Annoying game

Princess is now a year old, great dog, funny, smart. Love that Chow attitude.....BUT.....lately she's playing a game with me and I'm not sure exactly what the right way to handle it is.

Since its gotten cold out, she loves being outside. Most of the time she comes in when I call but at least once in a evening she plays this annoying game with me, almost always after dark. I will call her, she will stay put and play quiet. I get worried and call her until I hear her whining. I decide I'm not going to keep calling her for her to ignore me, let her stay out. I close the door and no sooner will I walk away she will be at the back door whining. I think she's cold, needs to come in, I go open the door and she takes off like lightening, sits and whines. I tell her to come on, she continues to sit and whine. I shut the door and she runs back to the door and whines! Its so annoying and I feel like its some kind of power game she's playing with me.

She doesnt do this to me all the time, and after she's played this game she comes in all hyper and wanting to play. I dont want to do it wrong and create a monster out of her. Do you think its a harmless game, or should I give her one chance then ignore her for 15 mins or so? Its just hard to ignore when its so bitter cold out or its cold and raining out.

Hope I come across in the way I want to, but I'll give it a try. I have an Umbrella Cockatoo (large bird) that will squeel and squawk at sunrise and sunset, almost ear piercing at times. I've been told that this is when they call the "flock" in or out . And I've allowed him to go about his business and he is usually quieted down in about 15 mins or so. Keeping that in mind, my Westie will get spurts of energy at these same times. I would be sitting on the couch and she'll jump up and just stare at me and start whining for no reason. Really bizarre and sometimes I think she's not the sharpest tool in the shed. BUT, I apply my same understanding of my bird to her and just ignore her until the 15 mins or 1/2 hour passes by. Nora will run around the house with her beloved squeeky porcupine toy (and get the bird crazy too) and then just literally plop laying down wherever she lands and sleep.

I would just let her go about her business and understand it may be just the calling of the "pack".

It sounds like Princess wants you to come outside and play with her. They love to play in the dark, and she's inviting you to follow her out and have some fun. She probably just can't figure out why, oh why you are missing all the fun. When it's not raining you might want to go out and play with her for a few minutes. Not every night, but often enough that she learns that some nights are okay but others she needs to come on inside.

Mine have Night Madness too. Everyone goes nuts, wrestling, racing, vocalizing. And in the spring and summer, every night at 9:00 Bimmer wants to go out. I've curtailed those excursions because he tends to want to stay out too long on those. If I wait and let him go out for his last time after 10:00 he comes right back.

Thats funny, I should have thought of that instead of assuming she was being stubborn and acting like a brat! lol, its a shame she is going to pick the coldest night but I'm glad its just her way of saying she wants me to come play, sooooo, next time I get the invite, I will put my boots and coat on and go outside to enjoy the cold, bitter night air with her.....burrrrr

LOL ~ when a dog gets our attention, then runs away out of reach and repeats the call they want us to follow. Didn't you ever see Lassie? (Just joking there, but it really is how they ask us to follow.)

You might want to take a little flashlight with you. She might have something to show you.

Brady does that to me too. Sometimes I will go out there and he will grab something (like a bone or toy) and just start running around like he wants me to chase him. So I do it for a while and then he seems happy, kind of like "Boy! Now wasn't that SO fun?!" They love that stuff. He is my happy energetic boy!

My two boys are really good at getting my to do things they want me to do. We have a doggy door and sometimes they will run to the patio door and start barking, whinning and jumping up and down, going crazy with excitment. I'll get up and let them out and two seconds later they are running back inside through the doggy door. My husband laughs at me every time I fall for this trick, I have to admit they have me trained pretty well.

Oh how familiar this is. I've been up since 4 a.m. this morning on a Saturday. Max just had to go out; he kept walking back and forth in the house coming up to my face in bed. I let him out, let him in, and he had to go out again within 2 minutes. I guessed he had to really go out, but then he wouldn't come in. He barked, I yelled, he made up his own mind what he was going to do. I don't want to wake up my neighbors. He started up the stairs only to see something, turn, and hit my arm into the door which is now black and blue. He drives me nuts in the morning! CJ will go out with him, but she has the common sense to do what she has to, come back in the house, and go to sleep. I'm now up, made my coffee and will wait for daylight.

Max is getting to be quite the responsible adult, hmmm? Checking on strange noises before the crack of dawn. How reassuring . . . and exhausting! The girls used to go crazy every time they heard coyotes howling at night. They finally figured out that if Bimmer's not upset they should go back to sleep. The first time he heard coyotes howling at night he went nuts too, but he figured out we weren't going to go check unless they were close so he ignores them now unless he can tell they are in his pasture, and since the first time a couple of them found themselves confronted by Bimmer - followed by Buffy - trotting across the yard toward them they haven't been terribly eager to enter Fila territory.