grumpy pooch

me and my son have had our lovely dog toby for 6 years,we have been thro good and bad times our most recent predicament saw me in hospital for 4 months during which time they went to stay with my ex boyfriend,i am over the worst of my ilness and delighted to have them both home where they should be the problem is toby seems to be grumpy all the time barks at kids thro the window etc which is a big worry,weve never really had babies in the house so dont know how tolerant he would be but there are other things he is doing out of character aswell. there has been a shift in roles since hospital and my son now exersizes him because i am unable to and he is even worse with other dogs since,ive spoken to my ex about this and he said he rarely had him on the lead and they went for runs on the beach when there was no other dogs around however i dont have that option! is he going to punish me forever!!he seems to have turned into a grumpy old man.

Aww it'll probably take him some time to adjust to the change again, glad to hear your recovering Darcy is unpredictable at times on lead, maybe it's the fear of not knowing how another dog will react with him is making him nervous, could your ex not do some walks then he's getting off lead play still, I know this may not be easy.

I'm sure he will be fine once he gets back into your routines at home, please try not to stress too much as he will pick up on this.

Yeah he could still be adjusting, give him time  

They don't seem to like change so probably adjusting still

they can be sensitive little things,give him a bit of time to get use to his current routine and im sure he'll be back to normal  

I'm sorry to hear you've been poorly Kate, and hope that you are now on the road to a full recovery  

If you are only recently out of hospital it's likely that Toby has become confused and is taking a little time to settle down to another new routine. Give him some time and lots of love!

Dogs in general are fond of their routines, and Toby's routines have changed several times in the last few months. However, he should soon settle down to his normal happy self now he's back home with you.

Don't worry, I'm sure things will settle down - and concentrate on getting well!

Do keep in touch      

im sure hes just milking it for all its worth im going to give it a bit of time then go back to basics with my son more involved than first time around.he s getting lots of exersize just doesnt play with us like he used to,maybe hes just growing up!

my ex cant see him more coz he had his head around keeping him not knowing if i was coming home and was gutted when he came home,consequently went and got himself a gorgeous staff pup of his own and my dog was ok with the puppy untill it got a bit bigger then his zero dog friend policy kicked in!!

kate1 wrote:my ex cant see him more coz he had his head around keeping him not knowing if i was coming home and was gutted when he came home,consequently went and got himself a gorgeous staff pup of his own and my dog was ok with the puppy untill it got a bit bigger then his zero dog friend policy kicked in!!

Kate, this explains even more why Toby got confused in his head - dogs can't understand about why their humans have to disappear into hospital, or why they've been moved from here to there, or why a puppy suddenly appeared on the scene.

Toby's back in his home now and life is getting back to normal for him - give him some time to settle back down and I'm sure he'll be fine.

You have been and are doing your best for Toby; give him loads of love and get well again soon!  

I totally agree with Lynda - he's had two upheavals and he'll need time to settle down again. If you think, they say a rescue dog can take anything up to a year to fully settle into a new home. That's roughly what you're looking at here from a psychological point of view.

As long as he's in full health, and the grumpiness isn't because he has a health problem, then just loads of love & patience will help to get him settled.