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My puppy Zen is very sensitive he is 8 almost 9 weeks old and when he potties inside i yell stop and he gets terrified and cowers in a corner when i take him outside. i feel so bad i try not to scare him too bad but any kind of raised voice terrifies him. what can i do to house break him without terrorizing him. i feel so bad i never hit him and rub his nose in his urine i don't even spank him. i love Zenny very much and don't want him afraid of me. can anyone help me?
Our BC is super sensative, too. It tokk, well, a really long time to house train her. We began fostering her before we adopted her, so we've had her since she was about 1 month old. It took until she was about 8 months old to finally get the picture and stop having accidents. The best advice I can give is to crate train, crate train, crate train. Be sure he sleeps in it at night, drinks and eats in it, and EVERY time he comes out of it, he goes outside immediately, then give him a treat or a huge amount of praise when he goes. With our dog, just saying firmly "What did you do?" with our arms folded is enough to make her cower down- so she realized that going inside was a bad choice.
Puppies have tiny bladders and tiny intestines, so they need to go all the time. if there is someone home all day, make sure he goes out every 30 minutes. I know it seems crazy, but it will start working. If nobody is home, make sure he stays in the crate. Hope this helps!!
It is not unusual for borders collies to be 'sensitive'. It's great that you realize now while your dog is a pup that it needs special attention. Fear behaviors can get worse if owners try to force too much on their dogs (believing that flooding the dog will help them 'get over' their fears). At this stage try not to do anything that scares your dog, you need to develop a trusting relationship first. Puppies make mistakes, ignore them and praise and reward for successes. Once your dog has developed some confidence and trusts you, you can offer verbal corrections and not freak the dog out. But only you will know when that can happen.
I created a website to help folks with fearful/timid/shy dogs in honor of my BC Sunny. He is a rescue and I suspect that his fear issues are genetically based. He may have been a little pup just like yours that no one took the time or cared that he was sensitive. He is making great progress, but I wish I could have gotten him as a pup before more damage was done to him.
This post does not pertain to my BC, but I did rescue an older JRT that was not housebroken. I grew up with dogs, so I know a great deal about this subject, also I am a veterinary technician. For Maddie, my JRT , what I did was I made sure she went outside after every meal/nap. Now and then she would have a few accidents in the house, so what I said to her was "What did you do?" . You must say it in a stern voice, that would be enough. Also, make sure you take your pup out even after its mishap because you can always turn negative energy into positive, even if the pup is finishing up outside. It took a while because my JRT is older but she caught on. Puppies learn faster. Crate training is always a help! If the crate is huge and the pup looks like a crumb inside Make sure you put something in the crate, like a box, to take up the extra space, because the more extra room the pup has, it is more likely to urinate/deficate inside it. Take pup out after each crate period too!
I know how sensitive BCs can be, but your little one will get the hang of it quickly! After all, they are SMART You can even have your little one get used to you saying HURRY UP in a playful voice while pup is searching for a spot. They will get used to going to the bathroom on que, Kip picked up on this quickly when he was a pup.
Good luck~!
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i never hit him and rub his nose in his urine i don't even spank him. i love Zenny very much and don't want him afraid of me. can anyone help me?
Make sure you put something in the crate, like a box, to take up the extra space, because the more extra room the pup has, it is more likely to urinate/deficate inside it. Take pup out after each crate period too!