I', still not sure what the scope of this NG is. Is a question about
housebreaking my dog on-topic here?

--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply spoke these
words of wisdom in :

I', still not sure what the scope of this NG is. Is a question about
housebreaking my dog on-topic here?


ask away

diddy wrote:

I'm still not sure what the scope of this NG is. Is a question about
housebreaking my dog on-topic here?

ask away

Well, I have a moderately demanding at-home business and am trying to
housebreak a puppy who is, at this point, about 6-7 months old. My
other two dogs came already reasonably housebroken and we had no real
problems with them, but this one is also a 7-1/2 pounder as opposed to a
30-40 pounder like our other two dogs, and somewhere I think I have seen
that smaller dogs have more potty problems.

She seems to have a massive case of ADHD. If anything is going on
outside when she goes outside (like at the house right across the street
with 15 people living there and lots of stuff always going on), she
won't go potty in the yard because she is too focused on trying to
figure out what's going on (she's a social butterfly). Using the back
yard right now is not an option due to access difficulties and the fact
that all the dogs fight with the neighbor's dogs on the other side of
the fence if we let them out back at all.

If she heads too far into a neighbor's lawn to go potty and I pull her
back, it's like she says, "Well, if I can't go potty where *I* want to
go potty, I am not goign to go potty at all."

I can take her out for an hour in the morning when she's been crated all
night, and if there is too much going on, she won't go, but then the
moment she gets back in the house, it's off to the kitchen or the
bathroom to leave a deposit of some sort or the other.

I thought I had her elimination habits tracked, but maybe I don't, and
on top of it, I do have this moderately demanding home business that I
can't ignore deadlines on unless I want to lose business. Some days I
feel like I am spending the whole day taking her out every half-hour to
get her to go. She is not going in her crate, and evidently she can
hold it for 18 hours, which is really scary to me, because she ends up
being just a trifle constipated. So poor baby, some days she spends
half the day in her crate in between 5-minute potty sessions, and I feel
bad that she ends up in there when she doesn't go, but I can't let her
run free and leave little piles and puddles all over the place (which,
thankfully, she does limit to the two rooms that have linoleum floors,
but still...)

If I take her for a longer (half-mile) walk, most times she will have
gone before we get back home. But it is important to me that she be
able to go potty in the yard for those days when I can't take her out
for a long walk because of deadlines.

What I really want is for her to be like our other two dogs, who go
potty as soon as they go outside. I don't know if that is a realistic
expectation or not. I read somewhere that it is supposed to take two
weeks to housebreak a puppy, and I think we are going on something like
2 months.

I don't know if all this is making sense, but if anybody (besides the
one who would invite a response from Candace the Border Collie, who I
remember from my border collie NG days) has any ideas, I'm all ears.

--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply spoke
these words of wisdom in :


d somewhere I think I have seen
that smaller dogs have more potty problems.

They do. Smaller bladders and all that means more frequent trips.

Housebreaking is a many pronged event. Small dogs need to be fed more
often in order to keep their blood sugars on an even keel, making feed
cycle rythyms yet more difficult.


Take her out on her long walk (Exercise stimulates constitutionals), if
she doesn't have to go, bring her in and put her in a SMALL crate, and 10-
15 minutes later.. take her out again. rinse lather repeat until she DOES
go, then she can have run of the house.

Until she enters the danger period. A match stick may help things along.

When she goes, effusive praise.. and perhaps a small treat.

The ADHD can be helped along by making sure she gets out more and sees and
gets to investigate lots and lots of stuff. If you don't have time for
that, hire a dog walker. The dog still needs it's needs met, and your
schedule is not it's fault.

As for making it like your other dogs... not going to happen.


I read somewhere that it is supposed to take two
weeks to housebreak a puppy, and I think we are going on something like
2 months.
some breeds are easier than others. Small dogs usually more difficult.



I don't know if all this is making sense, but if anybody (besides the
one who would invite a response from Candace the Border Collie, who I
remember from my border collie NG days) has any ideas, I'm all ears.

In article ,
Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply
wrote:


If she heads too far into a neighbor's lawn to go potty and I pull her
back, it's like she says, "Well, if I can't go potty where *I* want to
go potty, I am not goign to go potty at all."

I can take her out for an hour in the morning when she's been crated all
night, and if there is too much going on, she won't go, but then the
moment she gets back in the house, it's off to the kitchen or the
bathroom to leave a deposit of some sort or the other.

You can't let her do that. Tether her to you when you come back in,
take her back out in 10 minutes (or when your schedule breaks).

I thought I had her elimination habits tracked, but maybe I don't, and
on top of it, I do have this moderately demanding home business that I
can't ignore deadlines on unless I want to lose business.

Do yo mind me asking what the general nature of your business is? Do
you have to be physically active or are you at a desk/on the
phone/computer?

Some days I
feel like I am spending the whole day taking her out every half-hour to
get her to go. She is not going in her crate, and evidently she can
hold it for 18 hours, which is really scary to me, because she ends up
being just a trifle constipated. So poor baby, some days she spends
half the day in her crate in between 5-minute potty sessions, and I feel
bad that she ends up in there when she doesn't go, but I can't let her
run free and leave little piles and puddles all over the place (which,
thankfully, she does limit to the two rooms that have linoleum floors,
but still...)

Tethering to you is your friend. So are baby gates, and x-pen, etc. She
needs to be weaned from crate dependence.

I'm assuming she eats scheduled meals and gets regular play sessions?

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

diddy wrote:

Housebreaking is a many pronged event. Small dogs need to be fed more
often in order to keep their blood sugars on an even keel, making feed
cycle rythyms yet more difficult.

She gets food twice a day just like our other dogs.

Take her out on her long walk (Exercise stimulates constitutionals), if
she doesn't have to go, bring her in and put her in a SMALL crate, and 10-
15 minutes later.. take her out again. rinse lather repeat until she DOES
go, then she can have run of the house.

She gets one 1/4- to 1/2-mile walk in the morning, which is really all I
have been able to handle at one time because my back has been bothering
me, with walks on the shorter end of that spectrum at other times. She
is usually really good first thing in the morning but not throughout the
day. What I generally cannot do is keep repeating walks multiple times
until she finally goes potty, and then there's the rare occasion when
the walk has to be postponed an hour or two so I can get my work in.

Then she gets a shorter walk in the afternoon some time and then time
outside in the evening with a walk or not, depending on the state of my
back.

She also plays with our border collie in the house during the day. They
get along well, but I do keep my eye on them, but that gives her more
activity and some fun.

The ADHD can be helped along by making sure she gets out more and sees and
gets to investigate lots and lots of stuff. If you don't have time for
that, hire a dog walker. The dog still needs it's needs met, and your
schedule is not it's fault.

I have the time to walk her. I just can't put those walks on a rigid
locked-in schedule. Her morning walk is anywhere between 5 and 9 am;
her afternoon walk is anywhere between 1 and 5 pm, and her evening walk
is between 7 and 9. I try to make sure it's spaced out. But she still
can go on a walk and do nothing only to come back in the house and go
within 3-5 minutes -- VERY frustrating. If she can learn to go potty in
the yard, which she does perfectly well on some days and not on others,
sometimes but not always depending on what's going on outside, then it
won't be a problem at all.

As for making it like your other dogs... not going to happen.

Really? I didn't think it was an unreasonable to expect a dog to go
potty shortly (read: 5 minutes or so) after they go out if they need to
go or to expect them to be able to go potty without having to be taken
on a walk to do so. Can you please explain why you think it won't
happen so I can understand your reasoning, because it almost sounds like
you are trying to say that expecting her to be completely housebroken is
an unrealistic expectation, although I might be misunderstanding you.


--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply spoke
these words of wisdom in :

She gets food twice a day just like our other dogs.
that probably isn't enough for such a small dog.



She gets one 1/4- to 1/2-mile walk in the morning, which is really all I
have been able to handle at one time because my back has been bothering
me, with walks on the shorter end of that spectrum at other times. She
is usually really good first thing in the morning but not throughout the
day. What I generally cannot do is keep repeating walks multiple times
until she finally goes potty, and then there's the rare occasion when
the walk has to be postponed an hour or two so I can get my work in.

Well as Janet suggested, Tethering IS your friend.

I had a Jack Russell terrier once that took me 3 months to reliably
housebreak. I was dedicated to the task. Morning noon and all night.
Tethering, regular food cycles, exercise, match sticks, crates, .. Some
dogs just take longer than others.

And i was willing to devote the time to make it happen.



Then she gets a shorter walk in the afternoon some time and then time
outside in the evening with a walk or not, depending on the state of my
back.

She also plays with our border collie in the house during the day. They
get along well, but I do keep my eye on them, but that gives her more
activity and some fun.

The ADHD can be helped along by making sure she gets out more and sees
and gets to investigate lots and lots of stuff. If you don't have time
for that, hire a dog walker. The dog still needs it's needs met, and
your schedule is not it's fault.

I have the time to walk her. I just can't put those walks on a rigid
locked-in schedule. Her morning walk is anywhere between 5 and 9 am;
her afternoon walk is anywhere between 1 and 5 pm, and her evening walk
is between 7 and 9. I try to make sure it's spaced out. But she still
can go on a walk and do nothing only to come back in the house and go
within 3-5 minutes -- VERY frustrating. If she can learn to go potty in
the yard, which she does perfectly well on some days and not on others,
sometimes but not always depending on what's going on outside, then it
won't be a problem at all.

If you can't make the commitment to do what this takes, then this is going
to take much longer and be more difficult. Your physical abilities as
well as your schedule is not the dog's fault (putting this into
perspective) And if you can't manage this, I suggested hiring a dog
walker, who can.



As for making it like your other dogs... not going to happen.

Really? I didn't think it was an unreasonable to expect a dog to go
potty shortly (read: 5 minutes or so) after they go out if they need to
go or to expect them to be able to go potty without having to be taken
on a walk to do so. Can you please explain why you think it won't
happen so I can understand your reasoning, because it almost sounds like
you are trying to say that expecting her to be completely housebroken is
an unrealistic expectation, although I might be misunderstanding you.

OK, my bad. I thought you wanted this individual to be like your two
other dogs. And didn't read the part about wanting her to have potty
habits like the two other dogs.

Yes she can be. But you know what? i can't potty on demand. I think it's
unrealistic to ask my dog to do that. I think in terms more of their
needs than my convenience.

That said... stimulating the orafices with a match stick causes just
enough temporary irritation to move things along on schedule.

Janet Boss wrote:

You can't let her do that. Tether her to you when you come back in,
take her back out in 10 minutes (or when your schedule breaks).

I tried that yesterday, and it seemed to work really well except when I
forgot. It's been a looooong week, and sometimes on Friday's I'm a
total zombie.

Do yo mind me asking what the general nature of your business is? Do
you have to be physically active or are you at a desk/on the
phone/computer?

I am on the computer doing transcription (and on the off chance that you
are asking because you are looking for an at-home job, I don't recommend
people getting into it right now, because it's a declining industry.)

Tethering to you is your friend. So are baby gates, and x-pen, etc. She
needs to be weaned from crate dependence.

My thoughts exactly about being weaned from crate dependence, but I had
never thought about tethering before. Thankfully I have an 8-foot leash
that keeps her out of the kitchen and bathroom but lets her be in half
the living room.

I'm assuming she eats scheduled meals and gets regular play sessions?

She gets breakfast at 7-8 am and dinner at 8-9 pm. She gets walked 2-3
times a day -- either the "short block" which is 1/4 mile or the "long
block" which is 1/2 mile, one of each. She enjoys playing with our
border collie in the house. She also gets 30-60 every day outside doing
whatever she wants in the front yard with one or both of the other dogs,
except that I won't be doing that once it starts raining.

--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

diddy wrote:
Melinda Meahan - take out TRASH to reply spoke
these words of wisdom in :

She gets food twice a day just like our other dogs.
that probably isn't enough for such a small dog.

I have searched all over the internet and have not found anywhere that a
dog past six months needs to be fed more than twice a day. (She also
gets an obedience session in the mid to late afternoon where she gets
bunches of treats; does that count?)

I had a Jack Russell terrier once that took me 3 months to reliably
housebreak. I was dedicated to the task. Morning noon and all night.
Tethering, regular food cycles, exercise, match sticks, crates, .. Some
dogs just take longer than others.

That's encouraging news. I read the one site that said ANY dog could be
house trained in two weeks, and I couldn't figure out what I was doing
wrong.

If you can't make the commitment to do what this takes, then this is going
to take much longer and be more difficult. Your physical abilities as
well as your schedule is not the dog's fault (putting this into
perspective) And if you can't manage this, I suggested hiring a dog
walker, who can.

What kind of commitment are you talking about?

OK, my bad. I thought you wanted this individual to be like your two
other dogs. And didn't read the part about wanting her to have potty
habits like the two other dogs.

Yes she can be. But you know what? i can't potty on demand. I think it's
unrealistic to ask my dog to do that. I think in terms more of their
needs than my convenience.

My goal for her or any of our other dogs has been that she can either
hold it for the approximaely-every-four-hours supervised outdoor breaks
(two or three of which include a walk at the end of the outdoor break)
all our dogs get or that she let me know if she needs to go before then.
Is that unreasonable? I don't think so.


--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.

Kimber wrote:
if she's done that. Melinda, if you haven't already been doing this,
when you take your dog on her hour walk and you see your dog peeing, say
the words, "go potty" (or whatever words you choose) WHILE she's peeing
so that your dog associates those words with the action.

That's what I'm working on, hoping that eventually it will click, but if
it never does, it will be okay. Our other two dogs are not trained that
way. But since she is such a social butterfly and so easily distracted,
I think it could be really helpful for her.



--
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your
work with excellence.