I have been pondering this for a while now and would like to get some input. Mandy does things at night while I am sleeping that she doesn't do during the daytime. She did this before puppies came and I thought it might be nesting behavior. Puppies have been off her for 2 weeks now.
Last night as soon as I laid down to sleep, I heard her barking. It was a playful bark, not an alarmed bark. I went down to check on her and there she is acting all innocent. I let her out to see if she had to do potty, etc and went back to bed. This AM the laundry is in the floor where she unfolded it and put it there.
She is also chewing at the garage door. It's a wooden folding door, not an overhead garage door. I don't know if she's trying to let herself out or just needing to chew. Last week she took the padlock off the door and let herself out in the fenced in potty area. I think it was just lucky jumping on the door to get the lock off but nevertheless I was still amazed. IF she had wanted to escape, she could have easily done so while I was asleep. Instead, she took her toys outside and destroyed the seat of the chair I sit in.
I am wondering if this is puppy behavior in her. Maybe she never has been inside, never had toys or her own bedding. And/or could this be something she learned while living feral in the woods for eight months? I mean, my dogs sleep when I sleep. They don't stay up all night goofing around like she does.
I have tried to interact with her in play and she's clueless about it.
If this is feral behavior, will she become civilized over time? If I can get a leash on her and get to a deeper level of trust, I believe she would benefit tremendously from coming upstairs and seeing how it's really done as far as living inside.
Feral fearful dog
You have quite a responsibility on your hands! You mention other dogs. How many do you have? Ages and stages? Where do they sleep? Here's just a couple of small ideas that maybe might be helpful.
Notice how when there is a scent in a room, like cooking fish, after a while we get used to it and don't even seem to notice it? Well when using DAP, we don't want that to happen. We want the dog to continue to notice the (very subtle) scent. So rather than using a diffuser, I use the DAP spray and spray it on my pants leg. This way, every time I walk by, she gets a whiff of pheromone. This helps the dog have this nice calming association with me. You could also spray it on a dog bed. I think the diffusers don't work nearly as well as the spray, partly because they don't give the dog a physical thing to associate with the smell (hard to cuddle up to a wall socket).
Also, dogs need lots of sunlight and exercise, otherwise, they get depressed. Same thing happens to people. The secret to success with a dog like Mandy is in having the right "habitat" set up. That outside potty area is great. Maybe you could add a sandbox and wading pool and turn it into a playyard? I buy raw beef bones and toss them outside and my dogs stay busy chewing and burying those. Chewing helps dogs relieve stress. They need things to chew. When she is busy by day, she will sleep better at night.
I click with my tongue, and that works great and dogs aren't frightened by it. Mandy's behaviors aren't really abnormal. She's just a terribly smart creative animal who's had a hard time finding a healthy living situation. Think of Mandy as having the mental capacity of about a 6 year old child. She's bored! She needs to get enrolled in kindergarten! A clicker trainer can help you evaluate Mandy and come up with a plan to really help her have a fulfilling life over the long haul.
If only dogs could work on crossword puzzles, it would be much easier to keep them entertained. But dogs like Mandy need lots of fenced in outdoor space to romp. They need stuff to do. Seeing the sky and sniffing the ground and rolling in the dirt helps them stay mentally healthy. I bag up all the dogs' poop, and bring it to the dump every couple of days and that way our fenced in areas are always clean and nice for dogs to play in. I train in agility, and my formerly feral dog thinks agility is GREAT fun!
Good luck Mandy! Make the force be with you!
www.wholedogcamp.com