Puppy Survival thread part 4

[GooodMythicalMorning]

Puppy's getting bigger!: continuation of Bitey's thread. If anyone wants to join feel free.

That sounds pretty extreme behaviour Deepfried. Have you spoken to a vet about it? Poor Pizza pup

I have been through dealing with separation anxiety with Bluepuppy but nothing on that scale. Dogs that break through windows are suffering the equivalent of a severe panic attack. Training is part of the solution but without medication of some sort to bring Pizzapup out of her distressed state you might not have any success.

Try a crate in the meantime to protect your dog and house but be warned some dogs with anxiety panic in crates and can hurt themselves.

I remember you were so excited to get her and I'm so sorry you're going through this. Remember you're not alone.

Bitey, she would be the same outside. I think she would actually dig her way out if we were to do that. Plus she barks at people walking by the garden so if she was in the garden all day then we'd end up with an asbo

Blue, I think I don't think there's a lot the vet can do, she's had a tough life, dumped, put in a shelter, put in a van for 5 days and landed with us. Plus, we've only had her 3 weeks. It's all new to her.
It was an open window by the way, she didn't burst through the glass.

She can get out the crate and got herself into a right state in it and bend the bars

As I am saying all this DH watched her on the camera this morning and there seems to be no damage today...fingers and toes crossed.
I watched the dog walker go in and she was excited to see her

Fingers crossed she starts to settle down soon and feels more secure.

Hi all,

Totally forgot about this thread!

Molly is 14 weeks now, she's doing really well, great in the car, on leads, recall.... just not great with toilet training . She will go out in the garden, but also is lazy and happily have a wee ( and occasional poo!) in the house - even with constant open access to the garden!!!!

Any tips?

Also, she always wee's at night, we leave her access to water over night. Could that be where we're going wrong?

No. She is simply too small to hold it all night. You need to get up and take her out. Don't withhold water.
And open access to the garden won't work. You need to take pup out so you can praise when wees are done outside. (Or how do they know that's the "right" place!)

Mine needed to pee in the night for many weeks. I used the calculation of 1 hour per month of age plus 1 so at 14 weeks I would have set the alarm at night for every 4.5 hours.

As Wolfie said until they have been properly toilet trained (will ask to go out every single time) you need to actually take them outside and praise when they go.

burntout it's probably a bit too soon to expect her to reliably take herself outside when she needs a wee/poo. Carry on taking her outside regularly and any time she's showing signs she needs to go, she will get it.

Definitely don't remove her water at night time, dogs of any age should always have access to it. You may need to keep taking her out during the night for a little bit longer. She'll either grow out of it herself and start sleeping through (which is what all mine have done) or, once you know she's capable of holding her bladder that long, you can gradually move the time you take her out later and later until you're doing it at your normal getting up time.

Deepfried medication may be able to help her so it is worth talking to your vet. The point of the medication is to take the edge off enough so the dog is receptive to training and there are a lot of options.

I'd also look for a different behaviourist, it's completely inappropriate (not to mention potentially very dangerous) to suggest you carry on leaving such a distressed dog in a crate unsupervised.

I'll post some links in a little bit that may be useful for you.

Pizza - that sounds so, so tough - but my thoughts are with you all. And with poor biteydog as he nurses his many wounds!

Cornflake. We've tried adaptil, vetiver root, essential oils etc for calming. medication will be our next step.
She is very responsive to training. The trainer had her sitting within 5 minutes of arrival, she'll do anything for a treat. It only took half an hour for her to nail loose lead walking.

I did question the leaving in the crate but he said she would be fine, DH rushed home as soon as he saw on the camera that she was distressed. We are lucky that he works within 10 minutes from home.

She has knocked over the camera this afternoon but we think that's probably due to a treat falling out of her treat ball and she knocked the wire as the camera was on a shelf and everything else on the shelf is still on the shelf. We can see her wee snout hanging off the edge of the sofa so she's sleeping. She does relax when we are out, she sleeps, she plays with her toys but she seems to have an initial panic

We do take her out and give her lots of praise when she wee's in the garden. She seems to be getting worse, she had far less accidents when we first got her. When she wee's inside we clean it up immediately and use anti bacterial wipes ( we have wooden floors ), she does tend to go to the same places - I wonder if she can smell where she has been

I agree about her needing water through the night, the reason I asked is that I read that pups usually need to wee within 15 minutes of drinking, but if I'm not with her I can't see when she's had a drink to take her out ( obviously she has no garden access when we are asleep) so it doesn't matter how often we get up in the night, there are regular puddles. I think that's part of having a pup, just wonder if we're going wrong somewhere!

I slept with mine until she was dry at night. PFP (precious first pup!)
Anti bac won't cut it. Get some proper stuff. She will be able to smell where she's gone.

Cornflake- Molly doesn't seem to show any signs of needing a wee - no circling, extra sniffing- so I just have to try and work out that she hasn't been for a while so to take her out

Could the pee have seeped through the wooden floor board cracks and keep attracting her to it. I have wooden floors everywhere except for tiles in the kitchen and therefore I camped out in my kitchen (fortunately it's big with a table) for weeks until I was certain he was toilet trained.

Wolfie- what do you mean by proper stuff? Can you recommend something?

Mine didn't make any sign other than squat and go. Therefore I never ventured far and spent a lot of time in the garden waiting for him to go.

Ooh that's a point Bitey,it could have seeped through

It needs to be a pet accident cleaner I think. The enzymes break down any traces of urine.
Oh God the toilet training!!!
After a nap.
After eating.
In the middle of playing.
After eating.
Every 10 minutes.
And still puddles!!!! I literally couldn't take my eyes off her!

Bitey- she never shows signs of needing to go out, doesn't bark or cry out. I wonder if having the patio doors permanently open could be causing this? As she doesn't have a need to ask?

It's like having a baby again, I have so much to learn!!

At that age she won't have grasped fully that she should be weeing outside and so won't think to ask to go out.

I did toilet training in the middle of winter so no doors were open, it was either in the kitchen or in the garden. However, because mine didn't ever really make a noise when he wanted to go out I also started using training bells hung from the door handle and everytime I took him out I would ding them or get him to bash them with his nose so eventually when he GOT that he needed to go out he also got that he needed to tell me by making a noise.

Dh has just went home and no damage done today!!! her toy had fallen beside the camera wires so she'd pulled it down when retrieving her toy.

I swear to god, one of us will get sacked soon enough, we are constantly looking at the camera and DH keeps leaving work at a moment's notice.

Deepfried I feel the same about working at home. It's allowed but I do feel I should show my face in the office sometime soon. Glad PizzaPup was ok today and good job she didn't destroy the camera ;)

How long is she on her own Pizza? Could you maybe look at daycare if she really hates being alone? So difficult though.

sad I hope you are feeling a bit less stressed about the situation. With my nervous dog (the older one) I just avoid situations that set him off. I'd never ever let him come across the boiler man as I swear he'd probably bite, he's that bad. If someone knocks at the door I put him in another room or worst case I put him outside. Obviously difficult when pup spends main time in the kitchen but could you consider a den somewhere else that pup could go in to avoid people?

I'd get friends to come one at a time and just sit there ignoring him entirely, not even looking at him, and every so often randomly throw chicken away from them for pup to grab.

She's on her own for 4 hours but the length of time isn't the issue. Once we've been gone for a few minutes she'll settle and play. She ripped my letter box off when I took the bin out. Daycare won't solve that.

Hopefully today wasn't a fluke as today is the only day since we've left her where she hasn't wrecked something.