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Hi Teresa,
Since my last post I have sent Rue to a boarding training school that I had planned to send her to at some point for family protection training. She has been there a few days and is doing well. The trainers have boarding school dogs in their home and have had a lot of success house breaking difficult to train dogs. I am hoping they can help.
In the meantime, she does not have accidents in her crate. She is in her crate all night for 8-10 hours and has not had an accident. The vets says no UTI and does not think it is bladder control related.
She is not put in her crate as punishment but she doesn’t like to go so she is often “forced” except at night when she goes in on her own after her last potty break at 10pm every night. When I say forced I mean I have to take her collar and guide her in- she doesn’t typically fight me though she has on occasion and when she does she is aggressive and has tried to bite me. She did the same wih my son when he tried to put her in the other day. This behavior is also being addressed with he trainer at her school.
I am thinking there is definitely some anxiety for her- maybe just reflecting my anxiety about the house breaking. I am seeing little displays of aggression lately- in fact when we dropped her off with the trainer my youngest daughter hugged her and she snarled and nipped at her. She had never done anything like that before- (not while
Beig hugged I mean) she has always been just fine with the kids close to her face, hugging and touching her anywhere. I don’t know if it’s just because she wasn’t sure it was her and she was in a strange place, but it did concern the trainer. It may be part of the anxiety with house breaking, not sure. I will update once I meet with the trainers this week. She will be there 2-3 weeks depending on how she does. We meet (on the phone) for an update each week.
