come back when called (he got a chicken once) so i just don't risk it anymore. His recall was always awesome... just not when animals were around.
2-3 hour walks would be great but Bax hates the cold. I almost have to drag him through just the walk we have right now. he lags behind super far, wont put all four paws on the ground when we pause, and barely stops to sniff, he just stands still and shivers. I've tried to get him boots in the past but he kicks them off and I'm leary of putting a coat on him given his experience with the thunder shirt. (I have read that rat terriers are susceptible to the cold because they have such thin fur, especially on the belly and legs. probably the whippet in their line)
Interesting note on the anxiety spike. that might be what im experiencing right now. I'll have to check the start of the thread but this has been going for a week or so i think
I sort of do clicker training, i dont like using a clicker cause i like having my hands free so i use a marking phrase ("YES" said in the same tone every time) I have done free shaping in the past but I'm never really sure I'm doing it right?
Current nosework project: Smeared his kong with cheese. rewarded him for noseing the kong. moved kong, rewarded for noseing. started useing phrase "where's your kong?" with every noseing. now i'll put him into a stay and hide the kong in the house and then have him track it down. (I got tired of him losing his kong all the time so this is kind of lazy on my part. now he finds his own kong!)

and i really appreciate the help. alot of my problem is finding out if this behavior is normal for a 2 year old rat terrier? or excessive? Am i doing enough to keep him happy and sane? or am i lax? I did research before i got him but he's my first dog. my other experiences with dogs were nothing like this. in our family they used to just take her out for a quick potty 3 times a day and that's it. (pembroke welsh corgi) but they used STRONG punitive measures so i cant really compare?

EDIT: i also want to reiterate that he wasn't always this way. he'd bark occasionally and he was always high energy but it's like something snapped in him. overnight he went from barking when someone comes to the door to barking when the wind blows. he used to occasionally bark, now he's always making some kind of noise be it growling or whining or barking. I'm not sure what caused this change but i'm worried that something simple like extra exercise wont fix it

Further note: i have a white noise machine that i put on to sleep and I turned it on for Bax. it's not a perfect fix but I've noticed a steep drop in noise since it's been on. to soon to tell if the bandaid will stick though. (9 more days till he sees the vet)

[Fundog]

The white noise is a good idea. Also, a lot of anxious dogs respond well to classical music. So you could try putting on some Tchaikovsky or Bach or Mozart, etc., and see how he responds. It really helped Dottie settle after we moved.

[Shalista]

tried mozart =( he was not a fan. when i first got him he was really sensitive to any sound coming from a computer or tv. i weened him onto it by playing it constantly really low but apparently he's still not enough into it to let music soothe him.

Edit: Compromise I've worked out with Bax. He doesn't bark while i sleep so I've taken to just napping through out the day. I get home from class and then sleep until late evening. get up, do my homework, and then go back to bed. He goes to bed around 10 so i can stay up late and study while he sleeps. its not perfect, but at least he's quiet....ish

[Nettle]

Great bit of lateral thinking, Shalista - well done!

[JudyN]

Could you do any of your homework in bed? You could progress to sitting up in bed....

[Shalista]

idk if it i wann jinx it. if he starts thinking beds are for places other then sleeping he might bark through the night when i actually WANT to sleep =(

side not: been up for less then ten minutes and bark-o-matic is working just great!

[Shalista]

Well took him on an extra long walk today. It was good weather so the dragging was minimal he's such a sissy about the cold. i might have nailed down a good coat for him though, reflective outside, fleece inside. I also got a new hat and gloves for myself so my weather weenying was down to. i got him a new stuffed toy and wobble kong for him to play with once we got home from the walk.

Let me tell you, im on pins and needles right now waiting for the other shoe to drop but we have BLESSED SILENCE! He's curled up on the bed snoozing away. So far when there's a sound loud enough for even me to hear he'll lift his head and growl a bit but no full blown panicked barking.

I don't know if the anxiety burst just worked it's way out or if my extra efforts are finally seeing good fruit. I'm still going to take him in to the vet this weekend and get some pills but i might not give them to him unless he starts with the constant noise again.

[JudyN]

Fingers crossed.

You really need to address his diet too. If the corn is affecting his behaviour, all the training and pills in the world aren't going to make him a happy contented dog.

I know your parents have vetoed raw, but (preferably with your vet's blessing) would they agree to a trial for a couple of weeks? If there's a significant difference in his behaviour they might be willing to reconsider, and if there isn't, at least you've tried.

[Shalista]

I mentioned the corn thing to the vet tech there and she just kind of giggled and said "there sure is some crazy stuff out there on the internet."

.... currently doubtful i'll get the vets blessing.


that being said I'm kinda going to try to come at it backwards? If the anti anxiety meds work i can switch him to higher meat diet without worrying about it affecting his stool. with the corn cut out i might be able to lose the meds.

[Erica]

If they won't agree to raw, could you try other kibbles? Delta wasn't keen on chewing for a couple weeks after his neck fracture, and the timing meant we wouldn't get any raw grinds for three weeks (two weeks' Christmas/New Years vacation + one week for processing/delivery), so I switched him to kibble for that time. I was worried as he'd had soft stools/diarrhea on other kibbles I'd tried when he had his abscess and needed to eat regularly for his meds (he tends to skip meals frequently on raw, for whatever reason). However, I had him on Fromm this time and he did fine on it, when he'd had issues with Orijen and Acana and Taste of the Wild before. I don't think Fromm is available in the UK but if you could do trials of other kibbles, you might find something that agrees with Bax...

[Shalista]

I'm in the US so UK availability wont be an issue for me =P I'll def look into changing his food soon but i dont want to mess with to many variables at once. If i change food AND start meds and it works... i wont know which thing worked.

[Nettle]

I mentioned the corn thing to the vet tech there and she just kind of giggled and said "there sure is some crazy stuff out there on the internet."

.... currently doubtful i'll get the vets blessing.

Isn't it amazing how some people dodge a learning opportunity in favour of staying comfortably within their ignorance?

There's a proper scientific name for it too - "cognitive dissonance". She could so easily have checked it out for herself but no, it was easier to pooh-pooh it.

If you have to stick with kibble, there must be some maize-free ones. Might be worth taking the meds home but not giving them until you've tried some dietary changes. I've just "lost" a client due to the happiest circumstances - I advised him that I couldn't help with his dog until it had been off the highly-coloured full of sugar and additives diet it was on, for two weeks. Six days later, the dog's behaviour had improved so much that he doesn't need behavioural work at all

[Shalista]

All time low for me and bax this morning. It was sooo early and he started barking again.... so i tore my bagel in half and shoved half in his kong. sigh... this is why he's fat.