I think the way I have the crates set up in my car currently stresses Ike out. Huh, you might be asking. Honor's crate is behind the driver's seat. Ike's is behind the passenger's seat. The passenger side of the car is closest to the entrance to our house. This means when we exit the car I let Honor out first and he tears to the lawn which is an incline. He then waits on the lawn for Ike to exit the car, making him at almost the same level Ike is at while in the car. When entering the car Ike gets in first as his crate is closest to the house.
I have noticed that Ike doesn't like to get out of the car when Honor is already out - mostly because Honor wants to play and tear around and Ike is like, "Not now." Honor waits right there and Ike would be forced to almost jump into Honor - I typically intercede and have in fact started letting Ike out first or just continuing to the house because I know Ike will follow and that gets Bug out of the way.
This week I have been bringing Bug to work because the office is quiet (and the heat wave). Two morning in a row I noticed Ike doing some serious sniffing prior to jumping down to the driveway and jumping into the car. It is not his normal, "Let me check the p-mail" sniffing. Pretty sure this is stress sniffing.
Solution, move the crates. The other more potentially difficult-to-deal with reason behind the stress sniffing would be that he does not want to spend the day at the in-laws. I am going to start with moving the crates. Hopefully that will fix things!
2 months ago
2 comments:
Or maybe the car ride in close proximity to Bug is what's bothering him? I think it's a little bit of a stretch for him to associate "get in the car = going to in-laws, which I don't like, so I will be stressed now". Possible, but unlikely. It seems to me like you'd see the stress behaviors upon arrival at your in-laws ("I really don't want to go in there").
But if we're already pretty confident that Ike still isn't 100% cool with the corgi situation, being stuck next to him in a car for any period of time probably bothers him too.
I would try to move the crates, and alternatively set up some sort of visual barrier between the crates (hell, a piece of that super-heavy-duty posterboard would run you about $3 and fit perfectly).
Yeah, I am *pretty* sure he is not stressed about the in-laws, but it is a worst case scenario. Considering the ride to their house is literally 30 seconds and it happens every day I think his stress signs could still be related. He doesn't mind being there, but it is def. not his preference. He will adamantly refuse to go back in the house in the afternoon because he wants to go home!
He is totally cool with Honor, it is more that I think the way I have the crates set up leaves Honor free (in both situations) to get in Ike's face, so Ike doesn't have control of the situation.
The posterboard is a good idea, especially if Ike cared about being crated beside Honor. For Ike I am pretty sure it is more what happens right outside the car - hence the re-arranging which will put Bug in the car first and out last. However, I have some coroplast from when I made the g-piggies' home and I might cut a piece down and stick it between as an added bonus for Ike. Cross your fingers for us!
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