CuriumosityCf
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
- Messages
- 1
My roommate is, well, an irresponsible pet owner. She decided last week to bring home a sulcata that has a massive tumor on his face. I've always wanted one but never got one because of the long commitment involved, she didn't even bother to research what they eat or check to see if putting a male sulcata with a male smaller tortoise of a different breed was even a good idea (so far there doesn't seem to be an issue, the smaller tortoise has places to hide), so that tells you right there the kind of impulsive person I'm dealing with. The previous owners didn't want to take care of the vet bills for the tumor, and my roommate seems to think she can just let it go too. I'm trying to convince her that it needs to be taken care of, whatever, I'm working on that part.
Anyways, we have 2 dogs, mine is a well behaved (until lately) small terrier, and her issue dog is a basset/beagle cross 'puppy' that she brought home 6 months ago and has not trained whatsoever. The dog was very sick, and at the vet for the first 4 months or so of her life, which is where my roommate got her, after the previous owners decided the bills were too much. This is the most annoying and pig headed dog, anyways, that untrained beast is now getting my dog to eat the giant horse-like sulcata poops. I am a student, and not home during the day, she is a home health worker and is in and out all day. She refuses to discipline the dogs at all, in fact she does the opposite and encourages bad behavior. She let the tortoise have free reign over the backyard and often left the back door open so Harry can come inside. After he decided to rearrange the living room, and I explained about the territory patrolling behavior, she has stopped leaving the door open for fear of the tvs and valuables breaking, so there is hope for her changing her behavior, but that hasn't stopped the dogs from going outside and dragging the giant poops in. I have come home to tortoise poop smeared and torn apart all over the living room, couch, carpets, wood floors, in her bed (today, while she was sleeping in her bed, the dogs came in and torn apart poop and she didn't notice until I said something), all over the dogs, rubbed in my dog's fur, just freaking everywhere every single day for the last week. That is 7 baths my dog has had in 7 days, this is getting ridiculous, I don't have time for this.
So, the question is, how can I fix this? Training the dogs not to eat the poop is pretty hard since I am gone all day, and wont have any back up from her to correct the behavior. I don't think there is any safe food we could give the tortoise that would stop the dogs from wanting to eat the poop like I've seen for cats... If we sectioned off the backyard so the dogs couldn't get in part, and make that the tortoise pen, would that be the best option? Any other ideas? Can anyone come up with some good tips or even scare tactics I can use on my roommate to get her to stop this nonsense?
Anyways, we have 2 dogs, mine is a well behaved (until lately) small terrier, and her issue dog is a basset/beagle cross 'puppy' that she brought home 6 months ago and has not trained whatsoever. The dog was very sick, and at the vet for the first 4 months or so of her life, which is where my roommate got her, after the previous owners decided the bills were too much. This is the most annoying and pig headed dog, anyways, that untrained beast is now getting my dog to eat the giant horse-like sulcata poops. I am a student, and not home during the day, she is a home health worker and is in and out all day. She refuses to discipline the dogs at all, in fact she does the opposite and encourages bad behavior. She let the tortoise have free reign over the backyard and often left the back door open so Harry can come inside. After he decided to rearrange the living room, and I explained about the territory patrolling behavior, she has stopped leaving the door open for fear of the tvs and valuables breaking, so there is hope for her changing her behavior, but that hasn't stopped the dogs from going outside and dragging the giant poops in. I have come home to tortoise poop smeared and torn apart all over the living room, couch, carpets, wood floors, in her bed (today, while she was sleeping in her bed, the dogs came in and torn apart poop and she didn't notice until I said something), all over the dogs, rubbed in my dog's fur, just freaking everywhere every single day for the last week. That is 7 baths my dog has had in 7 days, this is getting ridiculous, I don't have time for this.
So, the question is, how can I fix this? Training the dogs not to eat the poop is pretty hard since I am gone all day, and wont have any back up from her to correct the behavior. I don't think there is any safe food we could give the tortoise that would stop the dogs from wanting to eat the poop like I've seen for cats... If we sectioned off the backyard so the dogs couldn't get in part, and make that the tortoise pen, would that be the best option? Any other ideas? Can anyone come up with some good tips or even scare tactics I can use on my roommate to get her to stop this nonsense?