Back to the Breeder with Ruby?
Enough is just about enough. I'm about to give up on this poor little puppy.
But honestly. I've had a lot of puppies in my years between age 22 and age 69, and I've NEVER had one that I couldn't house-train within a couple of weeks. Ruby seems to be stone resistant.
I know she can last for six or seven hours, because she sleeps through the night in her crate without problems.
She also has a nice X-pen (two of them, really) and she can manage three or four hours during the day in that, while I'm out running around.
She seems to know she's supposed to go outside. As soon as she's taken outdoors, she does her thing and is enthusiastically congratulated. She never poops in the house, but she pees constantly. When she pees in the house -- which can be up to half a dozen times a day -- she does it by stealth. It's VERY rare for me to catch her in the act. But trust me: many acts take place.
I doubt if she has a UTI: her urine is clear and odorless, she has no fever, she has a good appetite, and she's lively and alert and seems to feel just fine.
I am very, very tired of cleaning up puddles.
But more serious is the issue of keeping her out of places where she's either going to get hurt (i.e., drown) or to do serious damage I can't afford.
As you may recall, after she fell in the pool, I barricaded the pool with these wooden garden fence strips that I bound together with zip ties and roped to the patio uprights. This works to keep her out of the pool, but it means I have to climb over the thing every time I walk around the backyard.
Ditto the bedroom closet.
I keep my shoes on shelves, a habit developed years ago when I learned that shelving the shoes discouraged the German shepherd puppy from eating them. I have foot issues that obviate purchasing cheap shoes; thus my shoes represent a considerable investment and are not things I can casually toss in the trash. This dog will climb up the shelves to get at the shoes.
So I put a piece of this wooden garden fence stuff across the closet doorway, taped in place with blue masking tape. The problem with keeping the door shut is that the laundry basket resides in there and there's no ventilation in the closet, so if the closet door is shut, forthwith in 100-degree heat (which we happen to be enjoying today) all the clean clothing in the closet starts to stink like week-old laundry. I need to keep the door open to ventilate the closet.
A week or two ago I tripped and fell over the pool barricade. Cut my leg but otherwise was OK.
Today after putting pup in her crate and getting ready to climb into bed for a short siesta to make up for yet another three-hour night, I went into the closet to hang up some clothes and tripped coming out.
Thought I'd fractured an ankle. Dragged myself over to the nightstand to pull down the walk-around phone and call 911, but lo! the phone was gone.
Dragged myself into the hall to scoot into the living room in search of another phone I might be able to reach without standing up and...oh yes! Dragged myself RIGHT INTO YET ANOTHER PUDDLE OF PEE!!!!!
I swear, this dog has not been out of sight long enough to pee! I'll be darned if I can figure out how on earth she pulls off these stealth pee attacks. She's over 3 months old now, and she should be old enough to get the message. I think. I mean come ON. I've had nine-week-old pups learn house-training. The most difficulty I've had before was with the last German shepherd, and I'm quite sure she was trained by 12 or 14 weeks.
One person on this board has reported that it took six months to house-train her corgi. In the patience department, I'm not sure I'm up for cleaning up a half-dozen puddles of pee every day for the next three or four months. But more to the point, I do have osteoporosis, and if I keep falling over contraptions set up to keep her out of places where she could get hurt or do unaffordable damage, sooner or later I'm going to break a hip. Really, that is not a very appealing prospect.
Pretty soon it will be warm enough to get her into the pool and (I hope) train her to swim to the steps and get out. (This is dubious: Cassie panics so violently in the pool that she cannot be trained to find her way out; after the pup nearly drowned, I'll be pretty surprised if she'll be any less terrified by the water than Cassie is.) And I suppose the bedroom door could be kept shut, instead of trying to barricade the closet -- a nuisance, yes; but not a suicidal nuisance.
The vet, when called, suggested a trainer. I've called this person and left word on her machine. But I feel like an idiot, calling a trainer to do a job I've done many times before myself, with no problem. And I feel mighty dubious about sinking more money into this puppy. I've already spent myself stupid, and now I have to spend god only knows how many hundreds of dollars to house-train her????? This makes sense...how?
Is there some special secret to house-training a corgi that doesn't apply to other breeds? If there is, would someone please share it? If she can't be trained within the next three weeks or so, she's going to have to go back to the breeder.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Natalie, Lance &Tucker on
-
Even if you think she doesn't have a UTI, I think it would be worthwhile to rule out and get her tested at the vets. I would hate for you to give her back to the breeder if she did have a UTI.
Potty training does take patience and time for thier bladders to fully develop.
Safety definately can be a concern when it comes to tripping, our pembroke is always under our feet and he is 6!!! They like to stay close by, preferrably tripping distance :O I would definately keep your bedroom door closed instead of having to worry about a gate to trip over. Another option is to get walk through gates to put at the doorway or hallway. I would also suggest keeping a tight schedule and take her out to pee pretty frequently, giving less chances of accidents in the house. If she doesn't pee when you take her out put her in her x-pen, take her out in a little bit, and repeat as frequently as needed til she pees.
We got our male cardigan at 14 weeks and he wasnt fully trained, in fact it takes their bladders up until one year of age to have complete control, if I remember correctly. I also think I remember hearing females are harder to potty train than males. Hang in there. Stay safe!! Also, don't give too much freedom in the house either. You can also keep her on a leash with you to help with potty training her.
-
Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on
-
Maybe it's just that the corgi excretory systems don't mature the same way as other dogs' do...something to do with the dwarfism???
I do take her out very frequently, although I'll say it's less often than every 20 minutes. Maybe once an hour or so.
The other thing that's odd about her is that when she urinates she gets it all over what little fur she has around her little back legs. She doesn't seem to be aware of that, never tries to clean herself. So after a couple of potties, she's covered with dried-on urine, which is very sticky and difficult to wash off. A couple times I've finally had to cut off the stickummy fuzz.
The vet wants to stick a needle into her to retrieve urine...that sounds awful! Poor little pup! I will take her in for this procedure, which sounds as expensive as it does awful. I'm not pleased at the prospect of traumatizing her like that.
The problem with keeping the bedroom door closed is the air conditioning. We're fast reaching the low 100s, and after it gets to be about 105, I really do need to run the AC. It was only 98 today, and the weather's expected to cool a little next week...but that won't last much longer. Closing off a room interferes with the AC system's functioning. That's already the hottest room in the house, and I'm not real thrilled about the prospect of having it be even hotter and stuffier than it is, making it difficult to sleep. I need at least a few hours' sleep at night. At three hours, I'm awful tired during the day. Much less than that, and I'll really be nonfunctional.
The regular sized kiddy gates that you climb over are OK, because they're so tall it's hard to move fast enough when climbing over them to trip yourself. These garden fence thingies are exactly 12 inches high: tall enough that pup can't get over it easily, but low enough that I can step instead of having to climb over it. I guess climb is what it's gonna be, though. Assuming I can find a kiddy gate that narrow.
-
-
Why do they need to stick a needle in her for a urine sample...usually one just collects urine before bringing them in...and they test the urine you bring. If not going to the vet right away, put the sealed container in a baggie in the fridge.
For the inside of the house I highly recommend walk through gates. :) Also confining her to a small area of the house, she is still really little!!
-
Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
-
I also would suggest having her tested for a UTI. When you take her out does she empty her bladder or just go a bit? Do you continue walking her so she can? How old is she? It does take time and constant training. You sound like you are upset and overwhelmed?. I understand that but being a corgi...she might also pick up on how you are feeling. You could have her in a big pet lodge fence that she can't just wonder(if free) and get places you don't want her as she is a babe yet! If you are feeling it's not going to work then please return her sooner rather than later so that the breeder can find another home for her while she's still young.
-
-
Yeah, I will take her in. It could be that she's not emptying herself out...she doesn't seem to deposit large amounts of urine. On the other hand, she's still pretty little...there just can't be much room inside there! Plus not emptying doesn't seem normal...if that's what's happening, then presumably something is wrong.
-
Permalink Reply by Beth on
-
If you are ready to return a three month old for not being housebroken, frankly the problem is your expectation and not the puppy. She should never be out of your sight. The fact that she is falls on you, not her.
-
-
So sorry for falling short. But as I mentioned, this is far from the first puppy I've had, and far from the first one I've house-trained. Since this problem has not arisen before, it's hard to believe I'm all that wanting, morally or intellectually. ;-)
-
-
Vicky, I looked at your page and the pup was born 01/11/14. That makes her 13 weeks old tomorrow.
I know you say you've had lots of dogs, but being upset because a 13 week old puppy pees on the floor and gets into things you don't want her to get into would be like a human mother lamenting that her 9 month old child is not potty trained and can't yet feed herself. :-/
I mean, check out any of the literature on house training and puppy behavior. She simply has too much freedom too soon.
-
Permalink Reply by Anya Q. on
-
I have to agree with Beth here. My pup is 17 weeks and he has accidents, which also go unnoticed a lot of the times. He's good about 80% of the time, but I do not expect him to not go in the house at all until he's at least 6-7 months (and even then you should expect to have occasional accidents!)
He's the 4th puppy I've had and honestly probably the easiest to housetrain. I think you might've gotten lucky with your previous pups as my previous dog was also a German Shepherd but he did not stop going in the house until he was about 8 months old and my very first dog was also a GS, who was 100% housebroken by 4 months of age.
Hope you can find some patience and realize that every puppy is different and I wish you all the best of luck if you do decide to keep him. It does sound like you're starting to get very annoyed and impetient with his behavior and that's never a good thing while teaching a puppy to do anything, but I'm sure you already knew that from experience with your previous dogs.
Good luck again!
-
-
Thanks for the encouraging words!
This morning a MIRACLE happened! (uhm...or maybe a fluke?) We're frolicking around in the kitchen. The kitchen door is open. And all of a sudden we trot OUTSIDE to release a puddle!
w00t!
Now, it must be admitted that two and a half hours later we sprinkled the living-room tiles a bit. But hey...progress in small steps, eh?
-
-
Yes! I saw your more recent post after replying yesterday and I am so glad that everything is falling into place! Just remember not to get frustrated, he'll be fully trained before you know and you'll be laughing at the memories of all the headaches he gave you!
-
-
I should add that the housetraining book I bought before I got Jack says true housetraining does not BEGIN til pup is 3 to 4 months old; before then they don't have reliable control and it's a matter of controlling accidents.
As far as having to barricade the house, I suggest confining the puppy to a smaller part of it. In all the pups my family has had over the year, not a one ever had free range of the house at the age you are describing.
Perhaps in the past you started with older puppies, or perhaps you were very very lucky, but you are allowing pup a level of freedom that a pup should not have and are frustrated by the results you are seeing. It isn't reasonable to expect a pup that young to be accident-free. And no dog much under a year old can be trusted to not get in trouble in the house.
Perhaps you are not in a position in your life to have a puppy, and there is no shame in that. But the puppy is being a very normal puppy. Perhaps she DOES have a UTI, but that does not change the fact that she should not be out of your sight long enough to pee anywhere without your seeing it.
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
