Acquaintance enlisted so I'm watching his doggie indefinitely. Clever 35#, 2 year old black lab mutt. Wiry like a coyote, although given her obsessiveness, I'm guessing he's got some border collie or something in her. Anyhow, I work nights. Four day weeks, ostensibly 10 hours a day, but often 8 and sometimes 12 or even more. So first off, what is the bladder capacity of a 35# dog? She hasn't made it through either of the nights I worked since getting her without peeing on the kitchen floor. Luckily I didn't tear out the vinyl and she's smart enough to pick a safe, tidy spot in the middle of the floor to pee, so cleanup is easy. And she seems embarrassed when I see it, so I think she's trying her best. More importantly, does anyone have a great way of communicating to a doggie "OK. It's 7pm. Don't save your pee to mark things (for a girl she is very good at marking her turf). What I'm doing is...it's been nice. So I just leave the back door open for her while I'm at home. Around 6pm I bring her in and shut the door. Then I start pulling curtains shut and turn on the radio, low, while I'm getting ready for work. Then around 6:30 I let her back out and close the door until 7pm, when it's time for work. I've been doing my best to maintain the routine even on nights that I'm home. Friday I planned to stay out until 3 or so but wound up coming home around 1. I hate that strippers are $2 at the rail these days. But I digress. I think I pussed out and let her out when I got in. But last night I put her in around 7:30 and kept her in until a little before 7 with no accident. I wanted to go a little later, but I'm too much of a softie and the second time she came over she did a little whimper, so I figured I'd let her out. Thing is, tonight I dunno that she peed when I let her out. I just can't manage to give her the house for 8 hours or so at night--got stuff to do. I'm assuming she'll have to pee less quickly if she's sleeping, so I try to be quiet. And I try not to run any water or go outside. But it's damn hard. Also, what do you do about a stinky, stinky dog. After a week her stench was unbearable so I chucked her in the tub. She's a good doggie, so she didn't fight--although I could tell she wasn't pleased (ah, THAT'S why I let her out on Friday night--her stench was unbearable so I gave her a bath and I figured all that water and stress would make her need to pee). It was truly amazing how much dirt and hair came off such a small dog. My bathroom looked and smelled like a homeless camp. Anyway it's only Sunday night, and she's already got a definite funk going on already. I suspect she's getting another bath this week. I may douche her down with Axe in the interim.
No. Absolutely do not do this. Her nose is orders of magnitude more sensitive than yours is and any sort of human cologne or perfume will be very annoying to her. Sounds like she needs a bath about once a week, tho. Is there something nasty in your yard she could be rolling in to get the funk?
It's not a good idea to give a dog unlimited access to the potty place for one period of time and them expect them to hold it for the rest. House trained dogs learn to "hold it" better when they have fixed, reliable potty times. My dogs go out once in the morning, and once before bed.
Are you washing her with dog shampoo? If you wash her with people shampoo, it's most likely irritating her skin and she's probably rolling all over your yard trying to itch it, making her even more stinky. i have oatmeal-smellin' doggie shampoo and it works great!
Trained my dogs to wait up to 14 hours, used a crate. For two weeks I would leave them in the crate when I left. Then when I got home would wait 5-10 minutes before taking them out. That way they don't associate me coming home with them going out. Then, when I did take them out, if they did anything, even marking sometimes they got a little treat, not every time but enough for them to associate potty with a treat. If they didn't do anything within 3-5 minutes they would go back inside, and into the crate. Then try again in an hour or so. If they went, then a treat and they didn't go back into the crate. Then take them out again before bed, potty = treat, no potty = crate. Gradually cut back on the treats so they would get a treat maybe 1 out of 6-8 times. Now they wait for up to 14 hours, they have an accident maybe once every 4-6 months. If they get hyper, I make them wait til they calm down, then they get to go outside. They learned to associate going potty quickly with positive reinforcement. And they're both Chihuahuas, very hard to potty train. But it only took me two weeks to train each one that way.
14 hours is fucking cruel. If you can't be bothered to deal with them more often than that, you shouldn't have a dog.
If I'm out of the house up 14 hours a day at a time, and read it again numbfuck, it said up to 14, not always 14, so get fucked and get fucked again.
I don't have a dog because I think it would just be cruel to leave them home alone all day, every day while I'm at work. I know people who do, so, this isn't a ... mass admonishment to those who do. Just my personal feelings on the matter.
I just don't see why you would bother having a dog if you're not going to treat it as though you actually like it. How would you feel about waiting 14 hours for a bathroom break? Hell, I feel a little guilty about how long I make my dog wait, and it's usually no more than 4-5 hours at a time during the day, then maybe 8 hours overnight.
My dogs probably eat better than many people do, they are well taken care of. They would have died long ago if I hadn't taken them in, both were listed to be euthanized, one of them was 2 days away from being put down when I adopted him. The other one was one day away when he was rescued and then adopted by me. They aren't home alone, they have each other for company and have free run of the house because they rarely ever have an accident, the last one was at least 5 months ago. And even then, they are not punished for it because they can't relate what happened to a punishment minutes or hours later.
I really want one of those little grass patches for the balcony. If I could somehow train snacks to use it, it'd save us both a lot of grief during the winter!
You should be able to use the same techniques I did with my dogs, basically they learned positive reinforcement with the desired behavior. And for the snack thing, even marking or a small dribble rewarded often, but not every time will get your dog to learn like mine. As for not taking them out as soon as you get home, this will keep them from having accidents when you go out for a few minutes and come right back. Mine know it's time to go when they see me pick up their leashes, any other time they know it's not time.
That seems pretty cruel. It's good to train them that way but to make them live that way indefinitely is unnecessary. I trained my dogs in a similar fashion to what you're talking about, 2 times a day, but now that they are trained I let them go out 4 or 5 times a day on average. If the event comes up that I can't get home they are still trained to hold it but I don't feel the need to put them through that pain for no reason. I let them out in the morning, usually at lunch, when I get home from work, and before bed, often times they'll get at least one more time in the middle of me being home and bed.
If they need to go to the point that it's causing them discomfort, they know how to tell us and we let them out. We're not sadists!
Some friends didn't take down all their christmas decorations down one year. They left a string of bells hanging on the back door. When they got their puppy, every time they opened the door to let him out, the bells rang. When the puppy became trained, every time he need to go out, he rang the bells. The dog is now about 7 or 8 years old and still rings the bells when he needs to go out.
Thanks for the comments, all. She's a very clever doggie and last night she was able to hold it, so it looks like just having a "get ready for work" routine [knock on wood] does the trick. The thing I realized I'm guilty of, and it looks like some others are--is being too sentimental; thinking of dogs as furry little people. Their brain works fundamentally differently than ours, so something that might seem cruel to a human is just part of a dog's "job" of being a dog. I always feel terrible when I take away doggie's beloved tennis ball, but she puts it out of her mind within a couple seconds then--until I get it out and it is time to play ball again. Otherwise she obsesses over it endlessly. One problem I have right now is, she's very good at fetch. Very VERY good. We have three 15 minute games of fetch scheduled per day. When she came out here, she'd have fetched until she literally dropped dead. She played for 5 hours when I had friends over for BBQ. Now that she's more comfortable (and it has gotten a bit warmer) she'll wrap up a game after 10-12 minutes--just keeping the ball and finding a shady spot to lie down in. But because I don't want her to get in the habit of keeping the ball, I make her bring it back. Then I bring it over to her shady spot and give it back to her. The only problem then is that this leaves her with the ball--to completely and utterly destroy. But if I take the ball away from her after she brings it back, I feel like I'm punishing her for good behavior. Hmm. I wonder if I should go over to her and take the ball away from her when she doesn't bring it back. That might work.
oh sorry, guess i wasn't so clear. <----snacks is my doggie. she's completely trained. i still give her a treat every time she goes out though. it gives her joy and makes her hop around like a bunny and she's not fat, so i think it's ok. i just want the grass patch on the balcony cause we're both lazy and don't wanna walk down the stairs (top floor apartment). plus, she HATES the nebraska winters. she's prissy and doesn't like to get messy.
Mine just happen to be able to hold it for long periods if needed, but they go out often, they just know I'm not on their schedule. And they go out from 3 - 5 or more times a day. I guess for quite a few on here, "up to" and "always" mean the same thing.... anyway...
Our poodle does best when he is on a regular schedule - and seems happy. We're blessed too that the wife's job takes her between two campuses and the place is just a short jot off the route - she can let him out with ease at lunch. The days she can't, I go home. With that said, dogs do best with discipline in my experience. They are happier. ed629 seems to have a very methodical, disciplined way of training his dogs, and I think it is fantastic. Dogs want to please us, and there is nothing wrong with allowing them do do so through exercises like "holding" it. A reward for them, once trained, is gravy for them.
I'm the same way. I would love to have a dog -- probably a beagle or a beagle/lab mix. But I'm not home anywhere near enough to be a good pet parent at this point in my life.
Yeah, that's kind of the way I felt. After Time Share Cat died, I was seriously thinking about getting a cat. One: to ensure the mice stay away and Two: because they are a lot lower maintenance than a dog. You can leave a cat alone for a weekend and they'll be basically fine with it. I wound up with this little girl because an acquaintance was joining the Army and he needed to find a home for her. When I joined the Marines a friend took care of my cat. He wound up keeping the cat because after training I was in California and getting a cat from Wisconsin to California is more trouble than it's worth. So I owed someone. Besides, I have a nice yard for a dog in a dog neighborhood. And there was no guarantee he would accept. Finally, it is conceivable that she could only stay with me for a couple months if he is able to take her back. For all these reasons I took the chance on having a dog. Like every other decision I've made the past few months, it'll probably backfire and I'll be screwed. But I think people are more likely to tip the homeless guy at the freeway ramp when he has a dog, so there's that.
UPDATE: The Dog is *ahem* in the doghouse. I'm at least partly to blame, but damn, I've only got so much time and energy. When I got The Dog, her owner warned me that he'd seen her jump a 6' fence. And the day he dropped her off, she jumped out a window of the house and opened the gate with her nose while I was helping him with car problems. But over time we'd developed some trust. She seemed to understand that the fence was the boundary of her territory so I'd just leave the back door open and let her range about the house and yard throughout the day. If I was only going to be gone for a couple hours I regularly left her in the yard with some water and the garage open as shelter. Well Friday I was running errands and it took longer than I'd planned. The Dog was dutifully waiting by the gate when I got home. But I was late for a get-together and didn't have time to play her evening game of "fetch" with her. I got to the bar and had a phone call. The dog had jumped the fence. Luckily the neighbors are dog people, so they held onto her until I could get back. But the fence was no longer a useful boundary. Later that night I wanted to check out a new bar near my place. It was a bit of a dive, so I had my beer and left. As I was walking home I got a call. The Dog was out again. At first I thought it was just a mixup--an old message or something. But it wasn't. I'd forgotten to close one of the windows so as soon as I'd left she jumped out the window and over the fence. So the dog is in the doghouse, so to speak. She is grounded and not allowed out unless I'm out in the yard. I plan to be diligent with her routine and start letting her out while I'm up and working in the house in a week. The question is, can dogs even comprehend this level of discipline or has she already forgotten the infraction? She's a pretty damn smart doggie.
She may be smart, but dogs live in the present. She's already forgotten what she did "wrong," and even at the time didn't see anything wrong about it. Excellent recommendation. Cousin of mine had a large, unfenced property and a dog that was as dumb as a bag of hammers. Took the dog to obedience school, but nothing stuck. Cousin was considering the cost of fencing in the yard, but tried the electric collar first. It worked. Cousin says the only thing she regrets is not getting video of the expression on the dog's face the first time she lunged for the road wearing the collar and was brought up short.
