I recently took in an abused female, maybe a Bluetick, who had been running for a week in a high-traffic area with a collar, but no tags. 4 weeks later, after being treated for pneumonia, she had a litter of 7 pups.
I don't know whether Shekinah had ever been an inside dog before (this is a popular area for hunters) and we had just been making strides housebreaking her when the pups and motherhood intervened.
A long intro to my current problem: Shekinah is now peeing on her/our bed (the pups are 9 weeks now and she's separated from them), settling into being an inside dog along with my Blue Heeler. Worse, maybe, she'll do this after having spent a long while outside. Having followed her around sometimes out there, I see that she's ever with her nose to the ground, but I almost never see her peeing.
I still have 6 of the pups and am trying to housebreak them too, but in a sequestered area. I'm losing my bearings, trying to cope with their mom's peeing also. Shekinah's been abused, as said and is easily scared, but trusts me. I try to be gentle with her, but that king-size comforter has been through my laundry 5x in the last week.
Oh, she'll pee in other places inside as well, but I don't understand the "where she sleeps" urination. I also don't understand why she fails to pee outside. I read through all the past postings here about this, but nothing is quite relevant. Please help?
By Nica from Big Bend, WV
Possibly her bladder is weakened and she can't seem to help it or just the overwhelming of motherhood is getting to her. Have you thought of Simple Solutions Washable doggie panties (amazon.com) sells them and they make them for both males/females; just insert half a Kotex pad in before putting on the dog. This helps some, but you will still need to check her often.
If you don't want to buy into this idea, try a boy or man's pair of undies and cut a hole in the backside for her tail. Insert a pad and she's ready to go. Since they come several in a package, you can buy a couple for the price of one Simple Solutions. TIP: Try putting a pair of family member's on her to see if you think it will even work. it'll help guide you toward the right size.
I just got a 1 1/2 yr old male min pin from an abusive home. I am having the biggest problem with this potty training. I have other dogs that I potty trained, but he is being difficult. I have him in a crate at night and when we are not home. He still urinates in it! Does anyone have any advice?
By Liz from St. Louis, MO
My best advice to you is to be patient with him. My boy Chance (pictured) was also terribly abused (who could hit that pretty face?). It took me a good 6 months to fully potty train him as an adult, because even talking sternly to him scared him to death.
If a pup is raised in a sloppy manner and left in it's own poop and pee it will never learn to not poop and pee in its own immediate area, without lots of training, bless it's heart!
Please don't cater to any of his nervousness. Only pay attention to positive behavior. When it is time to go out then make it exciting, but not enough to scare him. Grab a handful of hot dog pieces the size of a green pea and head out the door with him saying "outside" and throw a piece out the door. If it won't come out of it's crate, use the hot dog to get it to come out of its crate. When you are taking him outside, go to the same place all the time, and then when he goes, after he is done completely with his business, throw a marker down, or a piece of hot dog. Don't feed him hotdog's any other time so they will stay special. Go to leerburg.com and put nervous dog or housetraining in the search bar. There are lots of free articles at this site and I trust it as far as good information on dogs.
Mainly relax and don't respond to anything in a negative way and take the food and water up at six oclock at night
so it will not have as much water in it's bladder overnight.
If you like, let me know how it is going!
Robyn
They do need lots of time and attention when it come to potty training. I suggest that if you can stay home during the day. I would do that. This will give you more time for bonding and so that your new dog won't feel left alone...yet again. It would be much easier for the potty training.
Good Luck to ya
All of the feedback was really good advice and should help you tremendously. I would only offer one other suggestion: make sure his crate isn't too big. Sometimes if the crate is too big, the dog will have enough space to potty on one end and then sleep or lay on the other end. Mainly I really second (and third!) the opinion that you should use lots of positive reinforcement and ignore unwanted behavior.
Last Friday I got a 2 yr old Cockapoo from the dog pound. He's beautiful and so friendly - but has similar signs of possible abuse. He also urinates when startled, messes in the house when we're out, and cries when he's alone. I bought a dog kennel tonight and I'm giving that a try for a few hours at a time.
My other problem; he doesn't bark. He can, but has only barked once in 5 days. How do I train him to tell me when he needs to go out if he doesn't bark? He'll go out when I ask - but he won't tell me.
Any help would be appreciated!
Maybe you can try what works with my 3 dogs. I do everything as a routine, and each night at bedtime, I call their names in the same order and add "Let's go outside to the bathroom." It's such a habit with them now that I don't even get all 3 names out before they run out the doggy door. Last night when I made my 'bathroom' announcement, one dog was just coming in the doggy door, and he turned right around and went back out. It was quite funny to see. Dogs love a routine, just as children do. Meanwhile, you could also try taking him to the area of your yard where you want him to go after he eats. If you stay out there with him until he goes a few times, he will start going there by himself.
I also had that same problem with a min pin I had found. After a while he will stop going in his crate but it took a while for him to figure that out. Luckily, you have other dogs, this usually helps. I would be very upset when my dog pottied in the house and let him know that. I would always make sure to get very excited when taking him and my other dogs out to pee. I always sing lets go potty outside.
When He goes potty outside always say good potty. Lots of praise. Take him every couple of hours when you are home for at least 2-3 weeks. He will catch on soon. An adult dog is a little harder to housebreak, because they are so used to going at anytime anywhere and never been taught to hold it. They don't know that they can hold it. Just takes time!
We need help potty training a 1 year old dog who was abused and is still nervous. We've only had him a few days. Suggestions?
The 1 yr. old abused dog we adopted thinks he can sit on the living room sofas. I chased him off one sofa, so he went to the other sofa.
I need ideas on leash training a physically abused pit puppy. The puppy is around 8 months old, scars over face, rescued from "fighters".
I have an 11 month old Pit Bull/German Shepherd mix. I got her when she was 9 months old from a family that abused her (she has 2 missing ribs). I can't leave her in my car, because she chews everything up and I don't know why. Anyone have any advice?
My dog is a Silky Terrier. He is almost 2 years old and afraid of everything. We rescued him from being abused.
I recently rescued a Pit Bull from someone that wasn't treating him right. He is about 1 year and 6 months old and had no training at all. My question is how do I house train a dog that is that old? He also was an outside dog.
By Michelle J. from Sioux Falls, SD
She sounds like the boxer we adopted over a year ago. We used no physical training on her either she was also afraid of
Men. It just took a lot of time love and patience. We made sure there was a man present everyday to interact with her slowly she got used to them and started coming close and close now she loves the men of the family more than us women. She has now comfortable with the kids and played well with out growling and nipping . She also had food aggression problems we just slowly moved closer and closer while she ate. We never yelled or raised our voice just a firm no or ahh type noise and tons and tons of praise. Good luck!
Honeybees had great advice about making sure your pup gets used to having a male present on a regular basis. I will offer this additionally; have the man be the one that the dog sees filling its food and water bowls. It may take some time for a bond to form, but this warmed my man-hating dog up to my then husband pretty fast. Good luck!
With regard to her being afraid of your father it could be something very simple like his clothing or aftershave. Does he always wear dark clothes for example. I had a Cocker Spaniel years ago who loved everyone except a man wearing dark clothing whether the mail man or my uncle who was a priest it didn't matter to her, they were the enemy (I got her when she was about 3 years old so I had no way of knowing her history). A friend of mind had a dog who hated a certain brand of aftershave. It will take time and patience but try to keep calm, dogs are very sensitive to the tone of your voice and if they're nervous a loud angry voice will only add to that.
I adopted a dog from the humane society two years ago. She is part Jack Russel and Feist and I'm not sure what else.
