Howdy all! I'm having some housebreaking issues on a 15 month old
beagle/hound mix. She's a rescue dog I got from the humane society at
6 months age, and I got her spayed around that time. Her normal daily
routine is she gets up around 9am, she gets fed, a nice walk in the
park before noon, and then she enjoys loooooong naps all day. When
everyone comes home around 6pm, she gets very excited and happy, and
that's when she gets fed dinner. She loves to play in the evening,
usually with tugging toys, chasing balls, or chew toys. We're pretty
consistant about taking her out after meals and naps. She DOES
usually ask to go out, she'll either lick your face profusely or go
scratch the back door and whine.

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the house.
There are two particular areas in the house she usually goes in, one
in the downstairs foyer and the other in the upstairs hallway. I know
we're supposed to keep a close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do
her own thing. If she makes a mistake during the daytime, it's
usually during naptime. She loves to nap in one of the bedrooms by
herself, but then occasionally she'll sneak downstairs, pees, then
goes back up to resume her napping. However she's more than likely to
make a mistake in the evening time. We usually feed her dinner first,
take her outside to poo and pee, then we eat. She'll either pee while
we're eating, or she'll pee later in the evening when we're all
watching tv and she's playing by herself. Around 7pm, she has a
tendancy to want to go outsie a LOT, around twice an hour. Sometimes
she has something to pee, sometimes she doesn't, and it's usually
after she doesn't go that she ends up making a mistake inside.

I had her checked out by the vet around 2 months ago and they treated
her for a urinary infection. She was on medication for around 3
weeks, and during the first week the meds really fixed her problem of
asking to go out frequenty at night. But by the end of the pills, she
was back to her old self and the vet said she was completely clear of
all infections.

Anyway does anyone have some advice for me? Please let me know if you
need any more info! Thanks

Jason Wong said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the
house. There are two particular areas in the house she
usually goes in, one in the downstairs foyer and the other
in the upstairs hallway. I know we're supposed to keep a
close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do her own thing.

You can continue to let her do her own thing, just take her out
more often instead of waiting for her to tell you - put her a
schedule that fits your schedule and she'll adapt to it.
Meanwhile, clean up her favourite pee spots with an enzymatic
cleaner like Nature's Miracle.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Jason Wong said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the
house. There are two particular areas in the house she
usually goes in, one in the downstairs foyer and the other
in the upstairs hallway. I know we're supposed to keep a
close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do her own thing.

You can continue to let her do her own thing, just take her out
more often instead of waiting for her to tell you - put her a
schedule that fits your schedule and she'll adapt to it.
Meanwhile, clean up her favourite pee spots with an enzymatic
cleaner like Nature's Miracle.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

Jason Wong said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the
house. There are two particular areas in the house she
usually goes in, one in the downstairs foyer and the other
in the upstairs hallway. I know we're supposed to keep a
close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do her own thing.

You can continue to let her do her own thing, just take her out
more often instead of waiting for her to tell you - put her a
schedule that fits your schedule and she'll adapt to it.
Meanwhile, clean up her favourite pee spots with an enzymatic
cleaner like Nature's Miracle.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

I just picked up a UV light for detecting old pee stains from PetSmart
and I tell you it's like giving sight to a blind man! There are
actually FOUR places in the house that are littered with old pee
stains. I forgot to mention that I've gone through a myriad of
commercial urine removers, including the home recipe of diluted
vinegar and baking soda. But the last brand I landed on seems to work
really well, it's called Simple Solution. Looks like the first
application doesn't fully remove the stain, but after looking with the
UV light I found that a second application pretty much got it all out.
So hopefully if I clean up all her old stains really well she might
be less inclined to repeat her mistakes indoors.

Any other suggestions?

I just picked up a UV light for detecting old pee stains from PetSmart
and I tell you it's like giving sight to a blind man! There are
actually FOUR places in the house that are littered with old pee
stains. I forgot to mention that I've gone through a myriad of
commercial urine removers, including the home recipe of diluted
vinegar and baking soda. But the last brand I landed on seems to work
really well, it's called Simple Solution. Looks like the first
application doesn't fully remove the stain, but after looking with the
UV light I found that a second application pretty much got it all out.
So hopefully if I clean up all her old stains really well she might
be less inclined to repeat her mistakes indoors.

Any other suggestions?

I just picked up a UV light for detecting old pee stains from PetSmart
and I tell you it's like giving sight to a blind man! There are
actually FOUR places in the house that are littered with old pee
stains. I forgot to mention that I've gone through a myriad of
commercial urine removers, including the home recipe of diluted
vinegar and baking soda. But the last brand I landed on seems to work
really well, it's called Simple Solution. Looks like the first
application doesn't fully remove the stain, but after looking with the
UV light I found that a second application pretty much got it all out.
So hopefully if I clean up all her old stains really well she might
be less inclined to repeat her mistakes indoors.

Any other suggestions?

On 29 Mar 2004 09:19:37 -0800 Jason Wong whittled these words:

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the house.
There are two particular areas in the house she usually goes in, one
in the downstairs foyer and the other in the upstairs hallway. I know
we're supposed to keep a close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do
her own thing.

If you want to change her pattern of behavior you will have to commit to
a period of time of not allowing her to make mistakes regardless of what
she wants. Its a matter of deciding whether it is more important to you:
that she develop the habit of NEVER relieving herself indoors, or letting
her do her own thing and living with dog pee in the house.

If she makes a mistake during the daytime, it's
usually during naptime. She loves to nap in one of the bedrooms by
herself, but then occasionally she'll sneak downstairs, pees, then
goes back up to resume her napping.

Take out a calendar. Commit to six months of keeping doors closed or
baby gates in place and controlling where she can go. She's not a puppy
and sounds like she basically knows she can ask to go out but hasn't
found a need to develop the habit of doing that. To change things you
need to make going in the house less convenient to her. So don't let her
wander off by herself for a while. Build the habit of going outside and
embed it before slowly giving her more freedom.

However she's more than likely to
make a mistake in the evening time. We usually feed her dinner first,
take her outside to poo and pee, then we eat. She'll either pee while
we're eating, or she'll pee later in the evening when we're all
watching tv and she's playing by herself. Around 7pm, she has a
tendancy to want to go outsie a LOT, around twice an hour. Sometimes
she has something to pee, sometimes she doesn't, and it's usually
after she doesn't go that she ends up making a mistake inside.

She has too much space. She doesn't see those rooms as part of her
living area. The more she spends time in a room occupied by humans and
prevented from going into unoccupied areas the less likely she will
continue relieving herself indoors. To increase her area you need the
new area to be "lived in" by you. So make sure you all hang out there,
reading, watching TV, and feed her in the new area to make it feel like
living quarters. But don't increase her area until she has been error
free when under supervision for at least two weeks.

I had her checked out by the vet around 2 months ago and they treated
her for a urinary infection. She was on medication for around 3
weeks, and during the first week the meds really fixed her problem of
asking to go out frequenty at night. But by the end of the pills, she
was back to her old self and the vet said she was completely clear of
all infections.

It is common for behavior problems that started as medical ones to
develop into patterns of behavior. Change the opportunity to engage in
the unwanted behavior. Create a new set of behavior patterns by
management. Lots of dogs do well by following developed habits and my
bet she is one of them.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html

On 29 Mar 2004 09:19:37 -0800 Jason Wong whittled these words:

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the house.
There are two particular areas in the house she usually goes in, one
in the downstairs foyer and the other in the upstairs hallway. I know
we're supposed to keep a close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do
her own thing.

If you want to change her pattern of behavior you will have to commit to
a period of time of not allowing her to make mistakes regardless of what
she wants. Its a matter of deciding whether it is more important to you:
that she develop the habit of NEVER relieving herself indoors, or letting
her do her own thing and living with dog pee in the house.

If she makes a mistake during the daytime, it's
usually during naptime. She loves to nap in one of the bedrooms by
herself, but then occasionally she'll sneak downstairs, pees, then
goes back up to resume her napping.

Take out a calendar. Commit to six months of keeping doors closed or
baby gates in place and controlling where she can go. She's not a puppy
and sounds like she basically knows she can ask to go out but hasn't
found a need to develop the habit of doing that. To change things you
need to make going in the house less convenient to her. So don't let her
wander off by herself for a while. Build the habit of going outside and
embed it before slowly giving her more freedom.

However she's more than likely to
make a mistake in the evening time. We usually feed her dinner first,
take her outside to poo and pee, then we eat. She'll either pee while
we're eating, or she'll pee later in the evening when we're all
watching tv and she's playing by herself. Around 7pm, she has a
tendancy to want to go outsie a LOT, around twice an hour. Sometimes
she has something to pee, sometimes she doesn't, and it's usually
after she doesn't go that she ends up making a mistake inside.

She has too much space. She doesn't see those rooms as part of her
living area. The more she spends time in a room occupied by humans and
prevented from going into unoccupied areas the less likely she will
continue relieving herself indoors. To increase her area you need the
new area to be "lived in" by you. So make sure you all hang out there,
reading, watching TV, and feed her in the new area to make it feel like
living quarters. But don't increase her area until she has been error
free when under supervision for at least two weeks.

I had her checked out by the vet around 2 months ago and they treated
her for a urinary infection. She was on medication for around 3
weeks, and during the first week the meds really fixed her problem of
asking to go out frequenty at night. But by the end of the pills, she
was back to her old self and the vet said she was completely clear of
all infections.

It is common for behavior problems that started as medical ones to
develop into patterns of behavior. Change the opportunity to engage in
the unwanted behavior. Create a new set of behavior patterns by
management. Lots of dogs do well by following developed habits and my
bet she is one of them.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html

On 29 Mar 2004 09:19:37 -0800 Jason Wong whittled these words:

But still, every day she manages to sneak a pee inside the house.
There are two particular areas in the house she usually goes in, one
in the downstairs foyer and the other in the upstairs hallway. I know
we're supposed to keep a close eye on her, but this dog enjoys to do
her own thing.

If you want to change her pattern of behavior you will have to commit to
a period of time of not allowing her to make mistakes regardless of what
she wants. Its a matter of deciding whether it is more important to you:
that she develop the habit of NEVER relieving herself indoors, or letting
her do her own thing and living with dog pee in the house.

If she makes a mistake during the daytime, it's
usually during naptime. She loves to nap in one of the bedrooms by
herself, but then occasionally she'll sneak downstairs, pees, then
goes back up to resume her napping.

Take out a calendar. Commit to six months of keeping doors closed or
baby gates in place and controlling where she can go. She's not a puppy
and sounds like she basically knows she can ask to go out but hasn't
found a need to develop the habit of doing that. To change things you
need to make going in the house less convenient to her. So don't let her
wander off by herself for a while. Build the habit of going outside and
embed it before slowly giving her more freedom.

However she's more than likely to
make a mistake in the evening time. We usually feed her dinner first,
take her outside to poo and pee, then we eat. She'll either pee while
we're eating, or she'll pee later in the evening when we're all
watching tv and she's playing by herself. Around 7pm, she has a
tendancy to want to go outsie a LOT, around twice an hour. Sometimes
she has something to pee, sometimes she doesn't, and it's usually
after she doesn't go that she ends up making a mistake inside.

She has too much space. She doesn't see those rooms as part of her
living area. The more she spends time in a room occupied by humans and
prevented from going into unoccupied areas the less likely she will
continue relieving herself indoors. To increase her area you need the
new area to be "lived in" by you. So make sure you all hang out there,
reading, watching TV, and feed her in the new area to make it feel like
living quarters. But don't increase her area until she has been error
free when under supervision for at least two weeks.

I had her checked out by the vet around 2 months ago and they treated
her for a urinary infection. She was on medication for around 3
weeks, and during the first week the meds really fixed her problem of
asking to go out frequenty at night. But by the end of the pills, she
was back to her old self and the vet said she was completely clear of
all infections.

It is common for behavior problems that started as medical ones to
develop into patterns of behavior. Change the opportunity to engage in
the unwanted behavior. Create a new set of behavior patterns by
management. Lots of dogs do well by following developed habits and my
bet she is one of them.

--
Diane Blackman
http://dog-play.com/
http://dog-play.com/shop2.html