Dog wants to get in to a room that shes not allowed in

[SazOrr]

Hello - new greyhound owner here.

We are absolutely in love with our new grey, she has been really good so far at settling in. We picked her up two days ago. 

The only issue is that we also have a guinea pig (he is very old, kept in a cage, in a separate room). We were told that if we kept to these rules by the rescue centre that she would be fine. However this is not the case. 

She hasn't met the GP yet - but could smell him. So we have now moved him out of the room and keeping him in the garage for the time being until we work out what to do. However, she is still desperate to get in to room that he was in. We showed her round the room and she had a good sniff of EVERYTHING! but she started wimpering at the top of the shelf. My husband brought down every item for her to sniff but her wimpering continued. (It is not the area that the GP was being kept in either - its the other end of the room). We checked the whole shelf for potential mouse but couldn't find anything. 

We have to shut this door (my husband keeps his guitars in here and could be easily knocked) but she still is staring at the door, sniffing the bottom of it and wanting to get in. The GP has not been moved back! 

Just looking for some advice on what to do really - particularly with her wimpering at the top of the shelf and also how we can stop her pawing at the door - she seems super anxious about it and its also stressing me out as well. Any advice would be grateful. I appreciate that we have only had a few days. 

[3greytjoys]

Try to create an additional barrier to keep your new hound from having direct access to that room's closed door. Example: extra tall baby gates usually work well as dividers (unless hound is a jumper and is extremely highly prey driven).

If possible, don't let your new hound have access to the whole house this soon. Helps if hound's bed or crate is placed in the most used room with humans during the day, and then hound spends nights on her dog bed in the human's bedroom.

If you have a dog crate, your hound could go inside temporarily to settle down until it's time for a walk, potty outing, or meal. It could take a while for her to settle. The action of dogs' chewing acts a stress reliever, so a dog-safe chew (while supervised) could help distract her. Try to keep her distracted with games or whatever you can to reduce her fixation on your GP's room.

Please don't hesitate to contact your adoption group for additional help if needed. Good luck.

 

 

[SazOrr]

Thank you! She has settled down a bit more. Bless her. Everything is just very new! 

[cleptogrey]

mmmm.....do i smell desert?

it's normal for a dog to be led by it's nose. be diligent in keep the guinea pig out of harm's way. annie used to lie outside the bird room where she was boarded. my friend has a screen door on the bird room. my friend unfortunately didn't put 2 and 2 together ....annie was waiting for a prime opportunity to get in and hunt. free range birds....well she did the one time it was not securely closed. i ended up replacing her parrot with 2 parrots that needed to be rescued. my friend blames herself for not recognizing annie's motive. things can happen.

[Fruitycake]

Do be extra careful to keep them separated!  I agree that two doors between them is better than one (gates and door).  I knew someone who had a dog (pet lab) that was overly interested in the guinea pigs and they got slightly careless one day and she got in through the door that didn't quite latch.  She tore the cage to pieces to kill them before anyone could get upstairs to save them.