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    Doubts

    Posted by Heatherdawn on Monday, February 08, 2010 @ 04:36 AM  

    I'm starting to think we may have to cut our losses (or I may have to) and sell the puppy. I made the decision to get him while we still had someone at home to take care of him during the day and help me with the potty training, but those circumstances have changed, and I have spent the last several days cleaning poop and pee out of his crate and giving him a daily bath.

    He goes outside and does his thing and then comes right back in and does it again...in his "den" where he's not supposed to want to go. I have made the crate small enough with a cardboard box that he doesn't have an area to go in and an area to sleep in, so he goes and then steps, sits, and lays in it.

    He wasn't doing this before, so I'm wondering what the change is. I'd blame the recent snow, but it's gotten to the point where I have to go outside and drag him in because he enjoys playing out in it so much, so I know it's not the fact that he doesn't want to "go" outside in this weather.

    Waking up to this every morning really starts me off in a foul mood, which isn't helpful or nice for the rest of the family, and I'm going to have to start getting up early just to clean out his crate and give him a bath before I leave for work. Sleep deprivation is already a problem - not keen on adding to it.

    I realize he's only four months old, but he seems to be regressing from what little progress we had made, and not having any issues with doing exactly what all the experts say he's not supposed to do. My frustration grows daily and I'm left with leaving him in the crate all day and night, except for when he's outside, because I can't trust him not to poop or pee all over my carpets, even when he has literally just gone. It can't be much fun for him and we're certainly not benefiting from having the company of a dog when he's locked away in a crate all day.

    I'm beginning to wonder if we're really cut out for animals. Except for Kadie's fish, they all seem to do fine for a bit, and then they set out on a path of destruction against us.

    I've made the suggestion to Kadie (in a moment of frustration and anger) that we may have to get rid of the dog, which, of course, upset her, so I know she has developed an attachment to him. Besides, what kind of message does that send to her? "If you can't behave, we won't tolerate you and you're out the door..." This was supposed to be a learning experience for her, too - and that's not really the message that I was going for.

    1
    Reply by Grateful on February 08, 2010 @ 05:45 AM

    puppies and kids are a lot alike...they need a lot of time, attention, discipline and love to thrive. Remember that the puppy is a BABY. I think that I remember that potty training took about a year for most of my dogs...at least until I had faith that the potty action was gonna happen outside.

    Can you take the puppy to work with you? Can you set up a kennel, or small run outside so that he can run, play and poop without problems? What about a doggy daycare? We have a couple of those in Yakima, so I imagine there must be something around you.

    You might be able to contact the breeder and ask for her advice/help. If all else fails, ask her to see if she might know of another good home for the puppy...they might have a waiting list.


    2
    Reply by Richard on February 10, 2010 @ 02:04 PM
    (A reply to comment #1)
    This item was removed by the author.

    3
    Reply by Richard on February 10, 2010 @ 02:20 PM

    You might try an old playpen or other similar area for the daytime. That way he has a place for a bed, a potty paper, as well as a place to stretch his legs.

    At playtime, while you are home, he could be on the bare floors. When he looks like he wants to pee or if he has an accident, show him the paper he needs to use. I use to put down a piece that had some pee on it, so the dog could smell what the area was for. We never had trouble getting rid of the indoor potty paper when they got older, they seemed to learn on their own that they should go outside.

    P.S. this is Peggy, I still can't log on with my name/password.


    4
    Reply by Heatherdawn on February 10, 2010 @ 02:57 PM
    (A reply to comment #3)

    Unfortunately, I can't get him to even walk on the wood floors. Something about them freaks him out. He does everything he can to stay off of them. When I have forced him into the kitchen with me (in a futile attempt to keep him leashed to my side as I moved about the house so I could keep an eye on him for "scouting behaviors"), I had to all but drag him over the floors and then he kept to the runner carpets as a small child would who was playing "lava" (as in, the carpets are safe, but if I step foot on the floors, I'm in lava).

    I'm hoping he'll get over this eventually, considering 3/4 of the downstairs is wood floors.

    They now actually have potty training pads that have been pretreated with pee smell to entice dogs to use them. They're highly recommended for people who live in high-rise apartments or places where it's difficult to get the puppy outside in time. My problem is that I'm afraid he won't see much difference between the pads and the carpet...again, he won't stay on the wood floors and our floor plan is too open to be able to block him off in a room to force him onto the wood.

    For the few days where Jeff and I were working the split shift and Diego was left in his crate for about 7 or 8 hours, he did wonderfully - never peed or pooped. It was for a few days, during the night when he had never had an accident before, that we were having the problem. It seems to have diminished. He's gone two days/nights now without messing his crate. We'll see.

    I can't wait until this snow is over and melted and I can give him a bath and not have to worry about him constantly smelling like wet dog. Yech! We brush out the snow clumps and dry him off as best as we can after he's been outside, but there's still a definite lingering odor.


    5
    Reply by Dave on February 11, 2010 @ 06:10 PM

    I have waited for days to respond, letting my anger subside, hoping to find something constructive to add. I am left with disgust and if you don't like hearing it, feel free to remove us from the blog.

    You are obviously incapable of giving the same devotion and committment to this dog that he automatically would offer you. He is apparently not a living being, not a family member (since your carpets are your main concern) but rather a damn living toy for your kid's learning experience. You have to drag him inside because he enjoys playing in the snow so much (well heck, sure can't let that happen) and you confine him in a crate lying in his own feces (which is considered animal abuse on Animal Planet). You virtually drag him onto your wood floors that he freaks out about, and you whine that he smells like a (surprise!) wet dog when he gets wet. Are you trying the UPS philosophy of "The beatings will continue until morale improves?" Have you never been around a dog before?

    Dogs naturally want to please their master, but if he is now so screwed up he's "regressing", with whom does the responsibility lie? I agree you are not cut out for animals. Maybe you insist on them being what you want them to be rather than what they are --I don't know. But I can guarantee you they don't all "set out on a path of destruction against" you. Look past your persecution complex and you will find it is your perspective that changes, not them.

    Ordinarily I would say, "you made your bed, now grow up and sleep in it." But in this case, as sorry as I am for the further trauma to the dog, I think it might be for the best to find a loving home that will accept him as a family member. And for God's sake, don't even think about doing this to another animal.

    Dave


    6
    Reply by Heatherdawn on February 11, 2010 @ 08:00 PM
    (A reply to comment #5)

    Well, as Jeff says, "It's easy to judge from afar."

    I put off getting a dog, knowing they would take, and deserve, a lot of time and attention, until such a time when I thought we would have someone at home at all times so he wouldn't suffer from our busy lifestyles. That situation has changed and, unfortunately, the dog has had to deal with the consequences of that, the same as the rest of us have.

    I do not leave the dog in his own filth, hence my frustration at having to constantly bathe him (which also prevents me from applying the needed Frontline to prevent fleas and ticks - which are still a threat in the winter around here - because it must be done 2 days after a bath and he can't have a bath for 2 days after the application).

    The situation with his crate (making it too small for him to have a separate bathroom area, is called crate training. It is a highly recommended form of training that even the vet suggested I use. It is not considered abuse by any stretch of the imagination, unless you do it improperly and, believe me, I've spent copious hours researching the matter so that I don't.

    Yes, my carpets are a huge concern. They're expensive to clean and/or replace and I'm soon to have a newborn crawling around on them. The last thing I need is any of the bacteria or germs from the dog to be accidentally ingested by my baby. And I would be just as frustrated and upset if any member of my family decided to use them as a latrine.

    I drag him inside from the snow - yes. When he's caked in it and very obviously shivering. He's still a puppy after all and not a breed built for 20 degrees and five feet of snow. If my daughter were out there in less than a full-on snowsuit and bent on freezing herself, I would drag her in as well.

    The wood floors experiment was, again, based on the suggestions by several experts. When potty training a dog, you're not supposed to let them out of your sight; however, it would be stupid to assert that you should follow your dog around rather than have him follow you around. Who's the leader of the pack here? So it was recommended that I tie his leash to my belt and have him walk around the house with me as I did what I needed to do. After it became obvious that he just wasn't into wood floors, I abandoned that method of training.

    I posted during the days of regression. That's where the majority of my frustration stemmed. Since it only occurred for 2 or 3 days (the first days of the first big snow) and Diego is back to both pooping and peeing outside, I'm assuming that he had just never experienced snow before and, after a few days of playing in it and deciding that it wasn't such bad stuff, he was able to relax enough to allow himself to do what he needed to do outside. Unfortunately, we still have a ways to go before I can trust him to be on my carpets, but at least we're back to moving in the right direction.

    We are not bad people, nor are we abusive to our pets. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses, and we all have areas in our lives that cause us frustration where other people wouldn't be bothered. I can handle a screaming baby at 2 am on little to no sleep, night after night, and I can still manage to be civil to those around me the next day...can you?

    To verbally bash me for having doubts and concerns over my ability to properly take care of a puppy when it's the first time I've done so on my own (yes, I've had dogs before, but as a child - when my mom and dad were the ones dealing with the not-so-pleasant aspects and I was just happy to play with them) is in bad taste and poor judgment.


    7
    Reply by Grateful on February 12, 2010 @ 07:20 AM
    (A reply to comment #6)

    I had to laugh at the cartoon picture in my head of Diego playing drag/slide dog on the wood floors after you!


    8
    Reply by Grateful on February 12, 2010 @ 07:34 AM
    (A reply to comment #6)

    I think it is wonderful that we have a forum to seek assistance, input and just generally vent, within the safety and respect of the family circle.

    HeatherDawn, I greatly appreciate your efforts at keeping us in a loop about what is going on with you and yours waaaay out there on the East Coast. I love your blogs, and hope that if you are frustrated, that this is a great platform to seek advice, help or peace of mind.

    Uncle Dave..you are so passionate in your animal advocacy, and the world needs much more awareness for our four footed friends who cannot speak for themselves....however, it is much easier to hear advice if you are not being beaten over the head during the delivery.



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