potty problems and medical issues

Hello all. I just got a new foster. She is a return that we adopted out about 6 months ago. Her people are returning her because they can't potty train her. They say they have tried everything, and after meeting with them it sounds like they were pretty competent, although you never know what someone else means when they say she was let out "a lot."

Anyway. I asked if they had her tested for a UTI and they said no. There is no blood in her urine and she CAN hold it for a long time. She has never wet in her crate. I am still going to get a sample and bring it to my vet, just in case.

I am wondering if there are any other physical problems that could be causing this. They say she seems to be pretty random in her accidents - she would be outside for a long time and then come in and pee, and other times she wouldn't have any accidents, and then suddenly accidents all over the place - but she slept in a crate at night and has never wet her crate and will ask to get out if she has to go.

Her original owners turned her in the first time for the same problem. Yet the original foster home didn't have any trouble with her - but they have a doggie door.

I have only had her for part of a day and she hasn't had accidents yet, but she has been either outside or in her crate or lying smooshed up against me so she hasn't really had a chance. I am also letting her out like every 15 minutes, LOL. She is a very shy dog and keeps running to her crate to hide. They said she was like that at their house too, but was making slow progress. She does come up to me or my son and likes to sit with us. It seems to be noises or fast movement that freak her out, but no submissive urination or anything.

Any ideas? If I can't get her trained in a couple weeks, I will try to get her in a foster home with a doggie door and see if that works. If so, she will just have to go to a home with a doggie door!

 

hmmm, dont know of on this one. this months WDj has reference to past articles on new puppy survinval guide and there is an article from december 01 called pees and Cues yo might want ot look at.


one thing it also said I told mike is when tried and true approaches dont work, dont persist in hammering that square peg into a round hole. tryo to adopt the approach to that need.

one thing if the test comes back negatvie is maybe she is slow like mentally, she has trouble remembering the concept. or maybe like you alwasy say start as if they were a pul, so tethered to yo uwhile you are home.

interesting on the dog door thing. we have one and I normally keep it closed at night and then for awhile I kept it open and Jake caught on and was going out at night, usually to get a drink out of the pool and cool down. I started clsoing it again and he had to learn he was not going oursideat night just to put his toes int eh pool and get a drink.

cant wait until delauk comes back she always has good advice

 

Oh, I will definitely tether her to me. My plan is to watch her CONSTANTLY, let her out every 15 minutes or so to start with, go out with her and make sure she goes and praise and treat her for going, tether her to me if I need to leave the room, and crate her when I can't watch her. Fun! :roll:

Her owners also said she ONLY peed on carpet - never on a hardwood or linoleum floor, etc. They say they cleaned the carpet well and she never went in the same place twice. I'm wondering if she is just used to going on that surface. Although she goes quite easily outside on the grass.

I was highly suspecting a UTI last night because she seemed to pee in such tiny amounts, until I realized she was afraid to drink out of the water bowl so she probably didn't have anything left to pee! I fed her and gave her a bowl of water while in her crate this morning and she ate and drank right away. I think she only feels safe when she is in her crate.

 

I found an EXCELLENT page on potty training that I am going to refer people to rather than type it all out myself every time. It's at: http://www.dogtrainingbasics.com/Potty Training Basics.htm

And I liked this sentence very much:

Hmmmm. I wonder if Genie's owners ever caught her in the act and corrected her right away? They said she is "sneaky" and doesn't do it right in front of them, and I immediately told them I would be tethering her to me so that couldn't happen. I guess they never thought of that??

And then there is this one:

Good stuff!

 

I agree about it really helps catching them in the act to help them learn not to do it in the house. I wonder if she also equates the feel of the carpet with grass. please post a pic

 

Well, where is my head?! :lol:









Supposedly her mom is a Yorkie/Pom and her dad is an english springer spaniel. Go figure...

 

what a pretty dog, she looks kind of like lady in lady and the tramp

 

Yes, I think she is quite lovely! She's shorter than my dogs, but a little stockier, though it's hard to tell with all the fur.

 

Hey she's a cutie! My dogs have urinary issues and they will pee on anything...interesting she only pees on carpet. Maybe she thinks it weird grass? OR what were her previous owners using to clean it up with? I swear I've used everything under the sun and nothing really works. And we all here know the details here on cleaning up pee, but they might not have.

I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this, but um, I personally think it's bad that she was given up due to potty breaking issues. She doesn't really look all that young either...or is the white around her mouth deceiving? Three of my four animals have peeing issues and two are medical related. If I had tossed them out, who knows what would have happend to them. Now the cat is another issue for the other board :roll: But I would never, ever have given them up for those reasons. I like what honeybears said about putting a square peg in a round hole. I just live with wee wee pads down most of the time. I guess that's my square peg.

 

She is adorable she looks one of those stuffed teddys very cute.

I agree i dont like the idea they gave her up because she had accidents, Gosh some days with Ice and her chewing i think to myself is this really worth it but i could never part with her she is a part of the family now.

Could you imagen if all the parents of children that took months to learn to go potty got rid of there kids there would be loads of abandoned kids around lol....

I was brought up to learn if i get a pet its my responsability to train the animal and put up with the accidents till they learn.

Mike

 

I certainly would never have given her up, but I'd rather take her back than have them get angry with her.

Coppersmom, she is only a year and a half old.

I just think they weren't watching her enough. Probably her first people, whoever they were (I wasn't with the group when she was with us 6 months ago), didn't either. Perhaps she just didn't catch on as fast as some and they gave up. But so far, she has been fine here.

BUT I have her in my sights at all times, or she is outside or in her crate. I tethered her to the kitchen table while we ate dinner and when my daughter did homework, and right now she is curled up in front of the couch where my son is watching TV.

At her other foster home 6 months ago, she never had a problem. They have a doggie door so she could go out whenever she wanted to.

The way her owners said she was "sneaky" with it leads me to believe she was punished for peeing but she didn't understand what she had done wrong. And if they KNEW she was sneaky, they should not have let her wander off! For pete's sake.

When these things happen, I just tell myself she is better off with me and the home I will find her.

 

has she had any accidents so far?? oops and whats her name?

 

Her name is Genie, and so far she has NOT had any accidents. I haven't given her the chance to, though. She goes out several times an hour. I watch her constantly and if she starts to wander around the room or sniff or circle, she goes out. If it has been more than 20-30 minutes, I take her out. If I go to the bathroom, she comes with me. If I have to go downstairs to tend to laundry, she goes in her crate or outside.

She is a very shy dog, so she often is in her crate by choice. In that case, I just shut the door if I have to leave for a couple minutes. I have also tethered her to the kitchen table if I am going to be working in the kitchen.

Tonight and tomorrow I will start letting her go a bit longer and see if she is inclined to have an accident, or if she will go stand at the door. She has stood at the door before, but I don't know if she had to pee or if she just wanted to play.

I have been lazy and not taking her out on leash and putting a command to it, so I am going to try to be better about that. But so far, so good...

Oh! And she played with Nala this morning! She loves to be outside, but mostly she just hides behind a bush or explores the perimeter of the yard. But this morning I heard a bark that wasn't either of my dogs so I looked out the window and there she was, inviting Nala to play with a bow, and off they went playing chase!

 

genie, what a pretty name


"I have been lazy and not taking her out on leash and putting a command to it, so I am going to try to be better about that. But so far, so good... :

I thinks this is the trick to really get her to understand concept of peeing outside event though she has had no accidents, since you are not giving her the opportuniy, I think if the opportunity arises she just may go int eh house. Now do you have carpet where she hangs out? since it seemed she only went on carpet?

good luck

 

She is very pretty. If anyone can get her on track its you. Best of luck with her.

Maybe they did and that is why she is "sneaky" about it.


In my opinion, a dog does not need to be caught in the act and corrected to learn where not to go...there are far too many places not to go for this to be feasible. And since dogs are poor generalizers, correcting a dog for eliminating on the dining room rug once would not teach the dog not to eliminate on the couch, the bed, the hardwood floor, in the car, in the pet supply store, on the concrete sidewalk or any of the other various surfaces you do not wish the dog to use as a toilet.

Successful potty training involves surface preference and habit forming. We choose a surface in which we want the dog to eliminate on and we reinforce her elimination there (while preventing her from going on other surfaces) so that going on this surface becomes habit and is preferred to other surfaces.

More often than not, corrections seem to cause dogs to become sneaky about eliminating in the house. For this reason I don't really beleive that corrections (even if caught in the act) teach a dog that its wrong to go in the house and may actually lead to other problems.
Just my thoughts on the subject.

 

Yep, she is on carpet. When she gets up in the morning, she goes straight for the back door. There are other times she has stood near it as well, although she's a little tricky because she's so nervous she will be very undecisive about where she wants to be. It's like she hears something that scares her, so she runs to me, and then she thinks she should check it out so she goes halfway, then back to me, then starts toward her crate, then back to the noise, wait no too scary better go to my crate, or wait maybe mommy....poor girl.

But still no accidents. Today I will start leaving her for very short times. Like this morning I left her for about a minute as I went downstairs to feed the cats.

Nern, you may be correct. I also suspect it depends on the individual dog, as do most things. It probably depends on the "correction" as well. I just startle them, hustle them outside, and then praise if they finish there. But mostly I do what you say - condition them to want to go on a certain surface and not give them the opportunity to make mistakes. And I look for them to ASK to go outside, rather than just letting it go if no one happens to be watching them at the moment.

 

I agree and this is what I did as well.

 

The fact that she pees within a minute of going outside seems to me that she knows what she is out there for. I wonder sometimes if when she is inside and wanders off and then comes back and goes back and forth a few times if she is thinking of sneaking off to potty but can't go to a different room so she decides not to, LOL. I really think if her people had not allowed her to sneak off to another room, they could have solved this.

This evening we were going out to dinner. Usually I just point to her crate and she darts right in, but she hesitated this time. So I opened the back door and she went out and pottied. Hmmmm. Maybe there was something about her people's house that bothered her??

 

Could be. Possibly with her being so sensitive something outside frightened her or maybe she just did'nt know how to let them know she needed to go outside. Glad to hear you are having progress with her so far.

 

This morning while I was eating breakfast, she was hesitant to come in the kitchen - different floor surface and all. So she was sort of pacing, but the back door is right there also. So she kept going near the door then back to stare at me, so I asked her if she wanted to go outside and she danced for me. Yay!!