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Chit Chat
charcoalandblush
member
Adult Dog Housebreaking Question
in Chit Chat
DF and I adopted a beautiful girl from the Humane Society this weekend. She's a four year old mix, we're not sure of what but the shelter said probably St. Bernard, Great Pyrenees, and Bernese Mountain Dog. She was a transfer from a different shelter, and they had almost no information on her, including whether she was housetrained or not. A shelter volunteer said she probably was, she didn't really pee or poop in her run at the shelter, but she would go when she was out for a walk.
Since we've had her home, she hasn't pooped at all. Not that concerning, because she hasn't had much of an appetite. The shelter told us to expect this, between the stress and her kennel cough (poor baby). They said it'd be a few days before she's eating normally.
She's only peed once in two days, and it was on the kitchen floor, immediately after bringing her in from a long walk. She's had plenty to drink (she's emptied out her water bowl 2/2.5 times) and when she did pee it was an ALARMINGLY large amount.
All of the housetraining resources I've found online are all about positive reinforcement - when she pees outside, give her tons of praise and love and treats. The problem is, we can't even get her to go outside. We take her out 4-5 times a day, sometimes walks around the neighborhood and sometimes just letting her out at the off-leash dog park. I've also tried taking her to the indoor dog run at our building, it's a turf patch that TONS of the building dogs poop and pee on, so I'm sure it should smell like a bathroom place to her. At this point I'm not quite sure what to do. Any advice from dog owners out there?
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Re: Adult Dog Housebreaking Question
I volunteer at an animal shelter. Similar to the effect that stress has on appetite, stress/transition plays a huge part in bathroom habits.
It can take up to a week for a dog to show "typical" housebroken habits. I say give her some more time. When she does pee in the house again (and it will happen) take her outside. It will begin to help her associate where she should be going. Also, take her out frequently until she develops her own schedule.
Good luck!
ETA: She is precious!
What does everyone else do who works 8-5?
H and I work 9-5 type jobs and our dog is crated during the day. The longest he's in there during the day is 8 1/2 hours and lately that's been the exception. We can't get home on lunch to let him out and he's at the age where he SHOULD be able to hold his pee but our dog doesn't. He's got separation anxiety so he pees (and sometimes poops) during the day while we're gone. He's worked out this trick where he can lift his leg high enough to pee outside the crate so he doesn't have to sit in it all day, even when he was in a tiny crate where he only had enough room to stand up and turn around. We're at a loss but there's not much else we can do. He's fine at night in the crate and can go 10 hours while we sleep without peeing.
Is there anyway you could get a dog walker to come and let a dog out during the day while you're at work? We don't have that option (tiny town and we don't really know anyone, plus we're too far for anyone we know to come down to our house) but I know a lot of people who have someone come do that. I want to put our dog in doggie daycare but that would require making a lot more money, cause that shit's expensive.
I have found the non-food positive reinforcements to be just as effective as treats. They crave that good attention. We have one dog that is very food/treat oriented and one that couldn't care less about treats. For the non-food oriented dog, lots of petting keeps him happy and is usually enough reinforcement for him. We also found that he may not like dog treats so much, but he loves chicken and beef. When training him, we actually grilled up some chicken breast and gave him chunks of refrigerated chicken when needed... most dogs would have a hard time passing up real meat.
I have found the non-food positive reinforcements to be just as effective as treats. They crave that good attention. We have one dog that is very food/treat oriented and one that couldn't care less about treats. For the non-food oriented dog, lots of petting keeps him happy and is usually enough reinforcement for him. We also found that he may not like dog treats so much, but he loves chicken and beef. When training him, we actually grilled up some chicken breast and gave him chunks of refrigerated chicken when needed... most dogs would have a hard time passing up real meat.