Odd potty behaviour

[wal2]

Hi All,

 

This is probably 99% a general dog question but I wondered if anyone else had experienced this.

 

I started Mae's potty training using a crate and pen so keep track and second guess her need to go...seemed to go well and appropriately praised and treated at the right time.

 

She's 14.5 weeks now and won't soil in her bed, in the utility room (long term confinement) during the day when we are out or in the kitchen where she spent most of her time with us when really small (large kitchen with access to the yard). Let her in the living room and you can guarantee she'll pee if you don't watch her like a hawk.

 

This peeing in the living room (carpeted) can happen regardless if she's just been out. Last night she looked like she needed to go so took her out, she went, got treated and praised. 5 mins later she does a small pee on the carpet. She doesn't get scolded but she get's a 'argh!' and scooted outside to where she should pee.

 

I wondered if it was a UTI but she's fine everywhere else and will pee/poop on her walk. She's not going all the time, she just can't be trusted in the living room.

 

I will continue to persevere making sure I track when I think she needs to go and take her out and treat/praise....I am assuming she will grow out of it, just wondered if anyone had experienced something similar and there is light at the end of the tunnel or has something else we can try

 

 

[d112358]

What are you using to clean the carpet? My first thought is that it might still smell like urine to her and she's re-marking it.

[GentleLake]

Are you cleaning the pee spots with a good enzyme based urine neutralizer? If not, she's probably being drawn back to the same area to mark it.

 

After cleaning the area appropriately, you really need to be extremely diligent to not let it happen again. Either keep her with you at all times -- you could tether her to you -- or make sure she's confined if you can't be watching her.

 

Lack of attention, which allows for mistakes, is the biggest reason for difficulty in house training.

[wal2]

I've been using water/white vinegar post leaving with average household cleaner, I read it somewhere.

 

Odd thing is she doesn't have a particular spot, just wherever she wants.

 

We do try and keep vigilant, it doesn't help that she just wanders around the living room whereas she seems to settle in the kitchen...so she always looks like she's wanting to pee.

[gcv-border]

I've been using water/white vinegar post leaving with average household cleaner, I read it somewhere.

 

 

That is not good enough - you read it here. Use an enzymatic cleaner that specifically says it will eliminate urine stains and ODORS. Usually found in a pet store, or the pet department of a grocery store or big box store. After cleaning, sometimes I will also cover the potty area with a chair or similar to prevent the pet from coming back to the same spot. The enzymatic cleaners do not work immediately for odor. It usually will take a week or two for full effect.

[geonni banner]

I agree with the above comments that the scent brings her back. If a dog can tell the difference between two 50 gallon drums of water - one with a teaspoon of bleach, and one without, only the most assiduous cleaning will eradicate the smell of pee in a carpet.

 

Enzymatic cleaners are good, but you have to work them in well. The pee won't only be on the surface. It will go through the carpet, into the pad and, depending on what kind of floor is under the pad, into that.

 

Really work those spots. And if it were me, I'd get the whole thing steam-cleaned after. Baby-gate the living room if you can,and keep her out for a couple of months. When she's fully house-trained and has good bladder control, then you can start taking her in - accompanied, of course.

 

Lots of work, I know, but I've known too many people that had months and even years of grief with wall-to-wall carpet that's been peed on.

[BCjetta]

I kept my last 2 out of the carpeted living room for a long long time...my border collie was probably about 6 months and the aussie was closer to 8 or 9. Once they were pretty good in the kitchen area I started the living room as being somewhere to play/train and then back to the kitchen as opposed to just letting them wander on the carpet. I don't think they generalize potty training to a nice absorbent carpeted surface until you start fresh and train that as well.

[RemsMom]

I guess I am a little obsessive when it comes to cleaning but I supervised my puppy at all times when she was on carpet until she was about 4 1/2 months old. When she did have an accident on the carpet (thankfully, only twice) I took the enzymatic cleaner and didn't bother using the spray nozzle. I just opened the bottle and soaked the area and cleaned it with my carpet machine. My puppy is almost six months old and I still watch her carefully and have baby gates up so I can keep an eye on her.

 

And there is light at the end of the tunnel. I kept wondering if Nattie would ever be housebroke and all of a sudden one day she figured it out!

[CMP]

Probably a bit of a neener, neener - but I do not envy you city folks all this house training effort.

 

It's so much easier when the first five months of their lives are essentially spent following you around the farm, watching the older dogs go in the grass and being in the house only when it is dark, more or less. The whole house sort of becomes their den. Very few puppies ever go in the house and virtually none go twice. I think the other dogs shun them or some such.

 

With so many dogs and no need to leash or supervise except very small puppies, some dog always needs to go out and puppies always tag along - going out and coming back in.

 

I read these threads and realize how spoiled I am. I would probably kill myself on a baby gate. :/

[RemsMom]

 

I read these threads and realize how spoiled I am. I would probably kill myself on a baby gate. :/

 

There was also the problem of summer temperatures (at times 100 at midnight and 100 again by 7:00am). Sometimes I would open the door and Nattie would look at me like I was crazy for expecting her to go out in the heat to go potty. One positive is that she soon learned that if she went potty right away we could go back into the nice cool house.

[wal2]

Thanks all, I'm off to get some enzymatic cleaner and keep her out for now.

[juliepoudrier]

Personally, if I am in the house during any part of the day, I generally want the puppy where I am. So even though I could leave the puppy out with the older dogs, I don't do that. And even though we might spend a lot of time outside on the farm, we also go inside and while inside I don't expect the pup to magically be perfect. So I also work on house training. It has not been my experience that the house trained dogs shun a puppy who makes a mistake in the house, nor have I counted on the activities of the older dogs (going in and out) to potty "train" a puppy.

 

If a pup has an accident in the house, I consider it my fault for not paying attention. But I'd rather take that risk and let the puppy *in* the house if that's where I'm going to be.

 

J.

[sandysfarm]

I tether till I know in my soul we're ok on hard flooring. Then I block any access to broadloom or rugs. Even now I still don 't love my dogs being on broadloom; it's usually at my SIL's or MIL's house that I'm forced to deal with it. It's soft and deep and there's miles of it and god knows what it smells like, I don 't, but it mimics grass on their pads....

[CMP]

Personally, if I am in the house during any part of the day, I generally want the puppy where I am. So even though I could leave the puppy out with the older dogs, I don't do that. And even though we might spend a lot of time outside on the farm, we also go inside and while inside I don't expect the pup to magically be perfect. So I also work on house training. It has not been my experience that the house trained dogs shun a puppy who makes a mistake in the house, nor have I counted on the activities of the older dogs (going in and out) to potty "train" a puppy.

 

If a pup has an accident in the house, I consider it my fault for not paying attention. But I'd rather take that risk and let the puppy *in* the house if that's where I'm going to be.

 

J.

Yeah, I don't think I would characterize what happens as counting on the other dogs to train puppies - it just sort of happens that way. If it did not, I would train, of course. They just seem not to ever want to go inside a structure - they won't even go in the barns.

 

Interesting - I am not sure if shunning is going on - I just assumed. I don't think lots about it - it just works the way it works.

 

The puppies are pretty much always in my line of sight - and I always know where they are - I wouldn't just leave a small puppy to fend for itself, I am sorry if it sounded that way. Yikes. Unsupervised, in the context of the post, means when it's the quick in and out and you can see them the whole while from the porch or the doorway or the window or whatever.

 

I consider myself to have lucked out in this regard, not to have managed it so well that I don't have a problem.

[geonni banner]

My Doberman, Blaise, doG rest her soul, took a dim view of dogs that "went" in the house. My roomate had a visitor with an ill-mannered Beagle that took a big dump on the living room carpet during the night. When Blaise came bopping out of my bedroom with me the next morning, she saw the pile and froze. She slowly turned around with a look of utter disgust on her face - lips pulled down at the corners, eyes stony, and slowly walked back to my bedroom lifting each foot very high as if not wishing them to touch the ground, and she wouldn't come out 'till the mess was cleaned up. It was hysterical. She never had any use for that Beagle after that. (me either) And she ignored him completely, even if he barked at her to get her attention.

[wal2]

What a funny reaction, obviously a dog with high standards

 

Things are getting better with Mae, just being more vigilant is working. I agree with some of the comments though, a mess on the carpet is my fault not hers, she's so perfect I could never get mad with her anyway.