We've been leaving the crate door open. The worst thing he has done is during the night, he goes to the other dog's pillow, plops down, and the other poor dog gives up and moves somewhere else. We haven't heard a peep out of either of them all night, so we can sleep. Only problem is stepping on them if you don't know where they are!

Right now we have two visiting dogs for a month - big female yellow (clueless) lab and a big blonde retriever mix. Buster thinks he can go up and nip their necks and he growls and snaps at them. I know I've read about this type of behavior on the other discussion boards. The thing is, for the first few days, they were getting along and playing. Now, Buster is getting a little more aggressive.

Is this just part of the Basenji charm?

for the Web site for ordering the collar. I'm going to wait and see how Buster does the next few nights.

At least for one night! Buster got into his crate and settled down. We left the door open. When I woke up at 5 a.m., (usual wake up time) he was sitting quietly by the crate. No whining, whimpering, or rattling of the crate. Maybe we don't need the DAP collar afer all.

Thanks to all who offered their expertise and advice.

Where do you get your DAP collars? What's the best source for ordering? Thanks.

Have you tried the plug-in? Would it work if I just plugged it in at night next to where he sleeps, or does it require constant diffusion? I looked at the choices online, and the spray-on product said something about spraying it every couple of hours, which won't work at night. I'm not sure he would leave the collar thing alone.

Yes, I'm sure Buster would LOVE to sleep on the sofa. I just don't trust him yet. Once when we were getting ready to go to bed, he had fallen asleep on the sofa right beside me. I picked him up to put him in his crate and he made a sound like a lamb bleating! It was so funny.

Last night he voluntarily went into the crate and snuggled down. The other dog (13 years old, totally trustworthy terrier mix) was asleep on his pillow. So I thought, ok, I got up and shut the door to the crate. He immediately started whining and rattling the crate.

The problem is, when our other dog Chewie is asleep, Buster plops down on Chewie's pillow and poor Chewie gets up and finds a spot on the floor. Chewie is not a snuggler. He doesn't want anybody bugging him. So now I have dogs all over the floor and a flashlight is required to go to the bathroom during the night! :eek:

The other thing is, if he's not in the crate, he'll be roaming the bedroom and jumping up on our bed. I may try leaving the crate door open tonight and see what happens.

I hope someone can give me advice on Buster's sleep patterns.

We have an acre fenced back yard. He chases birds quite a bit and gets plenty of exercise. We take him on walks. We play with him and he plays with our other dog.

My son allowed Buster to sleep in the bed with him for the first 18 months of his life. When we got Buster, I put him in a nice crate with a soft pad in our bedroom. The first night, he whimpered for an hour and a half before going to sleep. The second night, he whimpered for about 5 minutes, then slept all night.

Lately, he's been going to sleep around 9 or 10 p.m., but wakes up whimpering at 2, 3, or 4 a.m. Sometimes when I take him out in the middle of the night, he doesn't have to pee. He just stands around. I take him back in the house and he just plops down somewhere, happy as a clam.

I saw on one of the other forums something about D.A.P. Does this stuff work? I feel like a 27 pound creature has taken charge of my life. I need to sleep all night, and Buster was doing beautifully for a while, now we have this middle of the night waking, whimpering, etc.

Any thoughts or advice?

Poor Buster got worse over the weekend so we took him back to the vet today. He got to the point that he couldn't take a step without stopping to scratch his belly with his back paws. Vet thinks he got into bull nettle or something. Prednisone pills were prescribed.

Meanwhile, I found a local pet store, Pet-O-Rama, that carries Innova pet food. I bought a small bag to try. No corn!

Thanks again for all the help and advice.

Our first dog that our son picked out from the SPCA puppy adoption is a pit mix!!!! That was 13 years ago when our son was 8. He's been a great dog.

I will definitely look at the two sites on dog food. He actually likes the other dog's Joint Mobility, which has a lot of fish in it. I'm going to see if I can find him a better type of food.:D