[AbbyandBrady]

Abby is 8.5 months now. We have had her since 5.5 months. She requires supervision EVERY moment and that even doesn't help sometimes, like last night! I am putting clothes in my closet and she walks into the closet and pees. We been so consistent and have had no problems with Brady but I can't make Abby understand! We train her on the bell every time she goes out, even though she doesn't get it, HUGE praises and treats when she goes outside (and she does go everytime we are outside, she clearly understands what to do out there, but doesn't seem to understand that out there is the ONLY place to go), natures miracle for all messes and we send her outside immediately for a bit, no UTI's, I keep her babygated wherever I am. She's good in her crate while we are at work but I am not going to crate her 24 hours a day to avoid accidents...she needs to learn, I want her to be able to roam in the house and run upstairs to her "playroom" whenever she wants, but we can't allow her to when she needs supervision every moment! We have done everything by the book and adfter 3 months, she still doesn't quite get it. Sometimes we catch her pacing and even praise her for that as we run her out the door, but sometimes just completely unexpected, like last night!

Any ideas beyond the usual ones? Thanks so much!

 

[caillou]

I don't know about this one because i didn't have too much trouble. Maybe you're not being harsh enough when she pees in the house and letting her outside after a pee is interpreted like a reward? Maybe attention seeking - they say for a dog any kind of attention is better than none at all as far as they're concerned? And if you had her at 5.5 months she's probably got into some bad habits early on that are going to be a bit longer to break. I'm sure you and she will get there soon...patience and perseverance. Bon Courage!! (Anyone else got some more original ideas than mine?- Help Abby!)

 

[AbbyandBrady]

You have a point...She is extremely sensitive to discipline (after a time out, she tramples Brady in order to give me "hugs" to apologize and then curls up in my lap, no matter how wild she was moments before), so we have been taking advantage of that more recently. Initially, she only got yelled at if we caught her in the act. Now, in the past few days, although this is no longer the accepted norm, it's something my parents always did as it was then the accepted norm, and they never had problems like this,  we take her back to where she went if we don't catch her in the act and tell her "no" then take her right outside. She desparately seeks her apologies and hugs afterwards but we have ignored her and left her babygated in the kitchen for a bit.  Of course, I feel awful but she needs to stop this. This week has been bad because Brady taught her that snow is edible...so we stick her outside and she sits there eating snow. Then has to go again once she's inside. ahahha...

 

[caillou]

I shouldn't laugh but boxer behaviour is hilarious! I admit i did the same with Voltaire and took him back to his puddles. Because when he caught on that he got shouted at when caught peeing he made sure he peed when i wasn't looking. They aren't stupid! So i had to resort to going back to the puddles and shouting "no!". They're so susceptible to being shouted at that it works in the end.

 

[AbbyandBrady]

that's sort of a relief...relief in the sense that our new methodmay eventually work. not relief in the sense that i hate yelling at her because of her sad response. i feel like i need to spend the rest of the day cuddling her in my lap to make her feel not so sad. brady I have no problem yelling at...he is the farthest thing from sensitive. he just looks like he's laughing at me when i yell at him.

 

[nano]

I don't yell at mine when a mistake occurs.  I merely go "uh-oh" in that tone that says someone did something they shouldn't have. Tone of voice means everything to your dog.  Remember you mother giving you the "evil eye" and that tone?  I get more response from my dogs with just "the look" than anything else.  Not shouting, not taking back to the spot, just taking them to a timeout area away from the mess while I clean it up.  They KNOW who did what where, you don't have to show them.  It becomes a game if you make a big deal and yelling can cause submissive urination.  I just clean up and then take them out after they have their timeout to see if they need to do anymore business outside.  

Nano

 

[AbbyandBrady]

Ha, if I took her to a time out area while I cleaned up, I would have 2 areas to clean up!! I either make her sit and stay in one spot while I clean up (ignoring her the whole time which she makes clear she hates) or make her go outside. She's usually not a big fan of being outside at all.

We did well last night, I took her out about every 15 to 20 minutes and let them have their freedom upstairs playing in between...I went up about every 5 to 6 minutes to check on them though. I tried to discourage the snow eating while she was outside. We got through the evening with no accidents.

However, this morning, knowing she goes very shortly after breakfast, my husband took her out for about ten minutes during which she sat on the ground with that stubborn look as if to say "not a chance pal." (walking her in circles usually helps us but sometimes she is just insistent on going in and there's no changing her mind).  He brought her in, babygated her in the kitchen, went into the hallway to grab his car keys and right back into the kitchen, and guess what? She had pooped. Ugh...

Doing everything by the book just doesn't always help.