Re-potty training my BLIND DOG

[howangcturtle]

My 8 years old Pomeranian are recently affected by SARDS .Obviously became blind......

Before having SARDS :
Goes to pee outside except durring bedtime,where she goes down the livingroom and pee at a pee-mat.

After having SARDs:
Since she's afriad of the stairs,she'd only go down if I go down,so instead I closed my room door where she usually sleeps at night. Takes her to pee outside before bed(9:30pm) and until i wake up(7:10am, 8:30 weekends). Then outside again in the morning.

PROBLEM:
Here's the problem,she seems to be more comfortable with places now,and she would have accidents IN my room,So i gave my parents decided that my plan don't work. So instead i'd OPEN my door,so she could roam around UPSTAIRS when we all sleep. And today's the 2nd day,she made an accident again,upstairs.

What should I do? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP,very urgent

PLEASE help me with her,she's really been all i asked for except for the potty training part =.= . but we've both made major adjustments ever since =(

 

[Tankstar]

Do you have another dog? Blind dogs can learn from seeing dogs, lots will act as seeing eye dogs for the blind ones.
If not. Start training all over again teach her where her peepads are. Kinda like having a puppy all over again. Dont move things around. She may not ever rego down the stairs alone, so if not I would just have the pee pads upstairs, keep the down staors ones inthe same place she knows.

Our dog went blind. But luckily we had 2 other dogs at the time (CJ the blind dog and the other 2 dogs are now over the bridge) she was blind for 6 years and learned easily. It jus takes some time. be pateint

 

[howangcturtle]

She does know where the pee pad is.Since durring school/work time in the morning she's alone in the house and she stays downstairs and pees on the pee mat. I didn't want to have another pee mat upstairs ......

Would it help if i change her eating/drinking habits. Right now she gets her water dish until 8pm ,and a big bowl of foood in the morning everyday

Thanks for your help =)

PS: she doesn't have another dog,however she DID from her previous owner

 

[MafiaPrincess]

If she's afraid to go down the stairs, I doubt you really have a choice. If the downstairs one work during the day, and you are getting accidents upstairs at night because she isn't going down the stairs. You either have to change the routine and force her to stay downstairs at night. Or you have to add a pad to upstairs for night time as she isn't going down stairs to use the one provided.

 

[howangcturtle]

To what MafiaPrincess said, that would be what im going to do as plan B haha(put her downstairs at night) . But she doesn't get her accidents frequently though,today for example.... So im sure there's still a way.

Is there anything i can do before i go to plan B? Schdedule of water/food given, pee time etc.

 

[lizzybeth727]

You could try taking her out later at night and earlier in the morning, so she doesn't have to hold it as long - 8-9 hours is about all I'd expect a Pom to be able to hold it.

As far as food and water, you could try taking the water away 4 hours before bed - unless she's exercising a lot or gets hot and needs water, of course. As far as food, "free feeding" (leaving the food down all the time) is not a great way to feed. You can't really control how much she's eating, so it's a lot more likely she'll gain weight. Also she needs to learn that all good things come from you, and that includes food. I'd suggest feeding her 2 meals per day, one first thing in the morning and another at least 4 hours before bed. Leave the food bowl down for about 15 minutes, and then pick up whatever's still in the bowl after the 15 minutes. She'll learn pretty quickly to eat it all, and that too will help regulate when she needs to potty.

You could also try crate training her, basically teaching her that her crate is a fun, comfortable place to be, and in such a small area it's less likely she'll potty in the crate.

 

[howangcturtle]

Good ideas. about the crate thing. i actually have some questions

When i first picked her up from the old owner,i was taught to crate train her and all. but since she used to be in a crate with another dog. When i put her int he crate she screamed and yelled and bangs on the crate .its quite scary so i stopped the crate thing. how would i re-introduce the crate?

 

[lizzybeth727]

Here's a pretty good article about crate training:
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/58

If that doesn't answer your questions, there is a search on that website to find more articles, and you should be able to find what you need.

 

[howangcturtle]

That's great thank you. Since crate training would be my last resort. I really want to know if i could do anything to get her not leave accidents in the room.

I braught her out to pee 2-3 times before bed and it seemed to work so far....

 

[bubbatd]

I wish I had some input ......I don't like pee-pads , but I would say you need one upstairs too .

 

[howangcturtle]

I'd probably go with crate training instead of pee pads if thoese were my options.
But as for now i bring her out like 2 times before bed and its been working out fine so far. We'll see

 

[RosanaHart]

Here's a webpage I did a while back on the pros and cons of cratetraining plus a basic method:

http://training-dogs.com/crate-training.html

I am a huge fan of it, IF the dog accepts it.