Ok, so me and my boyfriend have a roommate. Me and my boyfriend own the house. Our roommate moved in because he needed help. Anyways, since we had Micole she does not like him! She never shows aggression but more of being a coward. She will dunk her head down, put her ears down, tail between the legs and sometimes even pees on herself. I am scared to ask the question because the way she acts. I feel like he has done something to her when I wasn't home. She stays in her crate all night. But sometimes at night i am not always home. I will either go out for a few drinks or a nice date night and he will be home. I am hoping it is possible that she just doesn't like him and thats just how she acts with him or what is going on? I can ask him but who is to say he is going to tell me the truth..... She doesnt act like this towards anyone else ... I am half tempted to put up cameras up to see what happens. like... those cameras in the teddy bears... But he is moving out in the next month or two. Your thoughts?

And how can I get her to stop doing this? When he is around I try to use a exciting tone with her. Sometimes it helps..

Hmm. That could be multiple different things.

How long has he been there?? If he has just moved in, she could be confused as to why this new human is in her house and hasn't left yet, so she doesn't really know how to approach the situation. How much supervised interactions have they had? Have you had him try to give her treats and play with her at all?? If not, you might want to try that. All about building positive association..

What kind of personality does he have?? Is he loud, obnoxious?? If he is louder then you and your bf are, that could be concerning to her as well. Does he LIKE her? Dogs are very in tune with our feelings. If he has feelings of tension (for example) around her, she could be picking up on it and doesn't know how to react to that.

Although, I can't rule out that he did something. Submissive peeing can happen for a lot of reasons. If she did something wrong and he yelled at her or spooked her, she won't forget it. He may not have HIT her, but if he did something that neither you or your boyfriend would do to correct a behavior, it could be the cause of this. If you Google "submissive pee" you will get LOADS of hits that may be more helpful.

Honestly, I would straight up ask if he did anything. Don't sound accusing, but just ask. You'll just keep agonizing over it, so you might as well as get it over with. I would ask if my girl acted like that. Maybe he stepped on her tail or foot or something like that. You know how emotional these puppies can get. Just feel him out on it. It would be better to ask and know then to never ask and always question.

Kelsey gave you the best explanation, So I will just add, Sometimes a person does not have to DO anything, The dog just knows. You may find she loves everyone in public then one day she moves behind you and growls at someone. They just seem to read people like a book and sometimes they just know something.

amychuke wrote:

And how can I get her to stop doing this? When he is around I try to use a exciting tone with her. Sometimes it helps..

Personally, I would stay cool, calm, and completely chill. Just toss her treats. I wouldn't ignore her persay, but I wouldn't coddle her either. Just acknowledge her and say, "It's okay, I know", but not in a baby voice. Reassure her you are there and she doesn't need to worry. Not even an exciting voice. Chill. Completely chill. Be very confident, she will feed off of that. You give her treats, then have him give her treats.

Maybe even play some recall games with her. Not only will you get some training in, but it's fun!! Have all three of you have loads of treats, or throw a toy back and forth between the three of you and call her name. She'll be having so much fun, she won't be scared (hopefully!!)

Sheba is very fearful when we are outside, especially when people try to pet her or pay attention to her. She gets aroused very easily and once she realizes they are fixated on her, she starts to get really high strung. I give her enough reassurance to let her know that I have control and that she can depend on me to take care of her. I give her treats every time she checks in with me and I tell her good girl. By just treating her and talking to her, she knows that she isn't alone and that I'm not paying attention to her. It's building a bond with her and telling her she can depend on me to keep her safe.

Maybe try having him completely ignore her for a few days and just throw treats her way. Don't look at her or talk to her. Just throw her treats when she is anywhere near him.

He has NOTHING to do with her. He is loud and very distant. He is a alcoholic very negative person. He doesn't have a lot of friends because he is very intolerable. Needless to say he is very hard to get along with. When she does it he keeps telling me "i don't know why she does that ..." I feel like he is encouraging his own words.... Yes i have seen him step on a paw or a tail before, she does walk between your feet. She is getting better with it though. Awesome I will google it and see all what it says.


Honestly, I doubt he would even care to help me on this issue. How can I put this.... He is a complte A hole... He doesn't give two craps about anything and anyone.

He has been here over a year and I have been begging my boyfriend to kick him out 8 months ago. The guy just needs to leave...

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

amychuke wrote:

And how can I get her to stop doing this? When he is around I try to use a exciting tone with her. Sometimes it helps..

Personally, I would stay cool, calm, and completely chill. Just toss her treats. I wouldn't ignore her persay, but I wouldn't coddle her either. Just acknowledge her and say, "It's okay, I know", but not in a baby voice. Reassure her you are there and she doesn't need to worry. Not even an exciting voice. Chill. Completely chill. Be very confident, she will feed off of that. You give her treats, then have him give her treats.

Awesome! I will try this!!!

amychuke wrote:

He has NOTHING to do with her. He is loud and very distant. He is a alcoholic very negative person. He doesn't have a lot of friends because he is very intolerable. Needless to say he is very hard to get along with. When she does it he keeps telling me "i don't know why she does that ..." I feel like he is encouraging his own words.... Yes i have seen him step on a paw or a tail before, she does walk between your feet. She is getting better with it though. Awesome I will google it and see all what it says.


Honestly, I doubt he would even care to help me on this issue. How can I put this.... He is a complte A hole... He doesn't give two craps about anything and anyone.

He has been here over a year and I have been begging my boyfriend to kick him out 8 months ago. The guy just needs to leave...

Well there you go. She KNOWS he's an awful person and she can sense his negative energy. I would try to limit the amount of time they are with each other. Don't let her out unsupervised. Honestly, I would put in one of those nanny cams that you can access on your phone, just to make sure. I'd be very wary of him and I'm sure that is why she is acting like this.

I understand wanting to help him out and all.....but the sooner he leaves the better. You're girl will be much happier and I'm sure you will be too! I would probably straight up ask if he hit her then. Just because I wouldn't put it past a person like that. My boyfriend's dad is an alcoholic, so I understand your situation COMPLETELY.

Take this as with a grain of salt....but I personally wouldn't leave my dogs alone with someone like that. BUT I also understand you can't be home 24/7. Wow what a tough situation.. My heart breaks for you. That's just rough.

He tells me " I know you are not gone from the house very long but I let her out to go potty sometimes cause she is crying to go outside" I did appreciate that till I started seeing her act the way she did. She HATES sleeping in my room. I tried pulling her crate in there with me one night and she freaked. She likes it in the livingroom i guess because she can see everything that is going on in the house. I do try to take her everywhere I go or spend so much time with her and wear her out so if I do leave her alone at night for a few hours she wouldn't bother him when he comes home. She would be a sleep. But that doesn't work out all the time. Apparently she whines to go out. So he says... But I don't see her doing that because the way she acts. To me.. She would just sit there and not say a word cause her crate is her home. I feel like she would feel more safe there. But I did tell him to stop doing all of that and just have nothing to do with her completely since she acts the way she does. But I am really half tempted to get one of those cameras and see what the heck is going on if he doesn't leave as he has promised. I am about to take his stuff to the curb ....

Balon can be somewhat shy acting with people he doesn't know. I have found he is never like that if Ruby (our Lab) is with us. They kinda grew up together and he does seem to lean on her lol. So I have been taking Balon to our local dog park every weekend and he is already getting better. I thought I had done a good job with socialization but apparently not good enough lol.

Micole is far from why. I just really think she doesn't like him at all. He is supposed to move out in june / july. If he doesn't a nanny cam is getting ordered and I am going to find out what the heck is going on and I am going to put an end to it. If I do find out he is abusing my dog i am calling the authorities and he will be removed and put into jail if it is the last thing i do.

why wait for the nanny cam? you can get a relatively cheap one on amazon and a free ustream account. then, you can actually check it on your phone from anywhere. I am going to set this up for my puppy to make sure the cats aren't tormenting him while i'm away and he's in his crate.

I have looked and everything I find is either $300.00 or the reviews are really bad and not worth getting .... By all means if you find one that is on a student's budget I would get it in a heartbeat.

do you have a laptop, or a computer you can put in the room you want to monitor?

or within, say 10 feet of the room?

Yes I do. Micole stays in the living room and my bedroom is right.

Okay. It depends what kind of computer you have, I have an old macbook and I ordered this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YW7WCY/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just make sure you get one compatible with your OS on your computer. There are cheaper ones out there though if that's too much, even starting as low as $5, but I wanted one with good resolution. You can actually use the one built into your computer as well, if your computer has that feature. I haven't set mine up yet, but its one of my projects this weekend, if/when I get it working, I'll let you know how it is working, how the setup went, and if I learned anything that might help you. I'm think I'm going to use ustream, you can set up a free account that you can monitor from your mobile device. Here is their support website.

https://ustream.zendesk.com/home

Not sure if you remember this or not, but a while back there was this shiba inu puppy cam craze. That was over ustream and that's how I got the idea.

Also, if you happen to check in, and see something you don't like, or that you could report to the police, you can record it. It doesn't automatically record, unless you pay for a subscription, but you can manually record with the free account. There is some legal grey area about recording someone without their knowledge, but you could just say you wanted to keep an eye on your dog while you were gone, and you happened to catch the footage.

I would have to have something recording when I am not there. I think thats when it happens.

Hmm... I hate to judge someone based of of this but it sounds weird to me. Our GSP acted this way with me when I first came around and since he came from CL, i think his old mom beat him. Since he isn't willing to work on getting Micole to like him, I don't think there is much you can do except try to keep her calm when he's around. I agree with Jen and think you should set up a camera. If he isn't actually doing something to her, then his personality is definetly affecting her. I don't get why people have to act like this with animals.

That's the tricky/expensive part... All the cheap stuff that records has really short battery life, less then two hours. With ustream, you can use your phone to start to record remotely, but the free account only allows for 10 gb of storage, so you'd have to review/save and dump onto your computer pretty often, probably daily. But theoretically you could walk out of the house, check the stream on your phone and hit record. Or, if you know he never gets up before 10, check the stream from your phone at 10 on your phone, then start the recording. If you have a mac, you could actually just turn on imovie and set it to record when you leave as well. Once I have mine setup, I'll have a much better idea of its limitations. I'll give you an update when I get it up and running.

I am trying to find a way to catch in the act if he is doing this. But half of these nanny cams are so expensive! Like I stated above I go out for drinks and have date nights with the boyfriend so I would have to have something that records when there is motion detected. UGH, I wish people wouldn't do crap like this to animals. But I have been using my grown up voice and telling her it is ok and that she is fine. Trying to give her some confidence. It seems to be working for the most part.

Thank you very much Jenn, I will try this out and see if it works. I hope she just doesn't like him and I am getting upset for no reason. I really hope that is that case here.

I am going to set mine up Saturday night, or Sunday morning and I promise I'll update when I get it going. That way, you don't have to invest any money if you know it's not going to work for you. Also, best buy should have some cheap webcams as well

Awesome, thank you again for your help