major relapse in being housetrained

[wildpsychochick]

Jazzy seems to have just forgotten about going outside or something. Don't know why she is doing this, just pees and poops wherever she feels like it, has quit letting me know that she needs to go, just sneaks off and does it. i don't want to leave her in her crate all the time, i don't know what to do. my husband is pretty annoyed with this behavior, to the point he wants me to find a home for her. this sux, i don't want to do that, i rescued her and am afraid of what might happen to her if placed with someone else, not everyone could put up with this silly little pup. anyway, i'm very frustrated and don't know what to do, any suggestions would be helpful. thanx, shay

[LisaH]

There have been several threads recently about dogs "forgetting" their housetraining--you might want to look at them. The consensus seems to be, start from square one. Use Nature's Miracle or something similar to eliminate the odor from the spots where she's been going inside. Keep your eye on her at all times when she isn't confined to her crate; tie her to you with a leash if you have to. Anticipate her needs and take her out when you think she needs to go. When she does the right thing, praise her to the skies and give her her absolute favoritest treat. I've found food to be the great motivator!

Good luck!

[Mickamack]

I don't know how old Jazzy is, but is it possible that she is at an age where she is trying to challenge you and your authority?

With Mickey, when he was about 8-9 months old, he started "forgetting" all of his training too. I got to the point where I wasn't sure that I wanted to keep a dog that was going to pee all over my house and my bed, etc.

We took him to a personal trainer who said we needed to be more stern and consistent with him. The trainer said he was challenging our authority, so we had to work to re-establish OUR control over the dog. We were being too lax on him and we found that for a while, if we gave Mickey an inch, he was going to try to take a mile.

If this is the case with Jazzy, let me reassure you that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We just had to readjust the way we treated him a little and he seemed to fall right back into line.

No one else may agree with that theory, but that's just my opinion. I think you should start from scratch, like was already mentioned...just like day one. Make Jazzy understand that you are the ones in control and she needs to comply with YOUR rules.

I wish you the best of luck!
Karen

[Heather]

I think that is good advice below.

First, make sure you get all of the odor's out with a product like nature's miracle. Make sure you soak the whole spot, and let air dry. This stuff truly is a miracle.

Then, I would suggest when you are not home, Jazzy MUST be crated or confined to an area. He should not have run of the house.

When you are home, keep him either confined to the room you are in with baby gates, or keep him on a leash. You won't have to worry about find miscellanous(is there a spell check anywhere?) accidents if he is always in your site.

Start bringing him to the same spot to pee, and recite one command over and over. I use 'goo pee pee'. When he does, immeadiatley give him a food treat. Never just let him out and assume he has done his business because likely he hasn't.

Make sure he knows you are the boss. Have you done any obedience training? You can take a dog of any age to a puppy kindergartan class, he does not have to be a puppy. Once Jazzy knows that you are the boss, he will respect that and will be less likely to rebel.

I hope this helps, don't give up. I had problems with my Beanie, and in my opinion, the more consistent I was, the more consistent Beanie was.

Good Luck!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm1.gif" border=0>

[Wienergal]

This is all good advice. You need to know that it will take work and paying attention on your part to get Jazzy in line on this issue. My Peaches, the world's most stubborn dachshund, had a major relapse in her housebreaking too. She just seemed to decide she preferred going inside, so why not? But once she got it, she never lost it.

You didn't say what methods you had used to housebreak Jazzy. As was mentioned below, you can't just let Jazzy out into a yard and assume he's done his biz, then let him in. You're going to have to walk him on a leash. Pick a command phrase. When he begins to go. recite the phrase as he is going, then praise him. After a while, use the command BEFORE he starts to go; try to take him to one special spot and let him know that he doesn't get his "fun walk" until he has done his "job!" And no going back inside until he has finished! If he loves treats, by all means, use them!

And, as someone else suggested, try to keep ahead of his needs by taking him out at specific times during the day, so that he doesn't have to tell you that he has to go. It will have to be more often than is the case with a housebroken dog. But your goal is to AVOID accidents, rather than punish him when he makes a mistake.

If Jazzy isn't trained in a time that suits your husband, PLEASE place him with a rescue group--DRNA, CCDR--rather than putting an ad in the paper! Rescue people are very used to dealing with unhousebroken dogs--it isn't a problem. Of course, you could always put an ad in the paper to have someone take your hubby off your hands and keep Jazzy....<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm7.gif" border=0>

Good luck, Shay!!

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Wienergal on November 07, 2000 at 11:15 PM</font>

[Penny's Aunt]

EXACTLY what do you (& your husband do) when Jazzy leaves a deposit in the house? Think hard about this, it's not a trick question!

Some dogs, when they feel that they are being ignored (truth doesn't have to have anything to do with it), they will do thinks to FORCE you to pay attention to them.

They would rather get yelled at, spanked, etc. than be ignored.

If you are doing anything like this, you've just GOT to stop (both of you- use a rolled-up newspaper on DH if you need to).

"Accidents" get the silent treatment: not a word, not a slap, NOTHING. Just put the dog outside. If Jazzy is doing this for attention, & she doesn't get the attention, she should stop it.

Try to clean up the mess without her watching. Use an odor neutralizer (be sure to use enough - about 1.5 times as much as there was urine, & let it sit as directed. Then fold an old bath towel & put it on the wet spot & stand on it for a few seconds. Turn it over & repeat.

But preventing the accidents is a good part of the battle. When accidents happen, roll up a newspaper & whack yourself over the head with it 3 times, while saying "I should have been watching that dog!", "I should have been watching that dog!..."

[Wienergal]

Hey, Penny's Aunt! That is some REALLY insightful advice! Very impressive! Have you been reading books again?....http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/bad-boy.gif http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/book.gif http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/nuts.gif

[Dolly's Mom]

AMEN Penny's Aunt!!

That's the same conclusion we've come to about Miss Poopy Jeans Madderoo. She DEMANDS attention and then when she doesn't get it, WHAM....Here's smilin' at you mommy, squat and pee. Thanks for your thoughts on this. I had been THINKING the same thing, but kept telling myself, NAH, couldn't be. Now I do believe this is what's been behind Maddie's relapse....specially since 2 months ago, we went thru this with her and a trip to the vet for a possible bladder infection turned up negative. Maddie, we believe, came from a small backyard breeder and we suspect was kept crated most of the time. The result??? One insecure, needy, but loving and awfully cute little mini dachsie.

Thanks again for your insight!
Sandi

[wildpsychochick]

wow, more responses than i expected!! well, this is what is happening now. Started back at square one, just like when we first got her, we are doing the scheduled outings, and she is crated when we leave, right now i am not allowing her any free roaming of the house, when she is out of the crate, she is tethered to me with her leash. so far it is working, one accident, and it was a weird one: we had been outside for about an hour, she had just went, we came inside and about that time my husband came home, she gets excited when anyone arrives, so even though she was on her leash, she peed on the floor. i think it was just overexcitement. as far as what we do, she isn't punished or hit, if she's caught in the act, i tell her no and take her outside. as far as attention, she gets a lot, but i know if she's not getting attention she will find a way.......like knocking over the trash, grabbing a kids toy to destroy and other little things like that, so maybe the peeing on the floor is an attention getter, i really don't know. also, i had been away from home a lot in the two weeks prior to her "relapse", so it may have started as an attention getter. we are back to our normal schedule now, so maybe she will relearn the house training.

and on the finding a home for her, that would only happen as a very last resort. she's part of our family now, it would be so hard to give her up. i'm sure this is a problem we can fix, and i got her out of such a bad place, i couldn't bear to think of her ending up like that again and the only way i know it won't is by keeping her. for those of you who don't know, she was going to be put in the shelter because she had stillborn pups, she lived outside with other breeder dachsies, weighed only 7 pounds, was wormy, sick and heartworm positive, and very afraid of humans. now she's a loving little dachsie, weighs close to 11 lbs and is doing well with most things. she is healthy enough to proceed with the heartworm treatment, we have an appointment next week to make sure all things are ok, and if they are she will start her treatment that day. i'll update about her soon. sorry this is so long, and i know it covers several topics, but they are all kinda related, till next time....shay

[Heidismom]

Wow! You've really had your hands full with this little girl! How sad to think she would go to the shelter for having stillborn pups - when it was probably caused by her horrible living conditions! My girls and I hope she comes through her heartworm treatment with flying colors! Heidi, Gretl, and Siglen's mom, Julia

[Mandy]

Sorry I haven't written in such a long time. I was sick for a long time and have started a new job now. But, I'm back! <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm12.gif" border=0> Is it possible that she is mad at you for leaving for that amount of time? I know some people will say that dogs do not think or reason or do things such as this.....but we all know they are wrong! When Henry was younger, he was in the back yard with Bart, who was watering the flowers. They were playing and for some reason, (I will never know why), Bart sprayed him with the garden hose. Henry ran to the house and I let him in. He ran straight to the bedroom, jumped up on the bed, and peed on Bart's pillow!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm26.gif" border=0> .....for three days in a row.....then it took forever for Henry to take a bath with Bart at home. (I'm glad to say that Henry is now over that....and the other night he and Jakey were playing in the tub with their daddy). Anyway...just thought it might be a possibility.

An I understand about the rebellion stage....went through that recently with Jake.....


So how many children do you have? I have three....two dachshunds and a husband!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm27.gif" border=0>