Our coonhound is 8(ish) years old and driving us absolutely nuts. We love her to bits but we're all struggling a bit right now.
I know that she has been struggling on a higher level ever since our baby was born 13 months ago. It REALLY threw off her routine, and she has isolated herself a lot more ever since. We kept her away from the baby for a while because he really, really overstimulated her and she'd like try to climb in my lap while I was breastfeeding and things like that. It freaked me out a bit so she wasn't allowed around the baby for a while. She only wanted to be with me so she would stand at the gate and bark, bark, bark. She would get up in the middle of the night and bark. She wouldn't want anyone but me, and I was with the baby 90% of the time. Eventually she gave up asking and has been isolating herself a lot more ever since. She seems a bit depressed. Now that baby is older we have a much more regular routine with walks and treats and I offer snuggles but she doesn't really want them anymore. For example she and I used to snuggle on the couch after dinner every single night it was our standing routine for like years and she simply won't anymore. She's not interested. She is less overstimulated by the baby but doesn't really want anything to do with him and he seems to make her uncomfortable, so she again is kinda off by herself. Our other dog is much more comfortable around the baby so he gets more family time.
Anyway, all that to say she has other frustrations. But our frustration with her right now is that she is really struggling with the baby gates and closed doors in the house, especially in the evening. She scratches and barks to get in and out and she will continue to bark until we let her through. We only have one bedroom, and the baby is sleeping in there. We have gates on the stairs because she resource guards from the other dog so we usually keep the gate closed so they're not both in the kitchen at once.
It's driving us nuts. She will scratch to go through the door, and then she is barking to get out. Then she comes out, looks around, and wants to go back in. Then she wants to come out. Then she wants to go upstairs. Then she wants to come downstairs. Then in and out of the bedroom. And on and on and on. She will spend literally 90 seconds to 2 minutes in each space before wanting to move on, sometimes less like I don't even have time to walk back to the couch before she is barking again. She has multiple places to sleep in every area of the house. She has been fed. She has been walked. It takes her like an hour to settle down at night. This is also a relatively new behavior.
She just had her annual exam two weeks ago and is perfectly healthy.
We're going nuts and don't know how to help her. Anytime I am going in or out of the gates I offer to let her through and she rarely will go through when I offer, but of course 2 minutes later she absolutely MUST go through.
Does anyone have any suggestions. It's excruciatingly frustrating and I don't know how to deal with or why she is doing it.
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