Hi, I need some advice here. We first fostered and then adopted 12ish year old Elmer last year. He is now 13ish. He is around 5 pounds and has 3 teeth. He also has a very bad heart murmur/enlarged heart but has not required meds for that yet. Because he is old and frail we tend to let him get away with a lot of things our other 2 Chi's would never do.
Well, Elmer is getting more and more crabby. I am the alpha dog/caretaker of the dogs. He will snarl at me and attempt to bite me whenever I do things to him like to get him to go outside, to put a belly band on, to pick him up, etc. My biggest problem is that up until a few weeks ago he would happily sleep in his crate at night. I would say "time for bed" and he would go into his crate and wait for his treat, I would close the door and all was good for the night. Now he will go snarling and snapping into the crate, will snarl as I am closing the door and then he sits in there panting and crying like he is going to die any minute. The crate is in our bedroom right next to our other Chi's crate. It takes probably 15 minutes or more for him to calm down and then he wakes up frequently during the night and pants and frets and paws at the door to get out. During the day he loves to be in his crate with the door open. It even has a heating pad in it. We have tried letting him be loose at night and he sleeps on our sofa for part of the night and then jumps up on the bed and wants to sleep with us in the bed. I want him to sleep in his crate. How do I do that without him fretting and giving himself a heart attack and keeping us up? I have tried Melatonin, Rescue Remedy and Composure to mellow him out. I know he is trying to be dominant but am unsure of how to deal with him because of his frailness. Thanks!!!! Sue
