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Wellness Wednesday for July 19, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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Her dog has often spent the better part of a day up on the cupboard or wardrobe, with my dogs roaming freely at the bottom. Even if they stop barking at him when he's quietly dwelling on top, any attempt to bring him down or take him elsewhere just causes mayhem.

Given the sizes of my dogs, I don't think I can really safely keep them at the same level, at least not without a cage which I don't have.

Her dog has often spent the better part of a day up on the cupboard or wardrobe, with my dogs roaming freely at the bottom. Even if they stop barking at him when he's quietly dwelling on top, any attempt to bring him down or take him elsewhere just causes mayhem.

One aspect of this is that dogs are very territorial. You need to show the bigger dogs that the smaller one is free to roam what they consider their territory. Letting them roam while the smaller one is isolated reinforces that this is not the case. Also, accept that there will be mayhem until the desired pecking order is established.

Given the sizes of my dogs, I don't think I can really safely keep them at the same level, at least not without a cage which I don't have.

I'd recommend getting a foldable one for each, but locking them in a separate room (eg, the bathroom) while letting the small dog roam might also work.

I've tried scolding and yelling, feeding all the dogs at the same time, some weird ultrasonic training tool, and yet I'm at an impasse.

We've found an immediate firm (but gentle, just enough to get the dog's attention) smack on the nozzle or butt and isolation is much more reliable than any of these.

I'll try the keeping them cooped up while the little one runs free a go, shame I have to keep him under close watch, he's not house trained in the least.

Thanks for the help!