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Just wanted to update-
So far no change in her. She has had three more accidents while right next to one of us, last night she peed on my couch.
I just read the section on “God dog” so I will try the can or newspaper or something like that. She has a vet appointment tomorrow to check for UTI and bladder control issues. She of course is still horrible with excited peeing and after watching her jump on the couch and squat last night, I wonder if there is a bladder control issue. At least maybe I am hoping that is it.
The accident last night was so strange. She has her own bed in our living room, a comfy pad that is on the floor, separate from her crate. It is about is 6-7 feet from the couch where my husband and I were sitting. It had been quiet, she was sleeping on her bed for about 15 or 20 minutes after coming in from playing outside with all of us. She had gone poop and pee probably around 45 minutes prior to her accident. The kids came into the room which woke her up, she got up to see them and jumped on the couch and then just squatted and peed. It was not her typical excited pee that she does mostly with me, where she does not squat but it leaks from her in smaller amounts. This was a full out squat and there was a good bit of pee. My husband grabbed her, said no and put her outside in her spot. He was pretty angry, so I can’t say it was the best correction, certainly not without emotion.
After going through the triangle I wanted to give a few more details in case anyone else some advice for me-
I will admit that attitude may be somewhat of an issue, but I honestly don’t know if that will ever change. I have been super committed to housebreaking and training because I am super committed to having a well mannered dog- and by super committed I probably should say “anxious.” Our clicker trainer has acted like my therapist in this regard and it has helped but this is sort of – me. I am not willing to have a dog who will pee on my couch, so I have some anxiety about it I think. Maybe this means I am not cutout to have a dog? Not sure.
Pack leadership stuff all seems to be in line for the most part- but we have allowed her on our bed and the couch though, only when invited. I will not be doing this anymore. She heels (most of the time) on a loose leash but will pull if my kids walk ahead of her. With me alone she’s fine. And I can’t get her to stop this. When she pulls I give a quick tug and release, she will stop for 5 seconds or so and then continue pulling.
She is very polite with food- she waits for me to give her a release before she eats. I can balance a treat on her nose for a good bit of time- she is really good with “wait.” She is never fed treats without working for them.
We are not sure whether she is a more submissive or dominant dog – we jokingly call her schizophrenic because she seems to be at both ends of the spectrum during different times. From the beginning we made her sit for affection, treats, to go out, to come in, she was taught to wait for all of us to go through doors first, and she is not allowed on furniture without being invited.
She doesn’t seem to have much separation anxiety in that she never gave us any trouble with being in the living room in her crate at night and I’ve never had her whine when we leave her in her crate to leave the house. (She will whine when she doesn’t want to go in, and in fact just fought me with planting her feet and growling at me to go in but is totally fine once she’s in. That situation was very unusual and I am clueless as to why she was so adamant about not going in this morning. I thought she was going to bite me. She curled up and went right to sleep though.) She also goes to puppy day care and has spent a couple of nights there and they tell me she has no anxiety at all. As far as being restless – I don’t see too many signs. She licks a lot and wants to wander but I am not seeing this as extreme. She just gets bored and wants to find food so she will try to wander (she is never allowed to.)
As far as housebreaking goes- she goes out about every 1-2 hours still, is either told to go to her bed when in the house or she is in her crate, or sometimes on a leash. She still has no free reign of the house and never has. I stopped training the bell as we discussed. I treat her when she goes to her spot and pees and/or poops and I praise her a lot- this is still the same. I think the only thing I changed besides the bell is that I don’t allow her to be supervised by my kids in the house anymore. If I need to leave she goes in the crate- so she goes in the crate a lot more often than she was going in before which may be why she resisted me this morning- she really doesn’t want to be in her crate.
Any thoughts?
