Hi all.
We’ve got an issue with our dogs toilet habits. It’s been building up for a while and we’ve been burying our head in the sand but I feel like now is the time to tackle this.
She’s 4 and a half years old and basically she’s still not house trained. I’ve spoken to the vet and they believe it is behaviour related rather than something being physically wrong with her. She knows to go to the back door to go outside for the toilet if she needs to and will do this when we’re there.(Yes she uses the garden and we clean it regularly) But if we go upstairs, for example overnight or even during the day for short times, she doesn’t always hold it. It can be a pee or a poo. We always make sure we let her out before we go anywhere and reward her for going outside but it’s been years and it’s not working.
We’ve been coping by still using puppy pads. Obviously this really only helps with the pee but even then it’s not ideal. I know it’s disgusting that a dog poops in our house regularly and it’s really getting me down. We also have a baby now and it’s really panicking me how we’re going to manage when she’s crawling and walking so I’d like to get it sorted. I also panic about people calling over if we’ve just been out as you don’t know what you’re coming back to.
She’s never alone for very long. Maybe an hour or two at most if I go out with the baby. But you can be upstairs for only minutes and come back down to a mess. Or we can be out for a couple of hours and there’ll be nothing.
She isn’t crate trained, just has a bed in the kitchen. Would crate training make a difference? I don’t really understand how crates are used, when do you close them in?
I should mention she also has epilepsy. She takes tablets daily but only for the last year or so as she only had her first seizure in Feb last year whereas these issues have been going on since we got her as a puppy and I trained her as best I could for weeks and weeks, going outside every half an hour with her until she would go. Like I said she seems to know that’s what she should be doing but just doesn’t seem to hold it if we’re not there. Maybe is a separation anxiety thing?
We also don’t really walk her in a routined sort of way. She hates walking round the streets where we live, like literally just plants her bum down and won’t move. We usually end up carrying her back. Only if we go to the beach or something is she happy to walk so it’s not really been a daily thing. She mostly just goes out to the garden and is happiest on the sofa.
Thanks x
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The doghouse
Dog not house trained at 4 years old
46 replies
Honeyandlemon19 · 03/03/2020 14:06
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