# Need some advice regarding Gemma



## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

I need some advice regarding Gemma. She has been here for two months, she will be ten years old in June. She came to me with no teeth so she eats a pre made raw patty for breakfast and The Honest Kitchen for her second meal. She came here loving her crate. Totally, spends 90% of her time in it. We feed twice a day. First meal an hour after we wake up which means they eat between 6:15am and 7:30am, depending on what time I get up. Second meal is usually around 4pm. One of my other dogs eats kibble for this meal, he drinks a bunch of water after his kibble and about an hour after he eats, he needs to go out to pee. He pees a ton. The one time we forgot about this and we came home to a crateful of pee. Anyway, thats why we feed earlier so we can take him back out in case we decide to go out at night. As soon as he is done with this bag of kibble, we are putting him on raw for both meals in hopes of changing this habit.
Back to Gemma. She was here about two or three weeks before she woke us up at 3am. She was crying. I've never heard a dog cry but that's exactly what it sounded like. She went back to sleep. Since then, she does this 2-4 times a week, usually around 5am. I was hoping that with the time change and it being darker in the morning, she'd sleep but no luck. She sleeps in a crate in our room, at the foot of our bed, kitty corner, on my husband's side. The other two dogs sleep on dog beds in our room, next to my side of the bed. 
We are unsure why she is doing this. She's a little sheltie, 13.5" tall and her crates are 32x23x23. She curls up in the back of them. My husband wonders if its too small but it's not. She has plenty of room. We wonder if she has to potty but my husband does the last potty of the night, usually between 10pm and midnight so she's not going that long. She very seldom poops at the last potty of the night. We had an issue when she was here a couple weeks, where she was "stopped up", for lack of a better term. Had to have an enema at the vets. Unsure what caused that but we have a couple ideas (ate a rock, was eating a different pre made raw which has pieces of bone & what looks like tendons or something, not getting enough fiber so she gets a spoonful of pumpkin with every meal). 
Every time she wakes us up in the morning, you can bet your bottom dollar she's going to bark when we go outside. My dogs go in the kennel loose, with me standing right there. I am going to try using a slip leash starting tomorrow when I take her out, in hopes that will quiet her down. She is mostly deaf so telling her to shhh doesn't work. I am worried if we don't curb the barking she will cause us some problems with our neighbors when the windows can be open. She's our fourth sheltie so we know the breed well, know they bark but she is the only dog of any breed that we've had that has ever barked outside in the wee hours of the morning. 
So, does anyone have any ideas what could be causing her to cry and wake us up early? She almost always poops first thing in the morning though it does take her a bit to actually go. We are wondering if we should be feeding them later, after 6pm, will that maybe help her need to go later and not so early? I don't know if this is why she's waking us up but its one thing I thought of. She poops first, then pees so I don't think she needs to urinate. We wonder about removing the crate in our room and letting her sleep in the same place but on a dog bed. The problem I can see with that is that I am afraid when my husband gets up for work (early, anywhere from 3:30am til 5am), he has to walk by her to get out & she will want to be up then. There is NO other room for her anywhere else in the room. The other two sleep in front of the closet, our room is so small I have to be careful when I get up during the night so I don't step on them. 
I think I covered all the info. We don't have much for a history on her before we got her, other than she lived with a man and at least a couple other shelties, in the country, then went to foster care for a couple months where she had many dogs and cats, in the country as well. Possible she is used to barking in the morning and it may not have been a problem where they lived. I don't care so much if she barks after 6am but would prefer it not be before that hour. 
Ideas? Thoughts?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I think she may be waking you up at 3am because your hubby wakes up 3:30-5am. So she's anticipating him getting up on the earlier side every time she whines. I personally would ignore the whining if you don't think it's because of needing to go out. 

Putting her on lease when taking her out is a great way to control her more. What kind of bark is it usually? Yappy or a few high pitch woofs?


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> I think she may be waking you up at 3am because your hubby wakes up 3:30-5am. So she's anticipating him getting up on the earlier side every time she whines. I personally would ignore the whining if you don't think it's because of needing to go out.
> 
> Putting her on lease when taking her out is a great way to control her more. What kind of bark is it usually? Yappy or a few high pitch woofs?


Thanks for the response. The 3am time was only once, thank god! I will try to ignore but here's the problem: once I wake up, I'm up. Once I'm awake, oh lordy, I have to go potty myself. I can only lay there so long before I have to get up. Then, she's gotten her way. 
As far as her bark, it's typical sheltie, hers is a mix of yappy and high pitched woofs. She only barks, off & on, for maybe 15 seconds so it's not forever but may seem like it to a sleeping neighbor.
thanks again!


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

Can you have her sleep in a different room, so that she does not wake you up and start this cycle?


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

meggels said:


> Can you have her sleep in a different room, so that she does not wake you up and start this cycle?


Hmm, no, we hadn't thought about that Meg. I can put her in the laundry/spare room. This could work, we'll give it a shot!


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

InkedMarie said:


> Hmm, no, we hadn't thought about that Meg. I can put her in the laundry/spare room. This could work, we'll give it a shot!


My mom & step dad's lab/pei mix barked and barked and barked at 4am (because she just wanted to get up) every morning so she went to a different end of the house lol.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

meggels said:


> My mom & step dad's lab/pei mix barked and barked and barked at 4am (because she just wanted to get up) every morning so she went to a different end of the house lol.


Steve also just had an idea. The Honest Kitchen makes most dogs poop more....he said maybe I should be giving her the THK in the morning, instead of the afternoon meal, giving her more awake time to poop? Does that make sense?
Your mom's dog.....did putting her in a different room stop the barking in the early hours?


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

I think there would be less disturbance putting her in a different room to you too.
Similar story different mammal. When my son was born he slept in a crib in our room for about 8 weeks, he woke up most nights for a feed which is perfectly normal for a newborn, however when he got to 8 weeks we decided to put him next door in his own room. Amazingly (to me at the time) he slept right through from that first night I think because we were not disturbing him with our snoring or other odd noises humans make in their sleep and you never know it could be the same with dogs?

I've met a couple of shelties here at the river where I walk Stanley and I am always amazed at how small and delicate/pretty they look. One owner/breeder assured me that they weren't delicate and that they were working dogs on their farm! you learn something new every day it seems.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

Thanks Sozzle! Gemma may be older but she's showing us her spunk more and more everyday. We imagine she was a force to reckon with when she was younger.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

When Buck, our Bluetick Coonhound, was a puppy we kept his crate in our bedroom. Bad choice as even baby Blueticks have incredible lungs and louder voices than most adult dogs. He would howl and howl and howl. It was the first puppy I had had in 7 years, the first puppy he had ever had, and the first puppy we had raised indoors (Dude was an outdoor dog against my wishes). Iorveth, our Xoloitzcuintli, spent one night in our room and did the same thing without the volume and persistency. Not wanting to go through it again, we moved him into another room and covered his crate with a blanket (for warmth since he's hairless). Now, if he even whines or barks at all it doesn't last very long at all. 

I know that Gemma isn't a puppy but I think it's because we weren't in there making noise. Dogs wake up at the smallest noises. Sometimes Buck will wake up when one of us simply rolls over in bed. Thankfully, he will be two in a couple of weeks so he doesn't bark anymore but I can imagine that Gemma is just being bothered by the noises. It's worth a shot. 

About your neighbors... Do you have a good relationship with them? when we got Buck we went over to our neighbors and let them know that we had just gotten a Bluetick Coonhound puppy and that they are very loud and he was going to be making some noise until he settled in and we could teach him that howling at inappropriate times was unacceptable. They were very understanding and told us they figured they would be hearing lots of puppy noises and assured us that they understood that, even though we keep on top of our dogs, it would be impossible to eliminate all noises, especially from a puppy. We do, however, live in an apartment and shared a wall with them. I don't know what your living situation is like. Perhaps you could tell your neighbors that you are working to solve Gemma's morning barking asap.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

Dude and Bucks Mamma said:


> I know that Gemma isn't a puppy but I think it's because we weren't in there making noise. Dogs wake up at the smallest noises. Sometimes Buck will wake up when one of us simply rolls over in bed. Thankfully, he will be two in a couple of weeks so he doesn't bark anymore but I can imagine that Gemma is just being bothered by the noises. It's worth a shot.
> 
> About your neighbors... Do you have a good relationship with them? when we got Buck we went over to our neighbors and let them know that we had just gotten a Bluetick Coonhound puppy and that they are very loud and he was going to be making some noise until he settled in and we could teach him that howling at inappropriate times was unacceptable. They were very understanding and told us they figured they would be hearing lots of puppy noises and assured us that they understood that, even though we keep on top of our dogs, it would be impossible to eliminate all noises, especially from a puppy. We do, however, live in an apartment and shared a wall with them. I don't know what your living situation is like. Perhaps you could tell your neighbors that you are working to solve Gemma's morning barking asap.


Regarding Gemma and hearing us, not sure how much she hears, she appears to be very deaf but you may be right.
As far as the neighbors, I'm not sure who she'd bother. We have a house. The people directly next door's bedrooms are at the other end of their house so doubtful they hear anything. The other neighbor lives kitty corner and unfortunately, his bedroom is on the back of his house, which borders our yard. The good thing is, he's one of those people with AC on a good part of the year so he may not hear anything. The people on the street behind us could hear something but I'm not sure. We know one of them, the others are renters.
thank you!


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