Hello, yet again... We're back with a whole new issue. I'm emotionally exhausted these past few weeks, and I think my 9 month old golden retriever/lab Cassie is too. She got spayed at the end of January. While she was in the cone, I was still sleeping in the guest room recovering from surgery, so she was allowed to sleep in my room and have free roam of the house at night, since she couldn't fit into the area she'd slept in before (without scraping against the wall when she turns or moves at night with her cone, and that wasn't fair). She also was left in the house, rather than her kennel/pen outside during this time. Before surgery, and since she was a puppy, she has slept on her bed in the hallway between two baby gates. Since the day we brought her home, she has slept through the night (except the first two nights she got up once). Never any problems, no whining/whimpering, we let her out to go potty before bed and she'd go right back in with the gate up. Her bed is in there, and she fits just fine. Now that her cone is off, she's been having a rough time adjusting back to her spot in the hallway, as well as her outdoor kennel. She hesitates to go in without a treat and coaxing (and I pull out all the stops--cheese, beef liver...she still is wary--of both the outdoor kennel and inside hallway spot) and as soon as the gate goes up she's fine for about 45 seconds, then whimpering, and barking. It only lasts 3-4 minutes for bursts of 5-10 seconds at a time), I'd say and then she gives up and lays down and sleeps through the night typically, but it's just exhausting and heartbreaking to see her so upset about being in there. I've worked hard to make it a really fun place to be, I give treats for going in, treats once she's in, sometimes we do a kong with peanut butter. It doesn't seem to matter how tired she is, either, it happens. We take 2 walks a day (one right before bed), I do all sorts of enrichment/puzzle toys, etc to mentally and physically wear her out during the day, plus games and fetch and tug. I think she enjoyed the freedom (understandably so) but there are a couple things keeping us from letting her resume the sleeping position before. My bed is a twin-loft bed, so she is unable to sleep in it with me and whenever I get in my bed and she sees me, she barks and growls at me because she can't get to me. I doubt I would get any amount of sleep because of her pestering me. The second being she has ALWAYS had a difficult time settling. She wants to be in on the action, no matter what's going on, so if she falls asleep in the house during the day or evening, she's up as soon as we are. The one way we've been able to get her to settle has been her little pen in the hallway. In the middle of the night, my dad and mom wake up 4-5 different times to use the restroom, so I'm sure she would get up and pace several times a night if she was left out in the hallway area and keeping our door shut so she can have free range except our rooms. She didn't after surgery because she was on sedatives to help calm her, so she slept right through the night. The other thing she's started doing is refusing to eat (and I believe sleep) unless we are home and with her. Normally she'd happily chow down on her stuffed kong, or extra special treat in her food bowl while we were leaving, now she'll just sit and watch us, and when we get home, it's all untouched. We've put her outside while we were cleaning the house and checked on her sneakily, and every single time she's just sitting up waiting. As soon as we get home, she gets her kong or treat, comes inside, eats and falls asleep nearly instantly like she's just exhausted. My mom thinks she'll adjust to it again, and be fine, we just have to wait it out. My mom also thinks she's testing out our responses to see if we'll give in as part of adolescence. I'm just at a loss. There isn't an easy solution here, I know that, but any input or advice is welcome. I feel SO guilty leaving her alone now, and I feel like I've hardly left the house because I don't want to fight with her to put her in her kennel outside, and I dread bedtime every night. Thank you in advance for you input and help!
