House-Training Blues: Of Hawks, Pool-Dunking, and Stealth Peeing
So Ruby-Doo the Baby Corgi was doing pretty well in the house-training department until she fell in the drink. Since then, she's forgotten a fair amount of Technique. She's doing OK with No. 2, but as for No. 1: the fount flows exuberantly and endlessly.
I'm afraid I caused one of my readers to have an accident in her own living room by describing Pup's stealth peeing strategy: this is a dog that can teleport a puddle across a room without ever raising the slightest alarm in any human within 50 yards. But actually, she did seem to be getting the idea until a plunge in the pool erased her memory.
Maybe. Or maybe she was just very, very stealthy indeed. Today I cleaned house and steam-cleaned 1,860 square feet of tile flooring, and by golly, I had to get out the Simple Green and scour up a good six or eight puddles, fresh or dried. This was less than fully pleasing. But that notwithstanding, I clean and clean and clean and clean and clean and clean and clean and clean and FINALLY have the Funny Farm's filthy floor pretty well shoveled up. Two weeks worth of filth, most of it unnoticed, is finally sanitized.
About 30 seconds later, what do I find but another puddle. AUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
Here's the issue: I can take her outside and wait until I'm blue in the face, but she will NOT perform. She will chew plants. She will explore. She will loaf. She will grab Cassie by the ruff of the neck. She will bounce. She will roll. She will gaze in awe at passing birds. She will do ANYTHING BUT WIDDLE!
Leaving her outdoors while I go on about my business is not an option.
a) I wish to catch her widdling outdoors so I can exclaim over the astonishing genius of her discovery; and
b) we have these hawks.
I kid you not. We're not far from the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, a desert park where many fine native critters dwell. Among these are various hawks, who like coyotes adapt nicely to the urban environment. One day I was loafing around the front courtyard and happened to notice a neighbor lady ambling down the street with her poodle: a poochoid a little larger than Pup and, shall we say, Good to Eat. She had no clue.
What I could see from my perspective and she could not see from hers was a red-tailed hawk circling directly overhead...and following her down the street. Oh, but it was interested in that poodle. It wanted that poodle. And it followed that poodle all the way down the block and to the corner and around the corner and off in the direction of wherever the human was headed. In these parts, we actually have had hawks grab small dogs. We also have spectacular barn owls, though I've never seen one this deep in the city -- in at least one suburban incident, a good-sized owl carried off a puppy.
So, until she's nearing Cassie's size -- too heavy to lift off the ground -- Pup needs to be watched while puttering about the backyard. And there's a limit to how much time available the human has for standing around outdoors waiting for a dog to squat.
Okay, what all this boils down to is...we're having a tough time with one aspect of the house-training regimen: the widdling aspect. Admittedly, I"m spoiled: with the exception of one not very bright doberman pinscher, I've never had much problem house-training a pup. This lapse -- the widdling lapse, the Eternal Fountain lapse -- is getting very, very, VERY tedious.
Anybody got any ideas for how to speed the learning process along?
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Comment by Vicky Hay on March 30, 2014 at 6:41pm
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@ Mary Bucklew: "Havanese"? [LOOK IT UP!] What a cool little dog! And how interesting, that they may have been imported to Cuba from Tenerife.
Yes, Cassie the Corgi is a great role model. It's SO funny when they go outside together and line up parallel to each other (not in any way lined up with the north pole, BTW) to their thing.
I suspect Ruby kind of understands what's needed but just can't last long enough to get outside often enough and on time enough. Maybe we should change her name to Leaky! :-D
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Comment by Mary Bucklew on March 30, 2014 at 1:13pm
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I have a new Havanese pup, about 4 mos old altho I only got him a week ago, and I think having my corgi girl, Britty, has helped with potty training. Bucky follows Britty the corgi around and when we go out, he follows her, and she has shown him by example what to do when outside. That works 90% of the time, but as someone else here said, he still puddles on the rug at times when he is roaming around the house (too much space and not enough eyes on him from me.) If you dont have an older dog around to show your pup the ropes, I feel your pain!
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Comment by Caitlin Randolph on March 29, 2014 at 12:49pm
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That's awesome to hear! Signaling is a huge break through! Maybe try training her to potty Bells? Hang a bell on the door she goes out and each time you go outside say potty and jingle the bells. Then go. The idea is she will learn to jingle the bells with her nose and signal you. Isn't it fun when the potty dance means celebrating outdoor potty! And also - Internet dog shaming totally works. My friend's dog wouldn't eat his new dental health food for 3 days, one photo on the Internet and suddenly he started eating.
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@ Caitlin: Thanks! I'll try this strategy.
All of a sudden (do puppies read blog posts and feel guilty???), she started getting noticeably better. Yesterday we didn't have a single puddle in the house! The reason for this is that she started signalling that she needed to go by acting antsy. This is a new phenomenon, probably occasioned by my managing, finally, to catch her in the widdling act. It was hard for her to get the idea that she was being directed outside for a REASON until she could make the connection between no! and peeing on the floor.
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Setting a timer for every 2 hours worked. There were still accidents, but a lot less. I did the stand there with a leash method, he would whine and circle and try to get out of the place i was standing. I wouldnt budge or even say anything other than "go potty" until he did. When he did he got to go be FREE!!! If she doesnt pee in your two hour window, put her in a confined space, repeat in 10 minutes until she goes and you can reset your timer. With this he got it in about 2 weeks with just the occasional, I didnt get to the door in time. He was peeing constantly at that age though, after he naps, after he eats, after he plays, after he.... Also, there is a potty training tip area in the FAQ on this site, gives tips on clean up which helps. I fully crossed over to hydrogen peroxide and pet cleaner.
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@ Beth: Yup. That very thought has entered my mind.
She does have an exercise pen. I've been lazy about locking her in it because she and Cassie play...as Pup gets older and stronger, Cassie has been more amenable to increasingly vigorous frolics, and I think that's probably good for them: good for the socializing and also good exercise for the puppy. But most of the time, for sure, I've GOT to keep a sharper eye on her. And probably should set a computer timer for about every 30 minutes remind myself to get up off my duff and take her outside.
A very funny social activity hereabouts is the Communal Peefest. I've been roundly congratulating Cassie every time she performs, too, by way of reinforcement and (in my fanciful imagination) good example for the pup. What soon started happening was that they started peeing in concert: if Pup needs to go urgently enough that she's not distracted by every light breeze and mockingbird tweet, the two of them hunker down side by side, in unison. A matched pair, as it were! :-D
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Comment by Beth on March 28, 2014 at 12:06pm
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Hi Vicky. If she is able to sneak off and pee without you noticing, then she probably has too much freedom too soon. If you can't be right with her, you can set up an exercise pen to put her with. Or you can clip a leash to your belt so she needs to stay closer. Give her a little more room to run immediately after she comes in from a successful potty run. If she does not pee when outside, she comes in and gets leashed or penned and then you try again in 15 minutes. It may help to smear some of her pee on a spot outside where you want her to go; some dogs don't seem to know where to pee unless they smell where someone else went. Good luck! Your posts crack me up; you have a very amusing writing style.
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This sounds like a strategy. I'll try it!
She's going in on Monday for more puppy shots, so I'll ask about a possible UTI while I'm there.
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Comment by susan on March 28, 2014 at 9:07am
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This usually works.... Put her on leash to take her out. Stand in one area that you want her to go it. Tell her to pee or whatever your word is. Don't move around the yard. She'll sniff all over the area that she can reach with the leash and then eventually get bored and pee. If she doesn't do this within 5 minutes, take her back inside and put her in her crate. Wait 15 minutes to 1/2 hour and try again. If/when she does pee reward her with lots of praise and treats - have a party and then she gets free time off the leash outside or take her inside and let her loose. It won't take long for her to get the idea that the sooner she pees the sooner she can play.
But, just in case, you might have her checked out for a UTI. This will thwart all your efforts in house training.
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