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One dog started to potty in the house, now they both think it's okay. How do I get them to stop?

I am 6 months pregnant and the last thing I want to worry about is stepping in and cleaning up potty.

We had our 1 year old dog when we moved into our new place, fully potty trained, but we didn't wanna leave him home alone while we were working. We got another dog, who is his age, and she's a great dog, except the fact when she needs to go potty, she'll go hide and potty inside.
I caught her once, scared her and she stopped doing it for a couple weeks, now she started to do it again.
I've tried putting in her face, having an angry tone, putting her outside when I move the potty outside, and now she'll dribble when I get upset.
Not only has she been pottying, now my boy thinks since she keeps doing it, he can too! This morning, he jumps off out bed and just starts to pee. I flicked him because he knows better.
Now I feel bad for her because what if he's been doing it and i've been punishing just her.

I'm super hormonal and these dogs are driving me up the wall!
Please help!


Asked by Member 1062520 on Oct 10th 2011 Tagged potty, soiling, pee, urinating, poop, pooping, peeing, house in House Soiling
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Guest

First, calm down, if you can. I understand that it's more difficult since you're 6 months pregnant. I've gone through this when I brought a puppy home to a 3 yr old Cocker. You DO NOT want to scare them! That makes it worse. I used 'bad girl', 'time out in the crate' and 'picking her up, taking her back to the spot with Bad Girl & immediately taking her to the place where she should go potty, even if she no longer had to potty.' Be sure to use proper cleaning liquid so there's no remaining urine, if so they think it's okay to go back in that spot. My trainer said if you don't want them to potty in the house don't make it okay to go on pee pads. Get them outside all the time, if you've got a fenced yard. If not, have ONE area that's set aside for potty area. When you catch them & reprimand them, use a STERN, BAD, BAD GIRL, but do not yell with anger. When they get it right, its important to also do a GOOD GIRL, with a TREAT! That's the incentive to do it right all the time. Good luck!


Member 1062552 answered on 10/10/11. Helpful? Yes/Helpful: No 0 Report this answer


Toto, CD, RN, CGC

The more you yell and put their face in it and yes, even "flick" them, (not sure what that means?), the more upset they will become AND the more likely they are to go somewhere away from you to hide it from you.
Once they have already done it inside it does NO GOOD to discipline them... they have no idea what they are getting disciplined for unless they are caught in the act. If you catch them doing it, a calm, collected ah ha, and quickly taking them outside will work better than yelling.
I would suggest you begin by crating BOTH dogs when you are not right there watching them. As soon as they go outside, you can give them a bit of freedom inside, BUT, you still need watch them the entire time they are not confined to their crates.
Life will be MUCH better for all if you no longer have to get mad because they left you a surprise and they no longer are getting yelled at and disciplined.
And, it will be MUCH easier for you when the new baby comes if they are crate trained as well.


Toto, CD, RN, CGC answered on 10/10/11. Helpful? Yes/Helpful: No 1 Report this answer


Kolbe

I agree with Toto. Shoving their face in it and yelling at them obviously does nothing except terrify them, which explains why they go hide to do it. The submissive urination when you are angry is also a huge sign that you are simply scaring them and teaching nothing. You keep trying to solve this issue with reactions from anger -- "flicking" etc... if these things worked then they wouldn't be doing it anymore....so ditch the anger, and all the physicality. They don't understand it and it's only making you frustrated.

Pretend they are puppies and potty train from scratch. Crate train. Check out some ideas here: www.dogstardaily.com -- The less mistakes that are allowed to occur the quicker they will pick it up.

You also need to get an enzymatic cleaner to try and eliminate the scents they are picking up from spots they have gone in already. Do not use ammonia based cleaners. Examples of enzymatic cleaners are Petastic and Nature's Miracle.


Kolbe answered on 10/10/11. Helpful? Yes/Helpful: No 1 Report this answer


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