Stupid Pet Tricks
Filed Under (Freakin Idiot!, Grace) by Amy on 08-02-2007
I’m not sure what has happened with Grace and her bathroom habits lately, but Rob and I are frustrated to the max right now.
In the past few weeks, possibly longer, she has taken to holding her pee and poop as long as she can. We are talking 8-12 hours, during the day. She seems to have developed an aversion to going to the bathroom when we take her out. The pattern of taking her out hasn’t changed much - we used to always take her out the front door, and now we take her out back since we can actually walk out the back door and not step into a pit of mud now. Other than the door change, though, I don’t think anything has been altered. She whines at the door, we put her on the leash and take her out.
It started out with it just being a problem of her asking to go out frequently without any results. She’d just walk around and sniff. That gets old real fast, let me tell ya. I know the answer to this problem would probably be solved pretty fast if we had a fence. However, a fence is not in the budget for another few months. I’ve even tried leaving her outside on the lead, thinking she had all of the sudden contracted a case of severe modesty and didn’t want to do her business while just a mere few feet from someone who was holding onto her neck with a leash.
Until this week, the problem has mostly just been a nuisance. Everyone grumbles about having to take the dog out when we know 9 times out of 10, she’s not going to do anything out there. This week, though, things have taken a turn for the worse. She’s been holding it for longer than ever and has gotten to the point where she holds it for so long and then suddenly finds somewhere in the house where she can go in secret. I got the idea to start giving her a treat when we take her outside and she goes. I honestly thought that would be the magic trick to get her behavior turned around.
This morning I’m thinking it’s going to take more than some positive reinforcements when she goes to fix this problem. I was getting ready for work and we had the back bedroom area gated off so she was just lying in my bed while I finished getting all pretty in the bathroom. I opened the gate to get something in the living room and then went back to bathroom, forgetting to close the gate behind me. I saw her walk out into the living area, but knew I would only be a few more minutes, so I let her go. And it wasn’t more than a few minutes later that she came back into the bedroom, so I didn’t think anything of it. When I went into the bedroom to get my purse, I noticed she had a guilty look on her face, and immediately got a bad feeling. I rushed out to the living area to see what she had done. Nothing amiss in the living or family rooms. Looking down the stairs to the basement, though, was another story. I could see a nice little doody pile and a wet spot on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. UGH!!!!
I am not sure what we’re going to do about this. My first response was to rub her nose in it, but I have read in countless places that that is not the thing to do. So I didn’t do that. My next thought was that we keep her crated all day except for potty breaks until she understands she is supposed to do her business outside and outside only. And enough with the false alarm crap!
So, seasoned dog owners: lay it on me. Any words of wisdom for us? Grace is a 9 month old Chocolate Lab, for those of you who haven’t been here long. Hopefully she’ll live to see 10 months. (I kid, I kid.)
You can’t get Grace to go outside, I can’t get Snoopy to STOP scratching the door to go out!! He’s a peeing machine! We are going to the vet Saturday…I think he may have a bladder infection.
I don’t have any great wisdom for you, but I can sure feel your pain. That would make me crazy. I would ask your vet, maybe something is wrong.
Talking to the vet might not be a bad idea, and in the mean time re-crate training is probably a good idea.
recrate is an idea…and figure out if when you take her outside, you’re cutting back on the time you take her out. Rather than 6 or 7 quick walks, maybe 3 longer sessions outside. do not go back in…don’t let your patience get in the way…..is she getting less attention? Could she be seeking attention/or be spiteful? otherwise, talk to your vet
Please don’t rub her nose in it!!! That’s so sad!
Maybe try going out the front door again, until you can get a fence and a doggie door? I never had problems with my dogs going inside when there was a doggie door. Only with Doddie when we had to let her out.
Maybe you could get those pads, they sell? I don’t know how efficient they will be for an 80 lb. dog though.
Penny went through a phase like that right about the same age too, a little bit older she was closer to a year I think maybe 10 months. I could walk around outside with her for half an hour…she’d sniff and circle and do nothing. Get in the house, crap ~literally~ two minutes later. Drove me freaking insane. Went to the vet (which she hated) had her all checked out and nothing was the matter with her, she was just being difficult for no apparent reason. It was back to square one with potty training all over again, and took her about two months to get completely out of the phase. An not long after she went back to normal and being “trained” she had her first heat. I don’t know if the two incidents were related or not though.
Mrs. Fab keeps me crated all day. It just pisses me off.
Puppy pads work great for us! My dog roams free while I’m gone, and I leave a puppy pad out in case he has to go. I got my dog when he was 6 weeks old, and he took to them right away. They’ve been a real carpet saver.
Sounds like you’re doing all the right things. We’re house training a 9 week old puppy and I feel your frustration. Ours likes to go out and chew on the bushes which she’ll do for 30 minutes or more and come back on to piddle on the floor!