[Dailydrool] Need advice

[Nicole Haase]

My girl Betsy is about 4 years old and I've had her for just under three
years.

Recently she has started acting a bit like a willful teenager, acting out
when she's unhappy with us.

She has taken to trying to sleep with us. We don't always allow it, but
sometimes she jumps up in the middle of the night and we don't know/feel it
or are too groggy to do anything about it. I woke up to find her taking up
about as much room as each of us, sleeping perpendicular and forcing my bf
into a tiny ball. I told her to get down and she promptly walked in the
other room and peed on the carpet.

A few weeks ago I woke up early in the am to use the bathroom and she
apparently thought I should have paid more attention to her, because as I
got back in bed I watched her trot into the other room. By the time I got
to her, she was peeing on the carpet.

When we are gone from the house over what she apparently deems to be dinner
time, she upturns her bowl, which always have leftover kibble in it, and
spills it all over the floor.

These are recent developments and I think have to do with the fact that I
am unemployed and home a good amount, so she is even more upset when we are
not home for stretches of time - her routine now is to have me here.

I've really never had to discipline before and so don't know much other
than a rap on the nose and a loud No!, which I know isn't the answer. I
know I could pick her bowl up, preventing her from spilling kibble, but
that's not a solution to the actual problem and I feel certain she'd find
some other way to express her displeasure.

She seems to know that what she's done is wrong and she immediately starts
sucking up, wagging her tail and trying to make sure you're not mad at her.
I've never had a dog that's so willfully defiant and deliberate.

I live in an apartment and don't particularly have the space or money to
crate her. As some of this happens during the waking hours, I can crate her
after the event, but that makes the crate a punishment, which I don't think
is the answer either. But I can't keep her crated 24/7, either.

Any suggestions would be very welcome. I cannot have my hound peeing all
over my apartment - my security deposit is already gone due to this, I'm
afraid and I don't want the damage to get any worse.

-- 
Nicole Haase
nicole.haase at gmail.com
414-708-3542
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