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Housetraining experiment



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 15th 07, 03:50 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Paula
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Posts: 1,726
Default Housetraining experiment

One of my daughter's friends got a maltese puppy that they have been
having a hard time housebreaking. I was talking to the mom and she says
that the puppy will go outside when taken outside and usually on pee pads
if shut in the bathroom with a pee pad (though not always), but when
wandering around loose, goes wherever. Pretty typical for an unwatched
puppy. But the real problem came up when they recently went on a trip to
Arizona. There was no grass at the house there. The dog would hold it
as long as they were outside and then come in and pee in the house. She
had thought it would be easier there since they would be outside in the
pool so much. Valentina has a definite preference for grass when at home
and going outside in their yard which has some grass, some dirt, some
rock and some concrete. Her second choice is carpet.

I recently had some artificial grass put in the front yard and have some
scraps of it in the garage. So I cut her a piece of it and told her to
try putting it in one of those dog litter pans that they have at places
like Petsmart for the dog litter systems with a pee pad underneath it (it
has holes in it for water to go through to the dirt underneath so it
would need something underneath it) to see if Valentina would do better
with something that is like grass than a pee pad in the house. (The
biggest problem in the house is kids letting her out to play and not
watching her for signs that she has to go. Knowing the family, training
the kids won't happen before they just dump the dog, unfortunately.)

So then I heard that Scooter was able to be picked up from my vet's
office, but would need to take it easy for a while. He is still kind of
weak, has kennel cough and infected flea bites and is recovering from
being pretty dehydrated and underweight. So the recommendation of the
vet was to free feed and water him but he is a little puppy with a little
bladder. I decided to try out housetraining him to both outside and the
grass pad in a litter box inside to get around the fact that I lack sleep
already and don't want him to get or keep bad habits. I had heard that
he would pee in a crate and sleep in it. Having been stuck outside
covered in fleas and ticks without enough water or food, I guess living
in filth as well shouldn't surprise me. So he sleeps on my bed and
whenever he gets up, I plop him down on the floor to the litter pan grass
area and tell him to go potty and get all excited when he does go potty.
During the day, I carry him out and have him go potty on the real grass
in the backyard when it isn't too hot. He has caught on really quickly.
I have taken the litter box into the tv room when we are watching tv so
that I can ask him periodically if he has to go potty and direct him over
to it to go.

No accidents since Thursday except for when he peed outside the box on
accident. His feet were in but his behind was poking out so the pee
landed out. I count that as a housetraining success, though, because he
was trying to do the right thing. In fact, he had been roaming in the tv
room and went over to the box to go potty when he had to go! He does
that all the time now. When he needs to go, he goes to the grass box if
inside, squats down and does his business and then gets out and goes
about his business, which is usually lying around on the cool floor or on
a lap. It has been over a hundred degrees outside during the day, so it
has been really nice for both of us not to have to make a lot of trips
out there waiting for him to get the idea and go during the day as well
as saving trips up and down the stairs at night.

I'll have to ask Valentina's family how she is doing. If they have
excuses for not trying the grass patch, maybe Scooter's success story
will convince them to give it a try. I have to be careful talking to the
woman, though, since she was the one who wanted to breed Valentina to
Sammie when she first got her so that she could sell Maltipoo puppies.
When I told her that Sammie was not equipped for the task because I
didn't want to add to the dog overpopulation problem, she told me that
the pet store she bought her dog from had "warned" her not to get a dog
from rescue because they fixed them all and then you couldn't make your
money back on your dog. Since her daughter and mine are friends, I have
to be careful what I say, but it can be trying at times.

Paula
  #2  
Old July 15th 07, 04:58 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
filly
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Posts: 5
Default Housetraining experiment


"Paula" wrote in message
9.11...
(snip)
So he sleeps on my bed and
whenever he gets up, I plop him down on the floor to the litter pan grass
area and tell him to go potty and get all excited when he does go potty.
During the day, I carry him out and have him go potty on the real grass
in the backyard when it isn't too hot. He has caught on really quickly.
I have taken the litter box into the tv room when we are watching tv so
that I can ask him periodically if he has to go potty and direct him over
to it to go.

No accidents since Thursday except for when he peed outside the box on
accident. His feet were in but his behind was poking out so the pee
landed out. I count that as a housetraining success, though, because he
was trying to do the right thing. In fact, he had been roaming in the tv
room and went over to the box to go potty when he had to go! He does
that all the time now. When he needs to go, he goes to the grass box if
inside, squats down and does his business and then gets out and goes
about his business, which is usually lying around on the cool floor or on
a lap. It has been over a hundred degrees outside during the day, so it
has been really nice for both of us not to have to make a lot of trips
out there waiting for him to get the idea and go during the day as well
as saving trips up and down the stairs at night.

(snip)

That is very creative thinking. I believe you might have a money making
solution to a problem that is so vexing for so many. I wonder if someone
makes some sort of biodegradeable artificial turf...
filly


  #3  
Old July 15th 07, 03:42 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Lynne
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Posts: 2,609
Default Housetraining experiment

on Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:50:11 GMT, Paula wrote:

So then I heard that Scooter was able to be picked up from my vet's
office


I was hoping you would go with the name Swiffer.

That artificial grass idea was brilliant!

We finally had a full night of sleep with Hendrix last night. I think he's
starting to understand this house training business. This morning he ran
to the back door. Unfortunately, I just stained the deck so I had to carry
him to the front door, but he walked about 20 feet away from me, did his
business and then ran back to me for lots of praise. No accidents in the
house since day 2, but then again, he's never out of anyone's sight.

He's also settling himself in his crate now, where at first we would only
put him in when he was already asleep. Puppies are so darn smart! I hope
Swiffer, er, Scooter starts feeling better soon.

--
Lynne
  #4  
Old July 15th 07, 04:27 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Rocky
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Posts: 1,678
Default Housetraining experiment

Lynne said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

We finally had a full night of sleep with Hendrix last night.


Tonight was May's first full night, too. Though, when I woke at
3am, I thought I'd better take her out to pee. After 10 minutes
of her just wanting to follow me around and then lay down, we
went back to bed and she slept another 5 hours. She's 8 weeks
old today!

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.
  #5  
Old July 15th 07, 04:32 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Melinda Shore
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Posts: 7,732
Default Housetraining experiment

In article ,
Rocky wrote:
Lynne said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:
We finally had a full night of sleep with Hendrix last night.

Tonight was May's first full night, too.


If you two make it look too easy you'll be removing barriers
to puppy acquisition. Emmett didn't start sleeping through
the night until he was about six months old, but that was
almost entirely about him wanting to go out and play in the
middle of the night.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community
  #7  
Old July 15th 07, 04:52 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Lynne
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Posts: 2,609
Default Housetraining experiment

on Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:27:05 GMT, Rocky wrote:

Tonight was May's first full night, too. Though, when I woke at
3am, I thought I'd better take her out to pee. After 10 minutes
of her just wanting to follow me around and then lay down, we
went back to bed and she slept another 5 hours. She's 8 weeks
old today!


Aw, man... my sleep deprived brain wants to call foul! But that's really
awesome.

--
Lynne
  #8  
Old July 15th 07, 06:17 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
MauiJNP
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Posts: 1,405
Default Housetraining experiment

If you two make it look too easy you'll be removing barriers
to puppy acquisition. Emmett didn't start sleeping through
the night until he was about six months old, but that was
almost entirely about him wanting to go out and play in the
middle of the night.


Heh. I'm certainly not going to assume that May's going to make
it through every night based upon one incident. Rocky was 16
weeks old before he was confortable through the night.


no fair, Cali is almost 2 and she still wakes up *every* night to go out
potty.


  #10  
Old July 16th 07, 03:37 AM posted to rec.pets.dogs.behavior
Paula
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Posts: 1,726
Default Housetraining experiment

Lynne wrote in
. 97.142:

I was hoping you would go with the name Swiffer.


We all laughed so hard we almost had housetraining accidents of our own
when we read the Swiffer suggestion, but we just couldn't do it. He
ended up being Scooter because it just fits. He's kind of a dork and he
has short little legs and not much energy so he looks like he is scooting
instead of walking. This is especially noticeable when he is next to
Sammie, who is sporting a super short haircut so he looks like he is all
legs. Scooter also doesn't sound like any of the other dogs' names so he
can differentiate it easily.

The girls mostly call him Sdooder. It's a combination of Scooter and
Little Dude.

He seems to be feeling better every day. Today he actually got up off
the floor to steal Sammie's cell phone when Sammie wandered off and left
it unattended. If Sammie loves it, it must be cool.

Paula
 




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