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.
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.
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).
Just patience and a lot of time, always works. Never give up. She will come around slowly. It think too many people give up and discard problem dogs. I also have an abused dog and it took a good year to get him retrained from his bad habits.
My husband and I purchased Ben off a Craigslist ad. We met the people and they seemed very nice. But on getting Ben home, if you use a stern voice he cowers. When he pottied inside we used the same method we used on our 2 year old Lab. We made him smell it and said no and lightly spanked him. My husband did it, I didn't have the heart to. You'd think he was beating him, because Ben was crying and trying to get away from him.
We had to coax Ben to come back to my husband afterwards. He was scared of him! Not to mention that when we got him you could see every little bone in his body! I've never been in this type of situation before and don't know how to potty train him. I need some help.By Meg D
I just purchased a 2 year old Welsh Terrier. I think she has been abused. She has always been outside. I take her out for long periods of time, and she doesn't do anything, then when I take her in she goes potty. How can I housebreak her?
By Beverly R.
Three weeks ago I adopted an abused 7 year old Maltese, a sweet little girl. She was kept in a cage for 7 years. She goes outside when I am home, but when I go out she messes. I use training pads and she uses them, but I would like to train her to hold it until I get home. Caging her is not the answer since she was used to sitting in her filth. She is an angel. Any suggestions how I could achieve this while I continue to build up her broken spirit would be appreciated.
By Dolores A
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. It took a lot of positive reinforcement (treats, pats on the head, and his favorite- hugs) when he did go potty outside. He did finally get the hang of it though. Don't give up- your little guy just doesn't understand yet.
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!
We have just adopted a Lab mix. She is 10 months old. How do we potty train and train her in general? Her name is Bella. She was spayed the day before we could bring her home. We have had her 5 days now. She keeps peeing/pooping in the house. She very seldom goes potty outside. She will pee outside, but not often. I am overwhelmed with this, and she steps in it and it gets over everything.
We just found out today what happened to her, and it is heartbreaking. Bella is so sweet and lovable. She does chew things too, but I assume that is the puppy in her. How do I train her? For potty training and training in general. I thought about a crate, but not sure how she will do.
We just adopted an older, abused dog from the pound. He has only had 2 accidents in the house the last 5 days, but we are beginning to believe he wasn't properly housebroken to begin with.
Any suggestions to help us train him?I just got a rescue dog, he was abused and abandoned and we took him in. We think he's at least three years old and he's a Yorkie mixed with Westie. We take him outside and he goes every time, but he gets back inside and two minutes later he pees on something.
We aren't sure how to train him, but he acts like he knows how to tell us to take him out, but he won't do it. I'm sure he's scared because he was abused, but he needs to stop peeing in our new house. Help!
