Hi Everyone,
I stumbled on this site and found the information and support on this site to be very informative, so I thought I would join.
I have a situation with my puppy (Kara Zor-El... I call her Kara). I am at my wit's end with house training. Let me describe the situation and if you have any advice please help...I am so afraid that I will end up having the most obedient dog...who still poops and pees in the house
So...Kara gets fed in the morning at around 6:30 (I do take her out right before eating and it's usually a number 1). Then we go upstairs and I take a shower. After I get ready for work, I take her on a short 10-15 minute walk and after the walk she number 2s...she doesn't number 1 again). Then, I gate her in the kitchen and leave for work (7:50am ish).
Time for some background info...so I've been looking at this website by a well-known animal behaviourist who says he doesn't recomment crates for house training. He doesn't say they're bad, but he feels that house training in a kitchen (or a confined room) is better. This suited me just fine b/c she constantly peed in her crate.
The first week in the kitchen (with the exception of the first day) she was wonderful. Every week after, there is always poop or pee or both. I use Nature's Miracle to clean up the area. The animal behaviourist, in his book, says that if your puppy makes a mistake, sop up the pee and/or pick up the poop and take your puppy with the pee and poop into a more confined area (I use my 1/2 bathroom) and place the pup in there for 20 mminutes with the mess, returning every 10 minutes to say "No!" The behaviourist's rationale is that the puppy should learn that Peeing or Pooping anywhere in the house isn't allowed, which kinda makes sense to me. However, this doesn't appear to really be getting the point across as she still pees and poops.
I work full time. All my time outside of work is devoted to Kara. I can only come home at ~12pm to let her out and I stay with her for an hour and then I come back to work. I know the rule of thumb is your puppy needs to go out once every X hours (x = how old your pup is in months, Kara = 3 months). I can't do that, though, without risk of losing my job. All my firends work the same hours that I do, so asking them to help out is out of the question.
When she hits 5 months, she should be able to hold it for at least five hours, but with all the pooping and peeing she is doing in the kitchen, will I be reinforcing that it's okay for her to go in the house (since I can't do anything about it b/c I'm at work)? I've even thought about trying to set up a webcam at my house so I can spy on her from work and record the times that she is going to the bathroom so I can try and take an earlier break to take her out.
What would you all recommend? I love my puppy and I will deal with this no matter what, but after a stressful day at work I would much rather take my pup to a park immediately, than clean up her mess and place it in the bathrrom with her for 20 minutes as punsihment.
I stumbled on this site and found the information and support on this site to be very informative, so I thought I would join.
I have a situation with my puppy (Kara Zor-El... I call her Kara). I am at my wit's end with house training. Let me describe the situation and if you have any advice please help...I am so afraid that I will end up having the most obedient dog...who still poops and pees in the house
So...Kara gets fed in the morning at around 6:30 (I do take her out right before eating and it's usually a number 1). Then we go upstairs and I take a shower. After I get ready for work, I take her on a short 10-15 minute walk and after the walk she number 2s...she doesn't number 1 again). Then, I gate her in the kitchen and leave for work (7:50am ish).
Time for some background info...so I've been looking at this website by a well-known animal behaviourist who says he doesn't recomment crates for house training. He doesn't say they're bad, but he feels that house training in a kitchen (or a confined room) is better. This suited me just fine b/c she constantly peed in her crate.
The first week in the kitchen (with the exception of the first day) she was wonderful. Every week after, there is always poop or pee or both. I use Nature's Miracle to clean up the area. The animal behaviourist, in his book, says that if your puppy makes a mistake, sop up the pee and/or pick up the poop and take your puppy with the pee and poop into a more confined area (I use my 1/2 bathroom) and place the pup in there for 20 mminutes with the mess, returning every 10 minutes to say "No!" The behaviourist's rationale is that the puppy should learn that Peeing or Pooping anywhere in the house isn't allowed, which kinda makes sense to me. However, this doesn't appear to really be getting the point across as she still pees and poops.
I work full time. All my time outside of work is devoted to Kara. I can only come home at ~12pm to let her out and I stay with her for an hour and then I come back to work. I know the rule of thumb is your puppy needs to go out once every X hours (x = how old your pup is in months, Kara = 3 months). I can't do that, though, without risk of losing my job. All my firends work the same hours that I do, so asking them to help out is out of the question.
When she hits 5 months, she should be able to hold it for at least five hours, but with all the pooping and peeing she is doing in the kitchen, will I be reinforcing that it's okay for her to go in the house (since I can't do anything about it b/c I'm at work)? I've even thought about trying to set up a webcam at my house so I can spy on her from work and record the times that she is going to the bathroom so I can try and take an earlier break to take her out.
What would you all recommend? I love my puppy and I will deal with this no matter what, but after a stressful day at work I would much rather take my pup to a park immediately, than clean up her mess and place it in the bathrrom with her for 20 minutes as punsihment.